Information Needs for Life Cycle Management: Results of EPA's Common Sense Initiative for the Automotive Sector

Improving the methods and priorities for the collection of Life Cycle Management information is critical to the goal of reducing life cycle environmental impacts from automobile manufacturing. Currently, such information is collected under varying protocols, creating inefficiencies for OEM's and suppliers, and casting doubt on the information's quality.

Recommendations from the EPA's CSI Automobile Manufacturing Sector provide important guidance to auto companies, suppliers and other stakeholders for commonizing life cycle data collection and developing data priorities. A variety of disciplines and areas of expertise, at OEM's and suppliers, will need to cooperate in the creation of new data collection tools.