Challenges and opportunities of Life Cycle Assessment towards circular economy transition

Prof. Monia Niero, Aalborg University (DK)

  • Date: 13 April 2022 from 15:45 to 16:45

  • Event location: Online Event and Room TA08 Via Terracini, 28 Bologna

This talk will present how the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology can be used as a tool to assess the potential environmental impacts of products and systems. A few case studies in the packaging sector will be introduced to illustrate the challenges and opportunities of using LCA when assessing alternative strategies to implement a circular economy. The example of aluminum cans will be used to show the potential of LCA to quantify the environmental sustainability considering not only one life cycle, but multiple life cycles. Moreover, the benefits of a combined use of LCA indicators and material circularity indicators will be outlined. The flexibility of LCA to compare alternative design solutions makes it a powerful tool to enable the transition towards more sustainable production and consumption systems.