Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

This paper presents the City Performance Tool (CyPT) approach, a LCA-based methodology for sustainable infrastructure decision support. The work presents an outside-in view about the methodology, details about the underlying LCA models and its implementation into a tool. The results for three different cities will be presented and a general conclusion for the use of LCM-based decision support from a business perspective will be given.

This session gathered contributions showing how Life Cycle Thinking can feed in the development of sustainability criteria, the certification and, ultimately, the policy making for bio-based products and processes. The session was composed of five presentations related to methodological approaches, case studies and real life examples, which were followed by a panel discussion. The addressed subjects covered the sustainability assessment of bio-based plastics, marine biotechnology processes, bio-based lubricants and forestry sector, and the assessment of the water scarcity. Key issues which emerged from the discussion include: the methodological difficulties in comparing bio-based and conventional products; the availability of data; the need to keep research focused on practical applications and increase the interest of industry.

The biotechnological development has traditionally focused on the compliance with regulatory demands rather than optimising the processes or analysing their sustainability. This work proposes the combination of available tools for the comprehensive sustainability assessment of a blue biotechnology process based on the cultivation of the microalgae . The work aims to include environmental, economic and social dimensions to measure the sustainability of the production of a carotenoid with potential applications in food, nutraceutical, cosmetics and eventually pharmaceutical industries. Electricity for cultivation was identified as the major contributor to the environmental impacts, which depended significantly on the production scale. Social benefits were mainly related to workers and consumers, while the economic assessment suggested a profitable process with a relatively short period to recover the initial investment.

In order to design and develop a sustainable bio-based plastic product right from its development phase, it is necessary to analyse and interpret the direct and indirect environmental impacts along the life cycle of the product system through life cycle thinking. Eco-design is a well-established approach in designing products with the consideration and integration of the environmental impacts of the product system, and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a standardized methodology to quantify and analyse the environmental impacts of the product system along the production chain. This paper identifies the practical needs for integrating LCA and eco-design strategies into the production of bio-based plastic products, taking a bio-based computer mouse body made of Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) as a case study.

Life cycle assessments (LCAs) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) have long been pointed to as tools to be used in green public procurement (GPP), but doing so in practice is challenging. How can such information be requested without breaking some of the general principles for public procurement, for example non-discrimination and transparency? This session was meant to give insights from different stakeholders through five presentations providing different perspectives on this issue. The individual presentations were followed up on by a panel discussion.

The paper discusses the possible use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) in European and Italian Green Public Procurement (GPP) for the building sector, in order to define targets based on objective and reliable building environmental impacts information. The research objective is to define how to set LCA benchmarks towards the improvement of GPP requirements. The study analyses the GPP criteria based on LCA in Europe with a focus on Italy; it proposes LCA benchmarks for selected groups of construction materials and scenarios for the implementation of LCA benchmarks related to buildings elements and whole-buildings. It also illustrates how public administrations can verify the GPP criteria achievement using EPDs.

The Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method has been adopted by the European Commission in 2013 as part of the Communication “Building the Single Market for Green Products” []. Since then a pilot phase involving about 300 companies, industry associations, NGOs and governments has been launched to develop product category rules for more than 20 different product groups. In this session it was discussed the status of play of the work done till now and its future perspective.