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Can you introduce your position and the activities of EVEA?
I am the CEO and founder of EVEA, a consulting firm specializing in the environmental and social performance of products founded in 2005. We work mainly in industry to assess impacts (Life Cycle Assessment, social footprint) and to support eco-design and sustainable innovation.
Our team of about 140 people is organized by sector competence. For this interview concerning packaging, we have mobilized a dedicated team and I would like to thank Anthony Zidane and Laurence Beck in particular for their contribution. In line with our status as a SAS SCOP – a hundred or so employees are also partners – we strive to support companies in a spirit of co-construction and transmission. Thus, our “consulting” offer is completed by training and software tools to integrate skills and processes in a sustainable way with our clients. In this respect, we have developed Askor, a software platform for LCA and eco-design, which is available for each sector: food, cosmetics, textile and fashion…
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You were a speaker at our CNE roundtable during the ALL4PACK exhibition in November 2022 :
Could you remind us of all the interest in LCA (life cycle assessments) for consumer packaged goods, with the associated challenges and limitations?
LCA is a decision-making tool. By objectifying the environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of a product (multi-stage) and on different dimensions (multi-indicators), LCA allows a quantifiable analysis and avoids false ideas.
It is a multi-indicator analysis that makes pollution transfers visible, for example when one impact decreases (such as climate change), but another increases (such as land use).
LCA also provides a complete view of the product and packaging system, and highlights the relative importance of the product versus the packaging and the risk of increased impacts if the packaging loses its protective properties or increases food waste.
It is therefore a very good tool to guide innovation and to make the right choices.
Nevertheless, we must be aware of the limits of LCA.
Comparable services must be compared. For example, if we compare a so-called “refill” package, it is the entire system that must be considered, just as we must reason in terms of the quantity of product delivered to the consumer.
Not all issues have been properly taken into account to date, such as plastic pollution. The integration of this issue is the subject of a project, Mari-LCA, conducted by researchers who are experts in LCA and marine systems.
In conclusion, LCA remains a decision-making tool. It should be used in addition to other indicators (toxicity, risk analysis, social): LCA alone is not sufficient for decision making.
Link to the ALL4PACK round table: https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMyIRF24Puw
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Between the packaging regulation (3R french decree) and the positions taken by some organizations via LCAs to counter it, what do you say as an expert in LCAs?
Reminder of the 3Rs Decree: marketers must ensure that they choose alternatives that allow for a reduction in environmental impacts, including on biodiversity, by favouring a comparative life cycle analysis of single-use plastic packaging compared to its alternatives.
https ://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000043458675
At EVEA, we carry out LCAs, but we also develop indicators of circularity, design and social issues. For us, eco-design is not only about LCA.
The issue of plastic pollution is one of the elements at the origin of the AGEC law (Law n° 2020-105 of February 10, 2020 on the fight against waste and the circular economy).
LCA does not contradict this law: it allows to find the best possible solution to limit plastic.
Its limitation is that it does not take into account plastic pollution. This is why ADEME’s reference framework on comparative LCA of packaging recommends to qualitatively measure the impact of packaging loss in the environment.
Furthermore, single-use packaging solutions have been constantly improved over the last 30 years and are now mature and optimized.
Reuse solutions or emerging technologies are still in the construction stage and not yet at cruising speed. It is important to be aware of this when performing an LCA.
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Consumer information via an environmental labelling is the subject of much debate, what are the elements of a successful display according to EVEA (a single European labelling, per sector of activity, per product market, etc.)?
An environmental display should make it possible to know which products have the most “impact” or the most concern, and which products have the lowest score. It should allow these products to evolve to make them more virtuous. This is for example what the Nutriscore has allowed, with companies progressively changing the formulations of their worst rated products (D or E) to improve them.
Environmental labelling based on an LCA will be more relevant if it is supplemented by information or indicators that address specific important issues that are not always well covered by the LCA. These issues include:
– Pollution linked to the emission of certain substances into the environment (plastic pollution, endocrine disruptors, metabolites of phytosanitary products, etc.), which corresponds to the 5th planetary limit crossed (introduction of new entities into the biosphere)
– Biodiversity, which still lacks indicators to assess more precisely the effect of practices on habitats, invasive species and overexploitation of biotic resources (fish, rare plants, etc.)
– The health of operators, consumers and local populations
– Animal welfare
– Societal issues (equity, business ethics, dignity, compensation, ethics in the value chain, working conditions)
For EVEA, the ideal would be a labelling allowing communication on both social and environmental issues. Why? To enable manufacturers to make the best decisions and to help consumers make the best choices.
