Green chemistry and life cycle assessment are two methodologies used in environmental studies, both theoretically and practically. The purpose of this analysis was to assess whether and how green chemistry principles could be integrated into the life cycle assessment methodology and to local and international industrial policies to achieve sustainability goals at the territorial level. First, some contributions that life-cycle thinking gives to green chemistry and vice versa are proposed, based on existing research. Data are provided using tables to summarise contents and graphs to outline interconnections, also considering the four steps of life cycle assessment, showing some available references of previous studies. Secondly, some possible points of integration between the 12 principles of green chemistry and environmental policies are listed. For each principle of green chemistry, a possible integration with international and local strategies is proposed. A list of references that might be useful to investigate possible patterns of study for territorial and industrial uses, is provided too. The results show that life cycle thinking and green chemistry can be integrated into theoretical and practical case studies, since many interconnections exist. These interconnections permit one to use the best characteristics of each method to improve the reliability of the other method and, finally, to solve environmental, industrial, and engineering problems with a more comprehensive approach. In addition, green chemistry principles can be easily associated with main environmental policies at the international, national, regional, and local levels. This allows one to use results, knowledge, and expertise of the green chemistry framework and apply them to industries, territories, and communities. The similarities highlighted in this analysis need further investigation in future studies since they can help decision making process in sustainability policies.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) and related tools are commonly used to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of waste treatment scenarios. This manuscript presents a mini-review of studies published over the last 10 years in Italy and aims to investigate how life cycle thinking tools are applied to assess the environmental sustainability of local-level waste policies. Results reveal that different waste flows, technologies and policies have been investigated independently and in varying detail. Review suggests that boundary selection significantly affects LCA results; integration of different waste systems is therefore crucial to avoid spatial or temporal shifts of environmental impacts. Moreover, the description of methodological characteristics, limitations and transversal aspects of Italian waste management studies allows various stakeholders to assess the reliability of past and future research for waste policy planning and rebound effects prevention. This review also highlights the need to define minimum requirements of transparency and ease of reporting of the studies to private and public stakeholders. Finally, the paper investigates whether using both the organisational LCA and the life cycle sustainability approach for the overall waste management process may be useful to develop a standard method to address multi-functionalities and multiple sites.
In recent years, industrial and civil projects and policies usually include improvement of sustainability performance. Many instruments, tools, and targets exist to assess environmental performance and sustainability. Life cycle assessment is one of the most used and robust tools. The aim of this analysis is to evaluate if different approaches can result in different environmental sustainability assessment results. Some case studies based on previous research are listed. Results of selected tools – carbon footprint, design for disassembly criteria, environmental product declaration targets, national targets of the Italian recovery plan, sustainable development goals, green chemistry principles, waste hierarchy objectives, material circular indicators – are compared to the outcomes of the life cycle thinking approach. The assessment of environmental sustainability performance of projects appears to depend on the tool used. Thus, the role of selected instruments, subjective choices, fair communication of results, and sustainability definition are investigated. Finally, future areas of study are indicated.
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