Detalhes do Documento

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.