EAC - Comunicações em actas de encontros científicos internacionais
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- Life cycle in practice: capacity building aiming European SME’sPublication . Pasquet, V.; Roy, A.; Adibi, N.; Coppee, S.; Echard, P.; Sousa Rocha, Cristina; Martins, Paulo; Alexandre, Jorge; Atin, E.The application of life cycle approaches – including life cycle assessment, ecodesign and environmental labelling – is becoming an increasing reality for business, and a growing challenge in many economic sectors. Businesses are facing increasing legal and market requirements to enhance resource efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of their products & services. To significantly address this challenge, the Life Cycle in Practice (LCiP) project was conceived, aiming to promote the uptake of LC approaches particularly in SMEs. The LCiP project helps SMEs in France, Belgium, Portugal and Spain reduce the environmental impacts of their products and services across the entire Life Cycle in three sectors: Buildings & Construction, Waste Management and Energy Equipment. LCiP’s specific objectives are to foster the widespread uptake of these approaches by SMEs beyond the duration of the project, by (i) Demonstrating the environmental and business benefits of applying LC Approaches through practical application in 32 businesses; (ii) Providing physical and online resource centres to support regional application of LC approaches; (iii) Building capacity for on-going implementation of LC approaches through a network of Life Cycle Champions and (iv) (Re)designing practical tools & methods tailored to the needs of the three industrial sectors. This paper presents the project's activities and expected results, as well as the conclusions of a maturity assessment on life cycle approaches that has been performed in the three sectors and four partner regions, as a means to identify needs and gaps that LCiP should fulfil.
- Pressure cooker under pressure: implementation of life cycle strategies and tools in a medium sized industry in PortugalPublication . Sousa Rocha, Cristina; Alexandre, Jorge; Camocho, David; Martins, PauloThis paper concerns the application of a set of life cycle oriented strategies and tools to a pressure cooker manufactured by a medium size company located in Portugal and targeting the international market. The life cycle assessment (LCA) indicated the major environmental problems of this product, which together with the company strategy of appealing the consumer through a 100% recyclable and more ergonomic product, provided the direction for the product and market development. Besides the LCA, an ecodesign project was carried out for a reference pressure cooker and through the use of several tools, including ecodesign checklists co-developed by LNEG in a previous project, a number of improvement options was generated, leading to the reduction and substitution of raw materials consumption, improved recyclability, better ergonomic features, more eco-friendly packaging and improved user interaction. A simplified environmental product declaration for the reference product was elaborated, in the framework of the EU Stepwise EPD project, and its marketing asset was evaluated through different communication methods, including phone meetings, website feedback, mailing lists and direct communication with customers in business fairs. This paper presents the results of this project and the characteristics of the improved product, and reflects upon the use of different life cycle-related strategies and tools in an integrated way; thus, this case study contributes to the understanding of the pros and cons of implementing life cycle strategies and tools in businesses.