Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis

The Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis group focuses on the development of science-based indicators and tools to assess holistically the sustainability performance of products, technologies and policies to respond to the needs of industry and policy makers. Historically research has focused mainly on environmental sustainability metrics, however our group is currently enlarging its scope of activities to social and economic sustainability assessment.

Quantitative sustainability assessment requires a highly transversal and interdisciplinary research focus, including stakeholders’ participatory techniques. The distinctive approach of our group, and its main research strength, lies in the integration of new knowledge with computational sustainability models, driven by the users’ needs.

MAIN EXPERTISE FIELDS

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is our core expertise. Depending on the decision-making context, different LCA approaches are developed: attributional, consequential, input-output, or hybrid.

To enlarge the scope to Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis, further expertise is mobilised in:

Circular Economy best practices (e.g. eco-design, industrial symbiosis, remanufacturing, recycling)
Eco-system services valuation
(Dynamic) Material Flow Analysis (MFA)
Agent-Based Modelling (ABM)
Social LCA
Life-Cycle Costing (LCC)
Sustainable Finance
Mathematical and resource optimisation methods
System dynamics and process modelling

Our group includes experienced software developers and principal investigators with strong programming skills (in Python and Java among other programming language), fostering the development of customised software tools.

Research challenges

Environmental and social metrics for sustainable finance
Integrated multi-scale assessment of ecosystem services
Prospective LCA of technologies and policies
IoT enabled life cycle assessment
Integration of well-being into sustainability assessment
Material and energy valorisation in Circular Economy

Application areas

Manufacturing industry
Process industry
Mobility
Urban and land planning
Supply chains and logistics
Buildings and construction

Main assets

Assess future scenarios of H2 fueled mobility (HERMES)
Lifecycle-based metrics for sustainable finance (REFUND)
Assess circular economy business models in the floor covering sector (FLOREC)
Assess technologies to promote circularity of industrial wastewater (SPOTVIEW)
Decision-making regarding buildings refurbishment at urban scale for energy efficiency (DAEDALUS)
Generate optimal waste heat recovery solutions within complex systems (OptiHEAT
Tools for ecosystem services valuation in forest management scenarios (MULTISILVA)
Assessing nature-based solutions for renaturing cities (NATURE4CITIES)
Provide accurate and realistic LCA results considering dynamic inventories (DyPLCA)