Sustainability is most often defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. Broadly speaking, a company implements sustainable practices by reducing its consumption of limited resources or finding alternative resources with lower environmental consequences. Sustainability has three main pillars: economic, environmental, and social. These three pillars are informally referred to as people, planet, and profits.  

This document defines the system boundaries and functional units related to the PRESERVE project. The environmental assessment within the project will be carried out by applying the internationally and recognized methodology Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The main objective is to analyse and advise the development of biobased packaging and compare the environmental performance with current materials available in the market from an environmental point of view. Additionally, Life Cost Cost (LCC) is performed as an analytical methodology for calculating the total cost of a product during its design, fabrication, use and recycling. LCC will provide the cost profiles of the systems analysed and contribute to the selection and design of materials.

The LCA and LCC will provide detailed knowledge which can be used to convince clients of the benefits of the novel group of bio-based materials and evaluate the social impact. This will enable a larger group of (industrial and R&D&I) stakeholders to integrate this knowledge and to increase their own innovation capacity/benefit by taking well-funded decisions on the benefits of using the new biobased materials.

Data collection for LCA and LCC will start in the next period in connection with project technological advances. Online surveys for Social Life Cycle Assessment (Social LCA) are currently in progress and collected data will be discussed in the next deliverable version.