Eurobitume opens up debate on Life Cycle Assessment

TF EI&LCA Chair Laurent Porot, from Kraton, explained: “LCA is a complex subject and we are just at the beginning of the journey to develop a normalised approach. It was helpful to get external inputs from the panel discussion ahead of the members-only workshop, as this enabled us to then engage with our members and achieve alignment on the direction Eurobitume should take”.

There was lots of interest in the open seminar, where 77 members and invited guests took part. The seminar included a review of various existing positions and experiences from LCA users and an interesting Q&A and panel discussion, which featured the Asphalt Institute’s Director of Engineering, Mark Buncher; EAPA Technical Director, Breixo Gomez; EWA Secretary General, Rainer Henseleit; Highways England Senior Technical Advisor, Matthew Wayman; and Susanna Toller from the Environment Unit at Trafikverket, the Swedish Transport Administration.

At the members-only workshop which followed, Eurobitume Senior Technical Advisor Mike Southern summarised the panel discussion output and Laurent Porot gave an overview of TF EI&LCA’s activities to the 54 member-company representatives.

A proposed roadmap on the direction that Eurobitume could take regarding LCA, EPD (Environmental Product Declarations) and PCR (Product Category Rules) was agreed. This will reshape the scope for the task force.