Environmental sustainability assessments associated with industrial production processes and resource recovery

The urgency of ensuring future generations the right to live on a healthy planet, while maintaining a decent quality of life, is reflected in the increasing interest in research on improving the environmental performance of industrial processes and supply chains. In this context, the Life Cycle Assessment methodology represents a valuable tool for estimating the potential environmental impacts associated with products, systems, services, and activities. The project consisted of applying LCA and complementary methodologies to processes at both industrial and laboratory scales, in various sectors and fields. The first was water sustainability, where the environmental performances of a potable water supply system were assessed, and the existing water-energy nexus was explored. In the food sector context, an environmental indicator was developed to evaluate the implications of consumers' eating habits into a single comprehensive score, including all the life cycle of meal’s ingredients. Concerning waste valorization, systems for converting waste into valuable resources were examined, identifying the most promising strategies from an environmental perspective. Studies were also conducted on alternative food packaging formulations, highlighting the significant contribution on the total impacts of the manufacturing phase. Lastly, the future challenges related to the environmental sustainability of cryptocurrency mining were examined, finding that the electricity mix decarbonisation is not enough to reduce global warming if it is not accompanied by a reduction of the consumed electricity. Such applications led to the opportunity to develop new methodological approaches to improve the LCA framework, which is solid yet evolving. The studies confirmed the potential of the tool to support the growing public awareness of environmental issues and to assist the policies to reduce the environmental impacts of the anthroposphere at both national and global levels, helping educate citizens interested in environmental sustainability, using a clear and concrete tool to foster greater awareness on the topic.