Governance
The governance and management of the database need to be clearly defined. The database governance structure should include the roles, relationships, authorities or mandates and responsibilities of the individuals and organizations involved.
The governance structure defines the various entities within the database initiative, such as a board, steering committee, technical advisory committee (TAC), scientific expert group(s), the National Database Working Group (NDWG), and the database management team – which is the group doing the actual technical work. A national LCA database project may have all, one or more of these entities, e.g. a steering committee or advisory council can oversee the strategic direction of work done, whereas the TAC and scientific experts guide the work from a technical perspective. We see this set- up for instance with the Dutch National Database.  It is recommended that the board and advisory council include members from the different stakeholder groups active in LCA community in the country, (representatives from government, industry, academia and civil society), as a way to ensure that the interests and needs of different stakeholders and user groups are well represented.
