The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) research group is chaired by Dr. Gian Andrea Blengini and is based in the Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructures Engineering (DIATI) of the Politecnico di Torino.
The main goal of the LCA group is to search for engineering solutions that minimize environmental and socioeconomic burdens associated with products and services during the entire life cycle and value chain. Overall objective is making life cycle thinking and product sustainability operational for businesses.
Recent and current research is focused on Engineering and Management of Resources and the Environment, trying to encompass the
technological aspects, as well as the economic and policy implications of production systems on man-made and natural ecosystems. Current main efforts and objectives are devoted to developing and strengthening international collaborative research relationships with the aim of creating interdisciplinary projects involving a mix of science-based investigation, technology transfer, and management or policy recommendations.
The LCA research group is presently involved in medium to large scale international research projects, where Life Cycle Assessment is extensively applied in quite different fields, ranging from sustainable supply of conventional natural resources to recycling and waste management, including agri-food chain management, low energy buildings and development of nanotechnologies, always using a crosscutting approach in order to facilitate the work of multidisciplinary research teams, with the objective of obtaining effective engineering solutions to sustainable development challenges.