Using the Web Service Technology and the Eco-spold XML Data Exchange Standard to Develop a LCA Service Platform for Supporting Dfe in the Taiwan Electronics Industry

Design for Environment (DfE) has become a main stream policy that aims to gratify the human needs while preserving the ecological environment. Nowadays many countries have established environmental laws. Hence, companies are being asked to provide the eco-profiles of products. In order to assist electronic companies to execute the life cycle assessment (LCA) and construct the eco-profiles for applying the environmental product declarations (EPDs), this research applies the web service technology and the eco-spold XML data exchange standard to develop a LCA service platform (LCASP) to share the LCI (life cycle inventory) data among the members of the LCASP. For ensuring the consistency of the eco-profiles, the LCASP provides the electronic companies with the product category rules that explain which the information must be provided in the eco-profiles. In addition, the related domain experts review and verify the correctness of LCI data at the LCASP. In order to reduce the effort of LCI data gathering, the LCASP provides the LCI database and the search engine to let the electronic companies quickly find the LCI data of the specific common parts or components. Through the employing the LCASP, the cost and time of LCA for electronic products can be decreased significantly.