BS ISO 20915:2018

What is ISO 20915 about? 

ISO 20915 is a safety standard on life cycle inventory (LCI) calculation methodology for steel products. 

ISO 20915 specifies guidelines and requirements for conducting LCI studies of steel products reflecting steel’s capacity for closed-loop recycling, including: 

• Specification of the functional unit used for LCI calculation of steel products 
• Definition of the system boundaries used for LCI calculation of steel products 
• Evaluation of scrap in LCI calculation of steel products 
• Evaluation of co-products in LCI calculation of steel products 
• Reporting of LCI calculation results of steel products 

The function of steel products is to form a part of final products, such as automobiles, cans, and bridges. 

ISO 20915 covers life cycle stages including sourcing of raw materials from the earth and ferrous scrap, production of steel products at the steelworks, and recycling of ferrous scrap. 

Who is ISO 20915 for?  

ISO 20915 on LCI calculation for steel products is useful for: 

• Manufacturers and suppliers of steel products 
• Manufacturers and suppliers of ancillary materials 
• Companies involved in recycling 
• The Construction sector 
• The automotive sector 

Why should you use ISO 20915? 

LCI of steel products is an important component in the support of life cycle assessments for a wide range of products and applications that contain steel or where steel is used to support the manufacture, production, or delivery of products.  

ISO 20915 describes the methodology for the calculation of the steel life cycle inventories that can be applied to a wide range of steel products and represents the main process routes for global steel production. ISO 20915 includes the extraction of raw materials from the earth through to the production of steel products at the factory gate, as well as provision for scrap recycling of steel products and the treatment of steel scrap. 

The life cycle of steel products consists of the following stages: 

• Sourcing of natural resources (which includes mining, transportation, and intermediate processing of raw materials) and ferrous scrap (recovered from both the manufacturing process and the end of life of final products) 
• Production of steel products at the steelworks 
• Manufacturing of final products by downstream users, for example, by customers of the steel industry, such as automotive, construction and engineering industries 
• Use of final products, where the environmental performance of the final product depends on the steel products being used; for example, the fuel (or energy) consumption of an automobile depends partly upon the weight of its steel components 
• Recovery of material from end of life of final products 
• Recycling of ferrous scrap from both the manufacturing process and the end of life of final products to substitute the use of raw materials from the earth 

ISO 20915 helps to avoid the potential impacts of raw materials extraction and processing. However, all recycling routes (including the processing and transport of recycled materials) carry environmental burdens, and these can be quantified as part of a life cycle assessment. All global steel production is sourced from different ratios of ferrous scrap and primary ores. With the existing process and scrap quality controls, steel sourced from (scrap-based) steel recycling can be made to the same specification as steels sourced from the (iron ore based) primary routes. ISO 20915 is a step towards sustainable product development, which positively impacts all individuals.