Assessment of innovative technologies of non-stick coatings in a Social Life Cycle Assessment perspective.

Abstract

Sustainability is a multi-disciplinary and integrated concept, accounting for the environmental, social, and economic aspects. To properly quantify the environmental, social, and economic impacts and thus to provide a comprehensive sustainability profile, Life Cycle Assessment methodologies can be applied. They include (Environmental) Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA). These are standardized procedures aimed at evaluating the environmental, social, and economic impacts of activities or organization based on ISO standards 14040 and 14044 which define the stages and elements to be included in a study to assess the entire life cycle of a defined system, “from cradle to grave”. Specifically, the topic of the thesis is to apply Social-Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) as a tool to measure the implementation of these goals for socio-economic matters, helping companies and consequently countries to keep the pace with the established targets. Since the application of S-LCA is rather new in the context of LCA and LCC, in depth analysis of the methodology, case studies, and literature produced on the topic is a crucial task for practitioner. This work presents the research developed during a period of curricular internship with the company GreenDecision Srl and was performed in the context of the Horizon2020 Sunshine project, which developed an approach for safety, sustainability and functionality assessment to be applied in the design stage of materials and products (SSbD) considering each stage of product development from a lifecycle perspective. The SSbD is achieved via a tiered approach that uses screening-level qualitative (Tier 1) and semi-quantitative (Tier 2) methodologies in the early stages of innovation and quantitative (Tier 3) assessment methods for the later stages. To support the implementation of the SSbD approach, Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) methodology was analysed, along with each of its components (LCA, S-LCA, LCC), focusing on the interdisciplinarity and potentiality for the integration of the three. The activities performed in this thesis is part of the quantitative (Tier 3) assessment methods proposed in Sunshine and focuses on the Social Life Cycle Assessment. The S-LCA analysis was applied to a multi component nanomaterial produced by a partner of the Sunshine project, applied as a non-stick coating on baking trays. The study was performed following thoroughly the official procedure provided by the UNEP/SETAC guidelines. The aim of this work was to analyse in depth the methodology and, through a case study, highlighting the promising aspects and the weaknesses observed in the application.