The role of Life Cycle Assessment in the Safe and Sustainable by Design: lessons learnt from a case study

Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) is a concept introduced in the Chemical Strategy for Sustainability of the European Commission, with the ambition of guiding innovation in chemicals and materials design towards the minimisation of impacts on human health and the environment. To operationalise this concept, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission developed a scientific framework, which integrates safety and environmental sustainability considerations. Such framework was then adopted by the European Commission in a recommendation, for the use of companies and research institutes working on the development of chemicals and materials. The framework brings together two different aspects: safety and environmental sustainability. Safety is addressed looking at intrinsic properties of the chemicals and assessing risks related to exposure scenarios for workers, consumers and environment. While the environmental sustainability aspect is assessed via the application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) following the provisions of the Product Environmental Footprint method. While literature on LCA of chemicals is expanding, there is still a number of open issues to be addressed. The goal of this study is to test via a case study the use of LCA to assess six plasticisers, assessing the framework's applicability and proposing approaches to address challenges and research needs. Seven pivotal challenges are presented and discussed. They cover all the phases of the life cycle, from the goal and scope (benchmark definition and application to intermediate products) to Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) (availability of data, modelling of end of life, additional information and innovation perspective) and Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) (impacts from substances of concern). The case study examined and the seven identified challenges are starting points for the future development of the Safe and Sustainable by Design framework and its application aimed at promoting sustainable innovation in the manufacturing of chemicals and materials.