Page 11 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

1.2 History of LCT 5
In the 1970s, the concerns of the international community regarding environmental prob-
lems created by some industrial activities were growing (Meadows et al., 1972). Scientists rec-
ognized resource consumption and waste production as the main causes of environmental
problems and recommended the closure of the cycle with reliability, reparability, and recy-
clability of products at the end of life (Singer, 1970). At the same time, in chemicals and pack-
aging sectors, the interest in life cycle evaluation continued to grow, focusing on energy
consumption, solid waste production, and air emissions. In these years, the first public
and peer-reviewed LCA study was published, commissioned by the US Environmental Pro-
tection Agency with the aim of informing regulation on packaging (US EPA, 1974).
During the 1980s, the life cycle approach evolved in both applications and methodologies,
thanks to companies’ interest and the scientific debate. In European countries, environmen-
tal attention related to the impacts of milk packaging increases and LCA studies were
conducted to compare alternative packaging systems for milk distribution to private con-
sumers. Numerous applications of life cycle evaluation on technologies and similar prod-
ucts with conflicting results revealed the need for the developing of rigorous
methodologies. Then, knowledge and metrics concerning cause-effect mechanisms in sev-
eral environmental concerns were deepened by scientists, to define rigorous impacts quan-
tification and avoid burden shifting. In these years, the first impact assessment method
based on critical volumes was introduced (BUS, 1984) and the first two pieces of commercial
LCA software were released (Gabi in 1989 and SimaPro in 1990). In line with the life cycle
perspective, the United Nations published the report “our common future”—a milestone in
sustainable development history—in which the importance of recycling and renewable re-
sources is declared (UN, 1987).
In the 1990s, the life cycle approach spread. This decade marks the most important steps for
the construction of LCT. The United Nations proclaimed the principles intended to guide
countries in future sustainable development (UN, 1992). Meanwhile, the term “life cycle
assessment” is coined (SETAC, 1993), and the first standards are published to harmonize life
cycle practices (Fava et al., 1994; ISO, 1997). At the same time, several life cycle inventory da-
tabases are developed by different institutions, and new impact assessment methodologies
are developed, including cause-effect-damage evaluations (Bjørn et al., 2018b). During this
decade, the first scientific LCA related study is published (Guin ee et al., 1993) and an aca-
demic journal fully dedicated to the LCA is born (Kl€ opffer, 1996).
With the beginning of the new millennium, the international community gave a fundamen-
tal role to LCT for construction of a sustainable future. In 2002, at the World Summit on Sus-
tainable Development, world leaders recognized the need to change the unsustainable
development model and subscribe common commitment to implement sustainable produc-
tion and consumption “using, where appropriate, science-based approaches, such as life cycle
analysis” (UN, 2002). In the same year, the United Nations Environmental Protection and So-
ciety of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry launch the Life Cycle Initiative, focused on
the dissemination of life cycle practices all over the world and, in particular, to emerging
economies (LCI, 2002). In the European context, LCT receives a strong push by the European
Integrated Product Policy (IPP), which supports policy instruments like environmental label-
ing, green public purchase, and integration of environmental aspects into standards develop-
ment (EC, 2003). Moreover, in 2005, the European Commission creates the European platform