Abstract :
[en] Following a growing awareness of environmental issues, many restrictive measures are formulated by the different levels of government, regional, national or European/international. For example, public procurement includes environmental clauses, which are stipulations to prevent/limit negative effects or encourage positive effects on soil, air, water and/or biodiversity, to reduce the consumption of natural resources or energy, to prevent and recover waste and, in general, to avoid or limit environmental damage.
Most of the criteria that are considered are based on (semi-)quantitative assessments such as indicators related to carbon dioxide emissions, or multiple indicators from methods such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). In the construction sector, the Energy Performance of Building Directive (EPBD, adopted in April 2024) includes a mandatory assessment of the global warming potential (GWP) over the entire life of a building. This assessment is based on a life cycle assessment carried out in accordance with specific tools and databases, including EDPs (e.g. in Belgium the Belgian B-EPD database and the TOTEM tool). As far as the fight against greenwashing is concerned, the European Parliament banned in January 2024 unproven environmental claims on products, only allowing sustainability labels based on certification programs approved by public authorities.
As a result, manufacturers are faced with a growing demand for certifications of their environmental performance, to respond to public contracts or for their customers, whether for reasons of personal ethical choice or to respond to the above-mentioned constraints from the authorities. In this context, many companies are somewhat overwhelmed, both by the need to conduct their own environmental assessments and to understand those of their suppliers or competitors. There are growing needs related to LCA, ranging from the ability to understand, decipher and interpret results to the mastery of the tools to carry out such a study. As academic experts in LCA, we see a strong demand from companies, as most of the engineers currently in place have not had the opportunity to take courses related to this approach during their studies. Indeed, training of this type is relatively recent in the curriculum, and the level of developed skills can vary widely from short introduction to complete formation including practice (getting started with LCA software and databases).
This work presents an overview of both the needs and challenges of companies when talking about environmental communication, and some existing solutions to meet them (training and/or support).
