LC Projects

In 2013, the Communication from the Commission Building the Single Market for Green Products (COM/2013/196) established the Product- and Organisation- Environmental Footprint (PEF and OEF, or more generally EF). The common methods how to measure the life cycle environmental performances for PEF and OEF have been first defined in the EU Recommendation 2013/179/EU. From 2013 to 2018 the EF pilot phase took place, testing and improving the PEF and OEF methods (see http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/smgp/ef_pilots.htm).

The JRC has led the technical/scientific development.

The latest updates on recommendations for Life Cycle Impact Assessment methods are available:

• Supporting information for LCIA in EF 3.0 available here
  

• New methods for Ecotoxicity and Huma Toxicities (cancer and non-cancer) available here
  
  

Process datasets in line with EF recommendations are available through the data developers' nodes available here

Additional information, guidance for data development, excel tables with characterization, normalization and weighting factors, change logs and previous EF releases available here

See also the general developers' page for common tools (for both ILCD and EF) for Data Validation, Data Sharing (node creation) and data analysis available here

For format issues, related do different objects in the ILCD format structure (serving als EF scheme) specific format documentation available here

This webpage hosts the documentation related to the project "Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of alternative feedstock for plastic production", which is made available to relevant stakeholders for consultation purposes. Further details on the project, the consultation procedure, and on the provided documents is available below.

Background

In January 2018, the European Commission adopted the European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy, proposing a vision in which alternative materials and feedstocks are developed and used where evidence clearly shows that they are more sustainable compared to the non-renewable alternatives. The set of measures identified in the Annex to implement the Strategy includes specific actions aimed at better understanding the life-cycle impacts of alternative feedstock for plastics production, including their end of life. In this context, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) was entrusted by the Directorate-General for Internal market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) with the project "Environmental sustainability assessment comparing through the means of life-cycle assessment the potential environmental impacts of the use of alternative feedstocks (biomass, recycled plastics, CO2) for plastic articles in comparison to using current feedstocks (oil and gas)”.

The overall objective of the work is to elaborate a consistent and appropriate Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) based method for this purpose and to apply it to a number of case studies.
The main project steps include:

• a) a meta-analysis of selected existing studies and approaches;
• b) the development of a draft method for comparative LCA of plastics, including aspects of indirect effects relevant to the use of biomass for plastics;
• c) testing of the draft method through conduction of 5 screening case studies
• d) a technical stakeholder consultation on main outcome from former project steps;
• e) refinement of the methodology, and f) conduction of 10 full LCA case studies on specific plastic articles.

Purpose and structure of the consultation

In the framework of the project, a technical stakeholder consultation was held, consisting of both a written consultation process and a stakeholder workshop (29-30 November 2018 in Brussels). The main purpose of the consultation process was to get input on the developed draft method and on first results from testing the draft method in screening LCAs of plastic articles.

Written technical stakeholder consultation

Two background project documents were made available to stakeholders for consultation purposes:

• Report I, focusing on the meta-analysis and the draft method (download)
• Report II, focusing on the screening LCA case studies and the selection of relevant plastic articles to be assessed (download)

The written consultation process had a total duration of four weeks, and is now closed.

The JRC is carefully reviewing the received feedback, which will be used to help steering the project (expected to be finalised in the second half of 2019).

Further questions?

For any question regarding the project you may address the EC-JRC project team at the e-mail address: JRC-LCA4PLASTICS@ec.europa.eu.

The European Commission and the whole JRC project team would like to thank in advance all stakeholders for their contribution to a successful stakeholder consultation.

Enhanced data accessibility and interoperability benefits the whole life cycle community and affects the way in which LCA goes mainstream, in support of Sustainable Consumption and Production policies, as well as industrial innovation.

The "Global LCA Data Access" network (GLAD) aims to achieve better data accessibility and interoperability. The network will be comprised of independently-operated LCA databases (nodes), providing users with an interface to find and access life cycle inventory datasets from different providers.

One of the main functionalities of GLAD will be the conversion function which will allow users to convert a dataset from its native format in the source database (node) into another format convenient for the user. This functionality is based on key metadata descriptors that will be required from datasets to be connected to GLAD in order to allow for interoperability between them – as well as a global mapping of elementary flows’ nomenclature. UN Environment serves as the Secretariat of the GLAD network, with representatives from 14 governments in the Steering Committee. Among those the European Commission is represented by DG ENV, at the SC level, and by JRC in the technical support and development. The ILCD format, officially used in few EC policies, is one of the main formats allowed in the GLAD framework

The technical developments around the GLAD platform covers the following areas:

• "Network Architecture and Technology", which defined the specifications of the IT environment required for the network;
  
• "Nomenclature", delivering a global elementary flow mapping file for Life Cycle Inventory datasets;
  
• "Metadata descriptors", delivering a basic list of metadata descriptors to facilitate interoperability and the assessment of "fitness for purpose" by users, as well as advanced recommendations on how interoperability and assessment of fitness for purpose can be enhanced in the future. The final report of the working group can be accessed here .

Data from ELCD database have been part of the data available through GLAD since its first release, now the JRC is working in order to adapt the capability of the Global Network to host Environmental Footprint data

The European Commission is developing an assessment framework to monitor the evolution of the overall environmental impact associated with EU consumption, as policy tool supporting the transition to a resource efficient and circular economy. Assessing the environmental impacts of consumption of goods and services is crucial for achieving the Sustainable Development Goal on responsible production and consumption (SDG 12).

The modelling assessment framework is designed to look both backwards and forwards and to enable relative comparisons of different dimensions, including:

• territorial bases and countries scores
• consumption areas (e.g. impacts of Food versus impacts of Mobility)
• product level (food product A versus food product B or an Ecolabelled versus a conventional product) and for performance assessment using overarching references such as planetary boundaries or policy targets in 2020

The established assessment framework may become a reference tool for scenarios and policies that contribute to sustainable consumption.

This assessment framework is built on a “Consumption”-based perspective in which environmental impacts of the entire product life cycle (raw material extraction, production, use phase, re-use/recycling and disposal) are allocated to the country where the product is consumed (EU Consumption Footprint) or the consumer who purchases the good (EU Consumer Footprint). Therefore, based on trade statistics, environmental impacts of the production of imported goods consumed in the EU are included in the analysis, whereas the impacts of production of exported goods are not.

EU consumption is assessed within the framework via a set of indicators that answer the following questions:

 

The indicators of the EU Consumer Footprint are developed in a modular way based on Basket-of-products (BoP) indicators for 5 key consumption areas: Food, Housing, Mobility, Household goods and Electric/electronic appliances. These BoP indicators are then based on Life Cycle Assessments of products that fall under each consumption area, thus forming the respective product basket.

Environmental impact categories investigated

Within this framework, the potential environmental impacts due to EU consumption are assessed for the entire product life cycle and include the following environmental impact categories:

 

Based on these life cycle environmental impact indicators, a composite indicator is developed to support policies on sustainable consumption and the SDGs.

The project in numbers

• 15 impact categories assessed (using the ILCD impact assessment method) and development of one composite indicator
• 5 key consumption areas of the Consumer Footprint (food, housing, mobility, household goods and electric/electronic appliances) covered and more than 70 life cycle assessments performed for product groups with more than 100 life cycle inventory models (LCI)
• Direct funding of 700,000€, with an additional 1,200,000€ in procurement contracts related to Product Environmental Footprint Life Cycle datasets and remodelling.

Started on April 2015 with final results due to be delivered on June 2018.

Other activities

This EC Project contributes to 10YFP knowledge basis developed by UNEP.

Booth at the Night of Researchers in Turin showed how LCA and the Basket of Product indicators can help people understand the environmental impact of food choices.

 

Publications and dissemination

• Papers published
  • Cristóbal, J., Castellani, V., Manfredi, S. & Sala, S. (2018). Prioritizing and optimizing sustainable measures for food waste prevention and management. Waste Management, 72:3-16 (download)
  • Castellani V. Lorenzo B, Sala S (2017) Hotspots analysis and critical interpretation of food life cycle assessment studies for selecting eco-innovation options and for policy support Journal of Cleaner Production, doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.05.078 (download)
  • Notarnicola B, Tassielli G, Renzulli PA, Castellani V, Sala S (2017) Environmental impact of food consumption in Europe. Journal of Cleaner Production, doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.06.080 (download)
  • Castellani V, Benini L, Sala S, Pant R (2016) A distance-to-target weighting method for Europe 2020 International Journal of LCA, p. 1-11 doi: 10.1007/s11367-016-1079-8 (download)
  • Polizzi di Sorrentino E., Woelbert E., Sala S. (2016) Consumers and their behavior: state of the art in behavioral science supporting use phase modeling in LCA. International Journal of LCA, 21 (2): 237-251, doi:10.1007/s11367-015-1016-2 (download)
  • Benini L., Sala S (2016) Integrated assessment of environmental impact of Europe in 2010: uncertainty and sensitivity of the normalisation factors to methodological assumptions. International Journal of LCA, 21(2):224-236, doi: 10.1007/s11367-015-1013-5 (download)
  • Sala S., Benini L., Mancini L., Pant R. (2015) Integrated assessment of environmental impact of Europe in 2010: data sources and extrapolation strategies for calculating normalisation factors. International Journal of LCA, 20(11):1568-1585; DOI: 10.1007/s11367-015-0958-8 (download)

• Conference presentations and posters
  • Corrado S, Castellani V, Zampori L, Sala S. (2015) Wheat of today and tomorrow: an assessment of current LCI inventories, oral presentation at the conference “LCA for feeding the planet and energy for life”, Stresa, 6th-7th October 2015
  • Corrado S, Castellani V, Zampori L, Sala S. (2016) Modelling agricultural production: systematic analysis of secondary Life Cycle Inventories, poster presentation at SETAC Europe annual meeting, Nantes, 22-26 May 2016
  • Notarnicola B, Tassielli G, Renzulli PA, Castellani V, Sala S (2016), Environmental Impact of food consumption in EU, oral presentation at SETAC Europe annual meeting, Nantes, 22-26 May 2016
  • Benini L, Secchi M, Castellani V, Boulay AM, Sala S (2016), Application of Environmental Impact models for water scarcity to a European basket of food products, oral presentation at 10th International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment of Food 2016, Dublin, 18-21 October 2016
  • Castellani V, Sala S, Benini L (2016), Food consumption in the EU: LCA and hotspot analysis to drive the selection of eco-innovation strategies, oral presentation at 10th International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment of Food 2016, Dublin, 18-21 October 2016

• Publication of preceding project (LC-IND)
  • Benini L, Sala S, Manfredi S, Goralczyk M (2014) Indicators and targets for the reduction of the environmental impact of EU consumption: Overall environmental impact (resource) indicators. (Deliverable 3 AA LC-IND with DG ENV). European Commission, Joint Research Centre; 2014.
  • Sala S, Dewulf J, Benini L. (2014) Indicators and targets for the reduction of the environmental impact of EU consumption: Methodology for 2020 targets based on environmental impact indicators (Deliverable 4 AA LC-IND with DG ENV). European Commission, Joint Research Centre; JRC92586
  • Dewulf J, Manfredi S, Sala S, Castellani V, Goralczyk M, Notarnicola B, Tassielli G, Renzulli P, Ferrão P, Pina A, Baptista P, Lavagna M. Indicators and targets for the reduction of the environmental impact of EU consumption: Basket-of-products indicators and prototype targets for the reduction of environmental impact of EU consumption (Deliverable 5 AA LC-IND with DG ENV). European Commission, Joint Research Centre; 2014. JRC92892
  • Sala S, Benini L, Mancini L, Ponsioen T, Laurent A, Van Zelm R, Stam G, Goralczyk M, Pant R. (2014) Methodology for building LCA-compliant national inventories of emissions and resource extraction. Background methodology for supporting calculation of Product Environmental Footprint normalisation factors and resource efficiency indicators for EU. EUR 26871. Luxembourg (Luxembourg): Publications Office of the European Union; 2014. JRC92036