Welcome to John’s Blog. Answers to frequently asked questions are periodically posted here. The objective is to share information about PVC pipe with readers as well as with utilities, design engineers and pipe installers. The blog provides the latest information on PVC pipe design, installation, and application for water and wastewater infrastructure projects.
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John Houle: Senior Technical Consultant, PVC Pipe Industry
John Houle holds a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Missouri and an MBA from the University of Oregon. He has more than 25 years of experience in the plastic pipe industry in applications engineering, market development, forensic analysis, technical writing, and standards development.
The International Standards Organization (ISO) has developed a series of standards on environmental management. These standards, known collectively as the “14000 series,” were first published almost twenty years ago and have become the “go-to” standards for environmental topics.
Three of the ISO standards are used for life-cycle assessment (LCA). These standards provide framework and requirements for the LCA itself as well as procedures for publicizing the results. Also required is an independent review of the data and the assessment procedures used. Other methods for LCA are being used that are less transparent in their data and less rigorous in their procedures. For a meaningful and accurate comparison among materials, utilities should require that ISO standards be used for the LCAs of all piping materials. For my Tech Brief on ISO standards and LCAs, please click here.
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