Page 20 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

14 1. Introduction. Life cycle thinking

main directions: to improve decisions that need assessment and comparison of products,
technologies, lifestyles, and economy-wide choices, and to build consensus on environmen-
tal, social, and economic life cycle knowledge, with inventory data, impact assessment
methods, and indicators. To pursue these commitments, LCI establishes periodic action pro-
grams and verifies the results; through numerous initiatives and its website, it provides pub-
lications and communications and promotes collaboration between stakeholders around
the world.

1.4.6 Integrated product policy
IPP is a European initiative, developed by the Directorate-General for Environment, aimed
at reducing the environmental burden of products and services throughout their life cycles.
This can be achieved using a toolbox of policy instruments that make markets more sustain-
able through greening both the demand side (consumption) and the supply side (product de-
velopment) (EC, 2003). It is an attempt by the European Commission to create conditions in
which environment-friendly products, or those with a reduced impact on the environment,
will gain widespread acceptance among the European Union Member States and the Euro-
pean market.
IPP, within environmentally advanced countries in Europe, is part of a growing trend to-
wards product-oriented environmental policies. It seeks to minimize all environmental deg-
radations caused by products throughout the entire life cycle, by looking at all phases of its
life cycle and acting where it is most effective. To achieve this challenging goal and succeed in
intervening on different subjects with often contradictory interests, IPP includes several mea-
sures such as economic instruments, substance bans, voluntary agreements, environmental
labeling, and product design guidelines.

1.4.7 European Platform on LCA

The European Platform on LCA represents the European answer to business and policy
needs for social and environmental assessments of supply chains and end-of-life waste man-
agement. It was born primarily to support the European IPP, to increase the availability of
quality-assured life cycle data ( JRC, 2006). The European Platform on LCA is implemented
by the Joint Research Centre, in collaboration with the European Directorate-General Envi-
ronment, to support business and government needs for availability, interoperability, and
quality of life cycle data and studies, supplying guidelines spanning from methodological
aspects to characterization models. For more than 10years, this platform has elaborated
frameworks and guidelines to support the LCA practitioners, with methodological and prac-
tical improvements of inventory databases and impact assessment methods (Sanf elix
et al., 2013).