Page 66 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

4.2 Early years: From concept to scheme 61

Papers published over the years

10
8
6
4
2
0
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

Journal of Cleaner Production
International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
2 per. Mov. Avg. (Journal of Cleaner Production)
2 per. Mov. Avg. (International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment)

FIG. 4.3 Paper published in the field by the two leading journals (Journal of Cleaner Production and International
journal of Life Cycle Assessment).

4.2 Early years: From concept to scheme

Almost in parallel with the first practical application of (environmental) LCA, the late
1990s experienced the preliminary drafting of LCSA concept and its possible application
in a comprehensive sustainability framework. As LCA had been defined in 1993 by SETAC
as “a process to evaluate the environmental burdens associated with a product or process by
identifying and quantifying energy and materials used and wastes release to the
environment” (SETAC, 1993), researchers supported a progressive enlargement of the assess-
ment boundaries towards LCSA, starting from the very same sectors where LCA had made
the first steps. In fact, an early hint to the pathway towards the conceptualization of sustain-
ability assessment applied in a life cycle perspective was presented by Selmes et al. (1997),as
cited by Boron et al. (2017), to the 75th anniversary celebrations of the Institution of Chemical
Engineers. The same work (Kl€ opffer, 2003) responsible for the first theorization of LCSA
framework, as presented in the previous section, emphasized the role of chemistry in meeting
the goals of sustainable development. Therefore, its preeminence as testing ground for the
LCSA application is regarded as an opportunity for operationalizing sustainability in a field
where both processes and products are carriers of potential hazard for the environment and
products are widespread in the different industrial sectors as well as on the market.
As a first step, the integration of the economic aspects into sustainability evaluation
appeared quite early (Eyerer, 1996; Finkbeiner, 2010). This is obviously due to the close con-
nection of such concepts to the overall performance evaluation of a product or process and the
business model related. On the other hand, the social dimension of sustainability has only
recently been implemented into an operative LCSA scheme, even though its formal inclusion