![openlca lcia method openlca lcia method](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vPcFt6_4VyQ/hq720.jpg)
Therefore, this study aims to shed light on the choice of impact categories, methods, and indicators for E-LCA and S-LCA when assessing wood as substitute for conventional materials in automotive applications. Depending on the material assessed, it is questionable which environmental and social impact categories or subcategories should be included since recommendations in guidelines are vague and case studies in this regard are limited. Bio-based materials are considered a promising solution however, the sustainability effects still need to be assessed. The choice of materials used for a vehicle can contribute to reduce negative environmental and social impacts. We fully acknowledge the constant efforts of database providers to improve their databases.
![openlca lcia method openlca lcia method](http://www.eugeos.co.uk/img/openlca_screenshot4.png)
A meaningful communication of LCIA results requires an excellent knowledge of the analysed product system, as well as of database quality issues and LCIA methodology. We found striking discrepancies in LCIA implementation, including the lack of regionalisation for water use in ecoinvent. This is partly due to the fact, that ecoinvent datasets often include more background processes than the corresponding GaBi datasets. In most cases, the use of the ecoinvent 3.6 database leads to higher results compared to GaBi. While results for the climate change category are similar between the different databases, this is not the case for the other impact categories. We compared the published characterisation factors with the factors implemented in the software-database combinations. Differences and errors in the implementation of the LCIA method are a possible source of deviations. The chosen Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) method is EF 2.0. Six packaging systems were modelled in three software-database combinations (GaBi database in GaBi software, ecoinvent 3.6 database in openLCA, Environmental Footprint database in openLCA). This research analyses the differences in impact assessment results depending on the choice of a certain software-database combination. Several African key sectors could also be assessed further. For example, establishing a specific life cycle inventory (LCI) database for African countries or a targeted ideal life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method. Even if the number of articles related to LCA have increased in recent years, many steps still remain. South Africa (43), Egypt (23), and Tunisia (19) were the countries where most of the research was conducted.
![openlca lcia method openlca lcia method](https://www.openlca.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/nexus-preview.png)
Agriculture is the sector which received the most attention, representing 53 articles, followed by electricity and energy (60 articles for the two sectors). A total of 199 papers were found for the whole continent this number is lower than that for both Japan and Germany (more than 400 articles each) and nearly equal to developing countries such as Thailand. It aims at highlighting the current research gap for African LCA. This paper focuses on a review of life cycle assessments conducted in Africa over the last 20 years. In the last 20 years, research on the topic has increased, and now more than 25,000 articles are related to LCA in scientific journals databases such as the Scopus database however, the concept is relatively new in Africa, where the number of networks has been highlighted to be very low when compared to the other regions. Life cycle assessment (LCA) has received attention as a tool to evaluate the environmental impacts of products and services.