In what way is the study is technically rigorous?
The LCI study is one of the most comprehensive and rigorous LCI studies ever carried out for a material, and was probably one of the first completed in accordance with the ISO standards on LCA (ISO 14040 series). It involved an exhaustive process to collate some twenty thousand items of data from the participating steel companies and the creation of various models and calculations for upstream processes. Therefore, it offers enormous scope for data analysis, trending, benchmarking and investigating environmental significance. This approach has been repeated and improved for the update study, to include key upstream processes. The data quality is excellent: data are recent and from reliable sources, and in general their range and variance is small. Every item of data is documented and verifiable. Furthermore, the study included a procedure for random auditing of data to ensure that participating steel plants met the data quality standards set for the study. Measures were also taken to v
