Mineral resources in Life Cycle Assessment

Mineral resources have been used by humanity since ancient times. However, the
diversity of resources used has drastically increased with the growth of high
technology products, especially those in sectors dealing with the environment
and the energy transition. Moreover, the overall amount of extracted resources
is significantly high and only rising. Some of these resources are defined as
"critical" by the European Union, as they are of great importance for these
economic sectors and their supply is a growing concern. Although the
environmental question of resource depletion has been widely debated within
the life cycle assessment (LCA) scientific community, a clear consensus has
not been reached. Combining resource depletion, resource dissipation and
criticality in Life Cycle Assessment is therefore a key challenge that needs
to be addressed to better assess the ecodesign of future products in regard to
the area of protection "Resources".

This book provides a synthesis of the main contributions presented during a
workshop organized by the EcoSD network in 2020. This workshop was entitled
"From depletion to resources criticity in LCA: what challenges for sustainable
design?" and aimed to address the issue of resources within the LCA framework.
The workshop put in perspective the last methodological developments (in terms
of both tools and methods) and the public and private stakeholder points of
view through practical examples.

The workshop addressed the following key issues:

* What are the good practices concerning the integration of impacts on resources within the LCA framework in terms of resource depletion/ dissipation and resource criticality?
* What kind of tools and methods could be used?
* How can resource depletion and criticality be combined in LCA?
* Is resource and criticality assessment relevant for eco-design?
* How do stakeholders use resource and criticality assessments when they carry out an LCA?

Some 90 researchers from industry, academia and governmental institutions
attended this EcoSD workshop. Their goal was that this workshop serve as a
catalyst for the development of closer collaboration between research and
industries.