While life-cycle assessment (LCA) is extensively used by the business sector, this methodology assessing the environmental impact of a product through all the stages of its life is still quite unknown of public authorities. Yet the integration of this expertise in public policy thinking has a great potential in improving the environmental impact of regional policies and increasing resource efficiency on their territories. To bridge this gap and introduce a wider use of LCA methodologies, a new European project, LCA4Regions, is starting.
Public authorities will soon be encouraged to apply LCA approach to their policies thanks to this new Interreg European Project, LCA4Regions - Improved Environment and Resource Efficiency through use of Life Cycle Instruments for implementation of regional policies of the European Unión. The 9 partners met for the first time in Brussels, on 30 September and 1 October 2019, hosted by Delegation of the Government of Navarra, the coordinator of the Project.
48 months, they will work together to expand the use of LCA methodology as a holistic approach when conceiving and implementing public policies related to environment and resource efficiency. The kick-off meeting was the occasion for them to discuss the project's strategy and establish its road- map.
To reach its objective, LCA4Regions connects together different kinds of expertise and experiences across Europe. The Project consortium includes 4 governmental authorities - Lombardy Region (IT), Lodzkie Region (PL), CIMBAL, Baixo Alentejo Intermunicipal Community (PT), Government of Navarre (ES), 3 research institutions - KUT, Kaunas University of Technology (LT), NIC, National Institute of Chemistry (SL), Pyhäjärvy Institute (FI), 1 industrial association -AIN, Industrial Association of Navarre (ES) and last but not least, ACR+ (BE), advisory partner.
Seven Transnational Learning Journeys (TLJ) will enable the represented regions to host their fellow project partners for thematic workshops, site visits and peer reviews. They will focus on the following six thematic pillars:
- Implement of LCA in environmental and resource efficiency policies - from theory to practice;
- LCA for resource efficiency;
- LCA in waste and material flows;
- LCA in public procurements;
- Training and capacity building in LCA;
- LCA in monitoring and evaluation.
TLJs are part of the first phase of the Project, the "Interregional Learning", during which partners will Exchange experiences and identify good practices to elaborate 7 Action Plans transferring these good practices to their territories. The second phase, "Monitoring of the Action Plans Implementation", will focus on the implementation of the action plans produced with the aim of improving partners' policy instruments.
In the coming months each involved region will develop its own regional analysis and organise events on its territory to inform local audiences and gather groups of stakeholders who will participate in the project's thematic workshops and provide feedbacks on the Action Plans.
You can follow LCA4Regions on this website and Twitter, to ensure you do not miss out its first steps. If you would like to stay up to date with the Project, subscribe to the LCA4Regions mailing list by filling in this form.
