LCA2Go

The LCA2Go project is supported by the FP7 Program of the European Commission, and aims at boosting Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) use in European small and medium-sized enterprises. The project develops sectoral methods and tools for a variety of sectors, among which electronics. For each sector, the objectives are to develop simplified operative methods and tools; sector-specific eco-design and LCA approaches; a web-based, open source toolbox..

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is considered as the most advanced tool for improving the environmental performance of products. There are however barriers that reduce its implementation, especially in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), such as data intensity, costs, and expertise required to run the LCA studies. Sector-specific eco-design approaches, that do not require the designer to have LCA knowledge, are a way forward. Despite the enormous efforts by the scientific community in advancing the methodology LCAs are rarely performed or used by SMEs. A breakthrough is needed in terms of complexity reduction and applicability.

Industries assert LCA as the most successful tool to address environmental impacts during the design process but only large companies widely use this tool. One reason for the significantly low use of LCA approaches in SMEs is the high complexity and time input, resulting in increased expenses. Most of standards have a general perspective on life cycle and ecodesign but the implementation of suitable measures in the companies needs experts and well trained staff. SMEs on the other side do not have (in most cases) an environmental department to take care of the necessary coordination. To overcome these barriers LCA to go focuses on dedicated needs, where sound and robust LCA data directly is of obvious, explicitly expressed business interests to SMEs.

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