USEtox®, available in SimaPro, is a well-known model for characterizing the toxic impacts of chemical emissions in a life cycle assessment (LCA). But what is it exactly and how do you use it? This article gives a short overview.

Business partnerships are an integral part of PRé’s ongoing success. These relationships, which strengthen both parties, are based on synergy and transparency. By working in tandem with companies who share our commitment to measurable sustainability, PRé’s continued accomplishments are guaranteed. PRé spoke with, who recently joined our network of partners.

Since the beginning of LCA, there has been a major issue on which we will probably never reach a consensus: how to deal with multifunctional processes and recycling. This article tries to explain the concepts underlying this issue.

"CSR is dead", declared Peter Bakker, President of WBCSD, and urged us to create new definitions of success. The change to a more holistic approach is already happening. However, shouldn’t we place the shared value that we create at the heart of what we do?

As a science-based method, LCA is an excellent tool to bust the myths that surround sustainability. In this monthly series, we look at some common sustainability ideas to see if they are myth or true. In today’s episode: bio-based products.

PRé is dedicating an article series to the PEF initiative of the European Commission, since we are involved as technical helpdesk. Today: end-of-life modelling with material or energy recovery, a hotly debated topic ever since LCA exists. The number of scientific papers discussing this topic is huge; Google scholar gives 64000 hits. The PEF approach seeks to end this discussion.

Implementing a sustainability programme or choosing a new, sustainable business model can be somewhat of a conundrum. Without data, it’s impossible to choose. But if you do a sustainability assessment, you get so much data that you still can’t choose. Materiality assessments and hotspot analyses can help you move forward.

The International Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) is becoming an important format for the LCA community. This data format allows users to exchange data that was previously thought incompatible, bringing many more datasets, models and methods within reach of LCA practitioners. This is a central issue for the LCA community and increasingly important in the context of the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) initiative. Because the ILCD format is very complex, we will use this article to help you become familiar with the basics of ILCD and how to use it for database development.

Manufacturing companies usually look at a product’s toxicity from two points of view: “How sustainable is the product regarding human health and the environment?” and “Does the product pose a risk to specific groups of people, e.g. the workers involved in its production?”

There are many different sustainability tools, ranging from simple to complex and covering the various aspects of sustainability: environmental, social and economic sustainability. The popularity of these tools waxes and wanes.