Improving the Life Cycle Performance of Chemical Products and Materials Through Data Exchange Along the Value Chain—Synthesis of LCM2017 Session Presentations

Abstract

This paper provides a summary of what has been presented and discussed at the 8th international conference on Life Cycle Management (LCM 2017 conference, Luxembourg), during the session entitled “Improving the life cycle performance of chemical products and materials through data exchange along the value chain”. The purpose of the session was to demonstrate how to assess and manage the global sustainability of chemical products and materials, taking into account their whole life cycle, to achieve real improvements. Over the six oral presentations, the most challenging issues regarding availability and transparency of Life Cycle Inventory data from the chemicals industry were discussed. Some approaches developed in order to face these challenges were detailed, illustrated also with the presentation of some specific case-studies.