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H2020Doctoral network2015–2018

RELIEF · RELIability of product Environmental Footprints

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2015-01-01 → 2018-12-31
EU contribution
€1,276,871
Participants
8
Scheme
MSCA-ITN-EID

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

RELIability of product Environmental Footprints

The main goal of the European Industrial Doctorate proposal RELIEF, a cooperation between Radboud University and Unilever, is to train early stage researchers to consider how to assess and improve the reliability of product environmental footprints. There are five focus areas for improving the accuracy of footprint analyses that have been identified in RELIEF, which are addressed in five individual Early Stage Researcher (ESR) projects (see Figure 1). These concern environmental impacts of (i) energy use, (ii) water consumption, (iii) chemicals, (iv) land use, and macro-scale strategic decisions in materials sourcing. The research and training activities performed within RELIEF, showed how new methods can be developed and applied to quantify various types of variability (spatial, temporal, consumer, producer) and uncertainty in environmental footprint analysis. The research highlights the large variability in product footprints and the large differences in consumer behaviour. Our findings also show that a quantitative understanding of sources of variability and uncertainty is important to formulate practical recommendations to reduce environmental footprints.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

To move towards a more sustainable world there needs to be a systematic change in the consumption of resources driven by informed decision-making and policies. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is widely accepted as a tool for supporting decisions on environmental footprints. However, it is also acknowledged that the reliability of state-of-the-art LCA needs to be improved as uncertainty and variability are generally not addressed. The importance of improving the reliability of environmental footprinting is currently recognised in the Product Environmental Footprinting approach and in the recommendations of the European Resource Efficiency Platform. This European Industrial Doctorate proposal (RELIEF), a cooperation between Radboud University and Unilever as partners and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Stanford University, University of Surrey, Ostfold Research, GreenDelta and the International Union for Conservation of Nature as associate partners, offers a unique international and multidisciplinary training environment for early-stage researchers (ESRs) to improve the reliability of the environmental footprinting of products. RELIEF will develop new models to reduce uncertainty throughout the value chain. Developing these models requires a multidisciplinary approach. Four ESRs will work on different topics, i.e. improving the reliability of product footprints related to energy (carbon), land, chemicals and water. The fifth ESR will work on macro-scale environmental models, in order to incorporate cross-cutting issues from the other four ESRs. Each ESR will receive broad, high-level training in scientific and general skills as well as personalized training. The training will be delivered by a combination of courses, as part of their own research and via learning in business and academia. The RELIEF project will deliver not only novel methods, but also researchers with state of the art skills and environmental footprinting knowledge.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • STICHTING RADBOUD UNIVERSITEIT · NijmegenCoordinatorNetherlands
  • BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY · STANFORDUnited States
  • GREENDELTA GMBH · BERLINGermany
  • NORGES TEKNISK-NATURVITENSKAPELIGE UNIVERSITET NTNU · TrondheimNorway
  • NORSUS NORSK INSTITUTT FOR BAEREKRAFTSFORSKNING AS · FredrikstadNorway
  • STICHTING IUCN NEDERLANDS COMITE · AMSTERDAMNetherlands
  • UNILEVER U.K. CENTRAL RESOURCES LIMITED · LONDONUnited Kingdom
  • UNIVERSITY OF SURREY · GuildfordUnited Kingdom

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union