EN15804 impact categories | Earthster Knowledge Base

Core environmental indicators (adapted from EF3.1)

Impact category	Abbreviation
Climate change - total	GWP-total
Climate change - fossil	GWP-fossil
Climate change - biogenic	GWP-biogenic
Climate change - land use and land use change	GWP-luluc
Ozone depletion	ODP
Acidification	AP
Eutrophication aquatic freshwater (1)	EP-freshwater
Eutrophication aquatic marine (1)	EP-marine
Eutrophication terrestrial	EP-terrestrial
Photochemical ozone formation	POCP
Depletion of abiotic resources - minerals and metals (1)	ADPm
Depletion of abiotic resources - fossil fuels (1)	ADPf
Water use (1)	WDP

Impact category	Abbreviation
Particulate matter emissions	PM
Ionizing radiation, human health (2)	IRP
Eco-toxicity (freshwater) (1)	ETP-fw
Human toxicity, cancer effects (1)	HTP-c
Human toxicity, non-cancer effects (1)	HTP-nc
Land use related impacts/soil quality (1)	SQP

The results of this environmental impact indicator shall be used with care as the uncertainties on these results are high or as there is limited experience with the indicator.
This impact category deals mainly with the eventual impact of low dose ionizing radiation on human health of the nuclear fuel cycle. It does not consider effects due to possible nuclear accidents, occupational exposure nor due to radioactive waste disposal in underground facilities. Potential ionizing radiation from the soil, from radon and from some construction materials is also not measured by this indicator.

The following non-LCI EN15804 categories are also available:

Table 1: Indicators describing resource use

Indicator	Unit	Abr.	Implementation
Total use of renewable primary energy resources (primary energy and primary energy resources used as raw materials)	MJ	PERT	Sum of all "Renewable, ..." indicators from the Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) method.
Use of renewable primary energy excluding renewable primary energy resources used as raw materials	MJ	PERE	Not currently implemented, because it requires information not easily extracted from LCI results. **
Use of renewable primary energy resources used as raw materials	MJ	PERM	Not currently implemented, because it requires information not easily extracted from LCI results. **
Total use of non-renewable primary energy resources (primary energy and primary energy resources used as raw materials)	MJ	PENRT	Calculated by addition of 'Non-renewable, fossil' and 'Non-renewable, nuclear' indicators from the Cumulative Energy Demand.
Use of non-renewable primary energy excluding non- renewable primary energy resources used as raw materials	MJ	PENRE	Not currently implemented, because it requires information not easily extracted from LCI results.
Use of non-renewable primary energy resources used as raw materials	MJ	PENRM	Not currently implemented, because it requires information not easily extracted from LCI results.
Net use of fresh water	m3	FW	Water use (from ReCipe2016 midpoint/H) used as proxy, with moderate assumptions

Table 2: Environmental information describing waste categories:

Indicator	Unit	Abr.	Implementation
Hazardous waste disposed	kg	HWD	Based on EDIP2003 waste categories (only available in ecoinvent processes)
Non-hazardous waste disposed	kg	NHWD	Based on EDIP2003 waste categories (only available in ecoinvent processes)
Radioactive waste disposed	kg	RWD	Based on EDIP2003 (only available in ecoinvent processes)

The EF3.1 and EN15804 methods are similar in almost everything, except that

in the EN15804, the characterization factors for Carbon dioxide, biogenic are +1 for emissions, -1 for resources (in EF3.1 these are both zeroed).
In the EN15804, Methane, biogenic emissions contribute with 29.8 to Climate change, instead of 27 in EF3.1.