Motivation
Our road transport system is rapidly transforming in response to climate change and resulting demand for a high sustainability over the full value chain and the full life cycle. New propulsion systems are achieving steadily increasing market shares, and new infrastructures and mobility concepts will be needed for connected and automated vehicles, as well as to achieve the vision of smart and climate-neutral cities.
For this transformation of our transport system towards climate-neutrality, the reliable and comparable assessment of the environmental footprint of different solutions and technologies becomes essential. Although all stakeholders already recognise the importance of life cycle assessment, the transport sector is still struggling to adopt LCA approaches. As outlined in the 2Zero SRIA , standardised and comparable results are still lacking due to limitations in accessing and managing real-life data or applying non-harmonised, non-coherent methods, tools and system boundaries, to name some. Within this context, considering upcoming technologies leveraging emission reduction strategies, circular economy targets as well as social aspects poses significant challenges for making the best choice in terms of sustainability as an integral part of product development and mobility solutions.
Consequently, TranSensus LCA aims to pave the way towards a commonly accepted and applied single LCA approach for zero-emission road transport.
New, holistic and applicable quantitative tools to drive an approach to the design of ZEV, their components and batteries
A consensus concept for a harmonised, robust, transparent and real-data based LCA approach and tools, with an emphasis on light-duty and heavy-duty zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) and batteries; enabling the assessment of the sustainability performance and evaluation of optimal designs along the value chain and over the full life-cycle (cradel to cradle), also taking into accout the need of comparing with conventional solutions.
Accelerated uptake of zero-emission mobility
A consensus on an evidence-based, transparent single European-wide approach for assessing environmental impacts enables an efficient information of a product sustainability (better consumer information and outline of benefits) lowering the threshold for consumers to choose zero-emission mobility solutions and offering an objective comparison of potential choices.
Reduction of environmental impacts
Increased user acceptance, improved air quality, and a more circular economy –With a transparent and comparable assessment of environmental impacts the benefits of choosing sustainable and circular economy based solutions will become more evident increasing the user acceptance; as a consequence the demand for such solutions will incrase which need to be met by industry.
Effective design and assessment
Development of innovative concepts in road vehicles and mobility services thanks to life-cycle analysis tools and skills, in a circular economy context –Consensus on a transparent, comparable and evidence-based single LCA approach embracing environmental, economic and social apects encourage industry to implement the assessment in early stages of product development.
