Making the most of LCA in technical inter-organisational R&D projects
Journal article, 2014

In technical Research and Development (R&D) projects, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the technology under development is sometimes carried out. Particularly in inter-organisational R&D projects, the roles of LCAs tend to be unclear and arbitrary, and as a consequence, LCA work is not adequately designed for the needs of the project. There is a need for research on how to choose an appropriate role for LCA in such projects and how to plan LCA work accordingly. We have identified some possible roles of LCA in inter-organisational R&D projects and used experiences from LCA work in different such projects to identify four project characteristics that are decisive for what roles the LCA can have. The project characteristics are: (i) the project's potential influence on environmental impacts, (ii) the degrees of freedom available for the technical direction of the project, (iii) the project's potential to provide required input to the LCA, and (iv) access to relevant audiences for the LCA results. We discuss how evaluation of these project characteristics can help project commissioners, project managers and LCA practitioners to deliberately choose appropriate roles of LCA in inter-organisational R&D projects and plan projects for efficient use of LCA.

Project planning

Life cycle assessment

Project characteristics

Environmental assessment

Project management

Research and development

Author

Gustav A Sandin

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Chemical Environmental Science

Gunilla Clancy

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Chemical Environmental Science

Sara Heimersson

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Chemical Environmental Science

Gregory Peters

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Chemical Environmental Science

Magdalena Svanström

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Chemical Environmental Science

Marieke Ten Hoeve

University of Copenhagen

Journal of Cleaner Production

0959-6526 (ISSN)

Vol. 70 97-104

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Subject Categories

Other Engineering and Technologies

DOI

10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.01.094

More information

Latest update

5/8/2018 1