EME 504
Foundations in Sustainability Systems

6.1 The Role of Life Cycle Analysis in the Integrated Product Policy

In this course so far, we have been working on building a very abstract scaffold for our very tangible problems in sustainability!

Here, our first application will be to answer the following question: How do we translate LCA into actionable items that are appealing to small and medium-sized manufacturers?

Fortunately for us, many steps have already been taken in this direction. The European Union has introduced the Integrated Product Policy (IPP) to address this question. The Integrated Product Policy is a combination of soft regulation and support to industry as it transitions to greener practices.

The tools used by the IPP are summarized in Table 1 of the Hauschild et al. (2005) paper assigned for this Module. The tools in Table 1 (e.g., ecolabeling system, environmental product declaration system, standards for LCA, guidelines in design for environment) belong to the soft regulation branch of the IPP, whose objective is to inform potential customers and consumers of the environmental impact of particular products in the market. As such, the soft regulation branch provides guidelines for the different stages of production, starting with new product development and ending with eco-labeling and differential taxation schemes, depending on the product's environmental impact.

An important caveat to consider while translating and implementing these guidelines is that the support branch of the IPP recognizes that sustainable product development may not be economically competitive. Here a high premium is placed on innovation and in research resulting in new methods, tools, and databases. In addition, education to perform LCA is provided.