Life Cycle Assessment takes into account the product’s full life cycle: from the extraction of resources, production, consumption and recycling up to the disposal of remaining waste. Therefore it deals with environmental impacts associated with many different sectors.
The agri-food sector is widely recognized as being responsible for a large share of the environmental impacts caused by human activity, when the full life cycle 'from farm to table and end-of-life' is taken into account.
The characteristics of food and drink in terms of health, nutrition, wellbeing, cultural identity and lifestyle make it different to any other product. Therefore, the underlying concepts and instruments of Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) need specific indications to be adjusted according to the particularities of this sector.
The European Food Sustainable Consumption and Production Round Table aims at promoting a science-based, coherent approach to sustainable consumption and production in the food sector across Europe, taking into account environmental interventions at all stages of the food supply chain.
On the 13th of July 2010 European Food SCP Round Table adopted the Guiding principles on voluntary environmental assessment and communication
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A product Life Cycle Assessment includes all the production processes and services associated with the product through its life cycle, including the production of the materials which are used in the manufacture of the product. In this way, the manufacturing sector has a huge part to play in Life Cycle Thinking and Assessment.
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The increase of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere and its consequences are mainly caused by the use of fossil fuels. Although biofuels are renewable alternatives to fossil fuels only a life cycle approach can quantify its relative merits.
In recent years, the use of biomass and bio-waste in power and combined heat & power (CHP) plants has increased significantly.
For example, under the RECOMBIO project various developments and demonstrations of innovative approaches will be performed. This specifically concerns biomass and Solid Recovered Fuels (SRF) production, and co-combustion in combined heat and power (CHP) plants. The demonstrations and developments will address the creation of a sustainable energy market across Europe, which is cost-efficient and sustainable.
A Life Cycle Assessment will be carried out to identify and quantify environmental advantages and disadvantages of the demonstrated system, in comparison with a conventional alternative.
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European waste policy aims to reduce the negative environmental impacts of waste generation and management, and to contribute to an overall reduction of the environmental impact of the use of resources.
The evaluation of environmental impacts of different waste management options can be a complex task because:
- Benefits and burdens can occur at different stages of the life cycle (e.g. waste prevention in the production stage or recycling of used products)
- Benefits and burdens can occur in different geographic regions and over a long time scale (e.g. emissions from landfills)
- Benefits and burdens can occur in very different forms (e.g. in the form of credit for recovered energy)
- Benefits and burdens can be difficult to identify, quantify and compare
It is therefore important to define information and data, in consultation with key stakeholders and supporting guidance documents. This information can then be used to make Life Cycle Thinking easy to use in waste management decision-making from local to European level, with an agreed approach and methodology.
Technical and scientific support for integrating Life Cycle Thinking effectively into EU and Member State policies, has been developed to facilitate Life Cycle Thinking in waste management. This includes:
- Life cycle guidance documents for waste management
- European Life Cycle Thinking guidelines for the management of biodegradable waste
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Retail and other activities between the life cycle stages are included where relevant. The life cycle of a product is hence identical to the complete supply-chain of the product plus its use and end-of-life treatment.
Retail sector represents a significant part of the European economy (11% of GDP). Therefore, it can play an important role in the progress towards sustainable development of the European Union. The European Commission has recognised the role and importance of the retail sector by setting up of the Retail Forum in 2009.
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In fact, from a ‘dematerialization’ perspective, the provision of services could replace manufactured goods in several cases (e.g. car sharing).
For these reasons, the minimization of negative environmental impacts generated by services is becoming crucial for a variety of stakeholders.
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