PLANTLCA: A Lifecycle Approach to Map and Characterize Resource Consumptions and Environmental Impacts of Manufacturing Plants

The paper presents a lifecycle approach applied to the whole factory plant to characterize primary resource consumptions and environmental impacts for the different processes. The method is based on specific environmental models, defined for each process of a manufacturing plant. The goal is to provide a tangible support to guide decision-making strategies in order to move manufacturing towards sustainability. A case study of a washing machine factory plant has been analyzed to highlight the critical working areas in terms of environmental and energy loads and to support the identification of the corrective actions to increase the overall sustainability.