D3.4 - Report on Environmental Assessment

This report presents the methodological foundations of the environmental assessment applied to the selected innovative bio-based Value Chains (VCs) of the CARINA project, carried out within WP3 (Sustainability Assessment) and specifically linked to T3.4 (Environmental assessment of selected CARINA concepts). In this context, a set of environmental indicators was defined in T3.1 (Identification of sustainability indicators) as part of the overall project framework. To address these indicators comprehensively and ensure a holistic evaluation, the environmental impacts of the chosen CARINA VCs were assessed through a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), complemented by additional evaluations based on the 12 Principles and Criteria (P&C) established by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB). This document reports exclusively on those indicators examined from a life cycle perspective, presenting a first-round assessment. The preliminary results serve a dual purpose: (i) to identify environmental hotspots across the different phases of the selected CARINA VCs, thereby providing decision support for developing more sustainable process routes, and (ii) to refine both the data inputs and the methodological framework applied. A second-round assessment will be presented in a forthcoming deliverable (D3.5), in which the full set of environmental indicators will be evaluated as part of a broader Integrated Sustainability Assessment (i.e., T3.5). This will be complemented by an economic assessment (T3.2) and a social evaluation (T3.3), ensuring a multidimensional perspective on sustainability performance.