The Battery Heroes cluster investigates Life Cycle Assessment challenges in a series of workshops
EU Batteries projects work together towards an improved performance and sustainability within the battery industry
The Battery Heroes cluster has organized a series of workshops aimed at addressing key challenges in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and sustainability assessments within the battery industry.
The two first workshops, led by the GIGAGREEN project’s LCA team, were held on July 10th and September 24th, 2024, and brought together experts from the different Battery Heroes projects. The Battery Heroes cluster includes the projects NoVOC, BatWoMan, greenSPEED, GIGAGREEN, Batmachine and GIGABAT. These initiatives are working collaboratively to tackle common issues related to environmental sustainability, especially in the realm of LCA.
The primary focus of the workshops is to identify shared challenges in conducting LCAs across different battery projects, with a particular emphasis on overcoming bottlenecks in data collection and assessment. One of the critical issues raised is the difficulty in obtaining primary data from battery material suppliers, often due to confidentiality concerns. To address this, participants discussed the possibility of using benchmark environmental impacts as a means to encourage greater data sharing among stakeholders.
The workshops also explore the potential for aligning LCA methodologies and defining shared baselines that can be utilized by all projects.
Following the second workshop, the “Battery Heroes Sustainability Working Group” was established, tasked with harmonizing approaches across various projects and advancing best practices in environmental, social, and economic assessments.
The working group’s key objectives include overcoming data challenges, developing common reference conditions for project comparisons and investigating the possibility of aligning with the European Commission’s Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) framework. This alignment is seen as a crucial step in ensuring that all projects follow a standardized, high-quality approach to sustainability assessment.
Upcoming discussions within the working group will focus on strategies for addressing ongoing data shortages and further standardizing LCA methodologies across projects. The group is also planning to produce a detailed report or paper outlining these strategies and their implementation.
Featured image by Rachel Ellis-Unsplash