Paradigm for Substance Flow Analyses

5 Reporting Techniques

References

As a general rule, clear references must be given for all information included in an SFA in accordance with normal scientific research standards. This rule applies both to information obtained from the literature and to information obtained through personal contacts to individuals and enterprises.

Transparency

Accordingly, clear statements must be made for all calculations of the assumptions on which they are based to make the estimates transparent. If the lack of precise information makes it necessary to use estimates as a basis for calculations, it must be clearly indicated, in each case, when an estimate has been used and who is responsible for this estimate.

Reliability and reproducibility

These rules are meant to ensure the reliability and reproducibility of the SFA and, at the same time, they make it possible to improve inaccurate estimates, if required.

In the following, a number of guidelines concerning reporting techniques are given, which aim primarily at SFAs carried out for public authorities.

Confidentiality

When collecting information from private enterprises, the rule of clear reference can only be fulfilled for purely technical information, whereas sources of information on turnover and conditions of production often has to be kept confidential.

It should be emphasised that private enterprises in Denmark are normally reasonably willing to supply information for analyses initiated by public authorities provided that their need for confidentiality is respected. This need will normally be satisfied if the enterprises are guarantied that the information supplied by them will only be reported after statistical processing, i.e. in a form which will not allow recognition of data for individual enterprises.

One way of doing this is to indicate in the report what enterprises have been contacted (may be listed in an appendix), but without specifying the exact information received from each enterprise. Then going through the individual fields of application, the information will be summed up by means of formulations such as: 'Based on information from Danish manufacturers/importers the total consumption for this purpose in 1990 is estimated at XX tonnes'. If information has not been collected from all manufacturers, it would be fair to indicate how many manufacturers have supplied information or the size of the market share covered by the information available.

A particularly difficult situation arises if there are only 1 or 2 manufacturers or importers within a specific field of application. In that case, it may be necessary to blur the figures in such a way that the competitors will not learn anything they did not already know while maintaining the information value. One way of doing this is to apply an inaccuracy margin to otherwise precise data. As regards fields of application of less significance in terms of volume and environmental impact, it may also be considered to conceal the information in the section about 'other fields of application' and only give sum totals for more fields.

It should be emphasised that these reporting guidelines do not mean that the author is free to distort information. The author must be prepared to discuss each individual figure contained in the report with the client.

Rules of the game

It is essential to have completely clear rules of the game between the client, the researcher and the enterprises/institutions supplying information for the analysis. If the client cannot accept the reporting techniques described above, this should be made clear at the initiation of the analysis so that no companies or institution supplies information under false pretences. It is thus unacceptable, if a researcher yields to pressure by the client to publish information submitted to him/her on the assumption that it would be treated in confidence.

Cross-checks

SFAs aiming to fulfil the requirements of detailed analyses (level 1, cf. Section 4) must be based on the concept of cross-checking, which should, in many ways, be decisive for the structure of the report. In the preparation of the report, the author should be clear about the types of cross-checks which could and should be carried out and plan the report so as to make these cross-checks an integrated part of the report.

Relevant cross-checks has been described in section 2.3.2

In practice, the integration in the report of such cross-checks means that:

	The report should include a section specifying statistical information on the consumption of raw materials and semi-manufactured goods and explaining possible discrepancies with the consumption of raw materials of the enterprises.
	The report should investigate and evaluate the routes of the chemical substance used in different industrial applications. This applies not only to releases from enterprises, but also to the volumes that end up in different products. In principle, the following routes should be evaluated:

- Loss to air
- Loss to wastewater or sea/fresh water
- Loss to soil
- Loss to solid waste (possibly with a distinction between combustible/non-combustible)
- Collection as chemical waste
- Collection for recycling
- Accumulation in society (relevant for products with a long in-service lifetime)

	As regards substances/materials which occur in products with a long in-service lifetime (beyond 1 or 2 years), it may be necessary to look into the historical trend in consumption, as the volumes ending up as waste etc. are partly decided by the historical consumption.
	The report should contain specific sections about recycling, wastewater, waste, chemical waste etc., in which it is evaluated whether the volumes registered correspond to the expected input based on the estimates made for each field of application (cf. above). Possible discrepancies must be discussed.

It is emphasised that it might be necessary for the description of the individual applications to include estimates of the loss to solid waste, wastewater etc., which may be very inaccurate because of the lack of precise information. Preferably cross-checks has to be carried out, fully or partly, to verify the correctness of the magnitude of the estimates, otherwise it should be noted through the analyses that the indicated losses is based on very uncertain estimates.

[Front page] [Contents] [Previous] [Next] [Top]