Abstract
Purpose
Life cycle inventory (LCI) data are region-specific because energy fuel mixtures and methods of production often differ from region to region. LCI database examples include US LCI, Ecoinvent v.2, and NIST, each of which is country-specific. Thus, the main aim of this study is to show that Egypt is in need of an Egyptian National LCI (ENLCI) database and to focus on the means of developing a database specific to Egypt.
Methods
Arab countries have thus far engaged in virtually no life cycle assessment (LCA) studies, and a significant neglect of this matter is in evidence for the continent of Africa and, in particular, Egypt. Thus, this study suggests an organizational and managerial framework for the development of a national LCI database and sheds light on the required LCI database categories and data quality for practical solutions reflecting who is equipped to do what in order to keep pace with the world.
Results
The results from this review are useful to standardize the study of the life cycle assessment concept in Egypt; to form a foundation for development of an Egyptian database for facilitating a cleaner environment; to encourage stakeholders, such as the environmental agencies, Egyptian Housing and Building Research Center, and the Ministry of Industry; to propose an organizational framework in which they play a central role; and to provide investment to initiate development.
Conclusions
The analysis indicates that the development of a LCI database specific to Egypt is difficult because Egypt has various technical and organizational challenges, but a roadmap of actions to be taken to move ahead is provided. The success of this roadmap depends on the capacity for developing the necessary technical and financial support and on strong partnerships with industry, government, LCA professionals, and academia.
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Acknowledgments
The first author would like to thank the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) for providing him the financial support (PhD scholarship) for this research as well as the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology (E-JUST) for offering the facility and tools needed to conduct this work. Furthermore, the authors would like to thank Enago (www.enago.com) for the English language review.
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Communicated by: Mary Ann Curran
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Ali, A.A.M., Negm, A.M., Bady, M.F. et al. Moving towards an Egyptian national life cycle inventory database. Int J Life Cycle Assess 19, 1551–1558 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-014-0760-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-014-0760-z