LCA-SPLEEN Project

Scientific objectives

The aim of the LCA-SPLEEN project is to provide manufacturers and researchers in France with a metric to support the decarbonisation of industrial processes while minimising the transfer of environmental impact, both in advance and in real time. The basic premise of the project is that life cycle assessment (LCA) is the only tool standardised by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) that provides a robust and transparent method for organisations to meet environmental sustainability requirements for their processes and associated products.

Based on this information, the research objectives are as follows :

• Enable the comparison of multiple industrial processes aimed at decarbonisation in a consistent manner using LCA-based methodology.
• Support the optimisation of industrial process decarbonisation while minimising the transfer of environmental impact from industrial processes at different stages of development and scales using LCA.
• Support the optimisation of industrial process decarbonisation at the territorial level while minimising the transfer of environmental impact from industrial processes.
• Enable LCA to achieve real-time monitoring of processes using dynamic LCA modelling and analytical accounting to enable manufacturers to communicate and optimise their processes in real time in order to minimise their carbon footprint and other relevant environmental impacts.

Support other areas of the PEPR by conducting meaningful LCA studies for the development of new decarbonised processes, collecting LCA-related data and validating support tools developed on the basis of an LCA.

Type of process category for decarbonisation of industrial processes (objective, scoping, inventory modelling, impacts of methodological choices), support for environmentally positive industrial processes: development of tools to support sustainable innovations (various TRLs) with promising prospects for industrial processes, development of a multi-criteria decision-making model for the environmental impacts of industrial goods and solutions in a given territory, real-time monitoring of processes using dynamic LCA modelling and analytical accounting, case studies and validation.

National management of this data within the EU may become essential for implementing the European taxonomy for sustainable finance and the carbon border adjustment mechanism planned by the European Commission. LCA is the only ISO-standardised tool that provides a robust and transparent method for organisations to demonstrate their commitment to environmental sustainability. It is also cross-cutting, as it can be used in different sectors.

The consortium

Institut des Sciences Moléculaire ISM (CNRS, Université de Bordeaux, Bordeaux INP), Economics & Environmental Evaluation Department (IFPEN), LITEN (CEA), ITAP ( INRAe, Montpellier SupAgro) Institut de Mécanique et d’Ingénierie I2M (CNRS, Université de Bordeaux, ENSAM), Institut de Recherche en Gestion des Organisations (Université de Bordeaux), G-SCOP (CNRS, Grenoble INP, Université Grenoble Alpes), Evaluation environnementale des produits (ADEME).