Asking instead of telling-recommendations for developing life cycle assessment within technical r&d projects

Abstract

Sustainability assessment for emerging technologies is a prerequisite for sustainable process and product development. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an accepted method for quantifying and assessing the potential environmental impacts of product systems. In general, an LCA is conducted on mature technologies or an industrial scale. Nevertheless, the design or development stage provides important information on potential environmental impacts and is rated to determine the grand part of environmental impacts of new technologies and products. In this study, practice-oriented recommendations for LCA practitioners and other project partners of inter-disciplinary and inter-organizational R&D projects are derived in order to enhance the integration and implementation of LCAs in technical R&D projects. The observations are presented as three main recommendations: Create common knowledge, consider LCA as part of the R&D and adapt and revise. LCA at the R&D stage can contribute to enhanced knowledge sharing and, most importantly, can support the entire R&D project by generating information on the environmental performance of the new processes and products and revealing the window of opportunity for sustainable process and product development.