Maria Elisabete Silva
Duration: 2019 – 2022
Cised team members
Maria Elisabete Silva
Isabel Brás
José Vicente
Idalina Domingos
Funding
CGD; PV
The industry associated to construction sector have an important environmental impact, mainly associated with exhaustion of natural resources and waste production. Is a fact that mineral and others material will have an announced end in the nature in a near future. One industry related with this sector is the worktop production for integral part of kitchen and bathrooms furniture that uses minerals as raw materials. Thus, the development of sustainable products related with this production is necessary and very important for minimize environmental impact. Product sustainability (PS) looks at how products can provide economic benefits to companies while at the same time providing environmental and social benefits to society in general. The PS aims at balancing the contributions of products to the triple benefit (economy, society and environment), thereby creating multiple and shared values for different stakeholders. A general definition of a PS could be: a product designed, manufactured, used and disposed of according to criteria of economic, environmental and social efficiency, which maximize net benefits across generations by minimize the impact during the life cycle. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is one of the most important analytical tools to provide the scientific background for engineering solutions to sustainability, both during the design phase (eco-design) and during life cycle management. By applying LCA it is possible to optimize the aspects from the extraction of raw materials to the final disposal of waste materials. The application of LCA, not only meets consumer demands for environmentally friendly products, but also increase the productivity and competitiveness of the sustainable products. In summary, it can be stated that the application of LCA is fundamental to sustainability and improvement the sustainable products in the worktop industrial activities. This sector will be the focus of the present study and it will be done the LCA of a new worktop product, produced with wastes from traditional worktop production and compare to the traditional product. In attempting to certificate it sustainability it will be done the environmental product declaration. This product may be considered as an Eco-Product once it incorporates of wastes or subproducts in its composition. The 4 main phases of LCA methodology will be implemented, such as the goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation for this new material comparing with the product traditionally produced in the collaborative factories.