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7 Work Packages (WP) and industry partners are working together in the frame of ORIENTING to develop a robust, operational methodology for product Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA). The groups are led by different organizations and coordinated by WP7 leader partner TECNALIA. Here you have an update on the ongoing tasks and activities that are being developed so far:

WP1 – Framework and specifications

WP1, led by Ghent University, has started in November 2020 and will last until August/2021. Its main objective is to identify, evaluate and select the best methods and tools currently available. The evaluation will be supported by a set of criteria defined by WP1 team in the first months of the project. This will lay the groundwork for WP2 to develop a life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) methodology. First deliverable results are due by end of May 2021.

WP2 – LCSA Methodology

WP 2 is led by VTT and is about to start. The objective of WP2 is to develop a comprehensive methodology and provide practical guidance for life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) of products. WP2 will define a set of economic, social and operational indicators which can provide information on circularity and criticality to be included within the LCSA methodology. This will be built on findings of WP1 and stakeholders’ needs and will be tested by industrial partners in WP4.

WP3 – LCSA Operationalization

WP3, led by TECNALIA, will start in July 2021 and last until almost the end of the project. The main goal of this WP is to implement the LCSA methodology in practice. For this, it will consider operational elements, including databases and software specifications, training materials, tools and activities to boost capacity building for LCSA. WP3 will also enable interoperability between systems, data and formats. In this sense, ORIENTING will collaborate with the EU-funded project OntoCommons to provide an ontology that ensures the full integration of all sustainability dimensions.

WP4 – Public demonstration

WP4 is led by Fraunhofer IBP and will start in September 2021. The industry partners involved in WP4 will apply the methods and tools developed along the project and provide their feedback to WP2 and WP3. Within their case studies the partners will consider their individual scope, needs and product specifications. This will help the developers to iteratively adjust methodology and tool with the goal to allow a flexible and comprehensive LCSA application.

The demonstrators include both large and small medium enterprises and will generate a number of case studies of industrial relevance:

• Ternua (Spain), wool-made mountain coat  
• Stora Enso (Finland), fibre-and-plastic-mixed board  
• BASF (Germany), bio-based paints for coatings 
• LEIBLEIN (Germany), service, stationary and mobile electrodynamic fragmentation of concrete and ceramics  
• Solana (Italy), packaged processed tomatoes. 

WP5 – Stakeholders’ engagement and communication

WP5, led by Ecoinnovazione, actively engages with relevant groups of stakeholders and continuously informs the general public about the progress and results of Orienting. It has branded and released dissemination materials and ORIENTING website. Stakeholders can find a dedicated section, where they can register to be informed about the project and have available relevant documents and outcomes of the activities. The aim is that the stakeholders play a key role in the development of the methodology in the Orienting project.

WP5 recently organized the 1^st Stakeholders’ Workshop and many other events will follow in the next months.

WP6 – Exploitation and dissemination of ORIENTING results

WP 6, led by PRé Sustainability, aims to ensure that ORIENTING LCSA methodology is viable to be picked up in the market. WP6 started with the strategic segmentation of the potential market for commercial exploitation of ORIENTING results. It will prominently focus on the business for software developers, data providers and consultants as they can be considered accelerators of the use of the LCSA methodology. It will also take into account the adoption of the LCSA methodology by SMEs and other companies as well as policy makers for product innovation and certification to support sustainability and circular goals.

WP7 – Project management and coordination

WP7 deals with the management and coordination activities of ORIENTING. It is led by TECNALIA, the project coordinator, with the collaboration of all partners. To date, deliverables reported to the European Commission include, among others, Quality Assurance, Project Management, and Data Management Plan. Monthly meetings have been organized with WP leaders, and the first Steering Committee of the project is scheduled on May 4th, 2021.