Electric passenger vehicles are set to dominate the European car market, driven by EU climate policies and the 2035 ban on internal combustion engine production. This study assesses the sustainability of this transition, focusing on global warming potential and Critical Raw Material (CRM) extraction throughout its life cycle. The intensive use of CRMs raises environmental, economic, social, and geopolitical concerns. These materials are scarce and are concentrated in a few politically sensitive regions, leaving the EU highly dependent on external suppliers. The extraction, transport, and refining of CRMs and battery production are high-emission processes that contribute to climate change and pose risks to ecosystems and human health. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was conducted, using OpenLCA software and the Ecoinvent 3.10 database, comparing a Peugeot 308 in its diesel and electric versions. This study adopts a cradle-to-grave approach, analyzing three phases: production, utilization, and end-of-life treatment. Key indicators included Global Warming Potential (GWP100) and Abiotic Resource Depletion Potential (ADP) to assess CO₂ emissions and mineral resource consumption. Technological advancements could mitigate mineral depletion concerns. Li-ion battery recycling is still underdeveloped, but has high recovery potential, with the sector expected to expand significantly. Moreover, repurposing used Li-ion batteries for stationary energy storage in renewable energy systems can extend their lifespan by over a decade, decreasing the demand for new batteries. Such innovations underscore the potential for a more sustainable electric vehicle industry.

Achieving a low-carbon energy future requires scaling up the supply of minerals and metals essential for renewable-energy technologies, many of which are classified as Critical Raw Materials (CRMs). Current Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods insufficiently address their depletion and criticality. This study introduces two novel indicators, the Raw Material Extraction/Reserve Index (RERI) and a Gini-based metric, to quantify depletion pressure and supply concentration, integrated into SimaPro v10.2 for practical use in LCA. The proposed framework is tested on a comparative case study of electric and diesel vehicles, showing that electric models, while reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, entail higher CRM-related impacts. A complementary multi-criteria analysis (TOPSIS) confirms that electric vehicles remain the more sustainable long-term option, highlighting the need to integrate CRM indicators into LCA for robust sustainability assessments.

Seaweeds are organisms with unique characteristics. They contain a broad spectrum of micro and macro elements (i.e., minerals, carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, pigments, and vitamins). Furthermore, they have a very high growth rate and are present in large quantities and species in nature. Therefore, they represent an ideal feedstock for a biorefinery concept. Historically, macroalgae used in biorefineries have been harvested directly from the sea or the shores, i.e., off-shore technique. However, recent studies are analysing the possibility of creating on-shore cultivation facilities. This research aims to perform a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study that analyses and compares the environmental impact of two seaweed cultivation and wild harvesting techniques in the Baltic Sea Region conditions based on existing pre-commercial and commercial projects. Inventory data are collected directly from two macroalgae producers, one off-shore and one on-shore, integrated with literature, and then normalized to the selected functional unit, i.e., 1 ton of harvested fresh macroalgae. The results, implemented with SimaPro 9.4 software, determine which of the two techniques has the highest environmental impact and which are the most sensitive environmental indicators. Furthermore, the results underline the critical parameters for the two cultivations (i.e., fuel consumption and electricity), contributing to identifying environmental benchmarks

Steel is one of the most used materials in the industry and the building sector. Its production causes severe environmental impacts due to direct emissions within extraction and processing stages (e.g. CO, SOx, NOx, and PM2), the intensive use of primary resources, contamination of wastewater, and significant amounts of hazardous and solid waste. In this context, the purpose of the current study is to perform a life cycle analysis (LCA) of four different types of steel used in the manufacturing of a steel-based radiator, namely: standard steel as a baseline scenario, steel with a recycling fraction of 40 % of scrap, steel with a recycling fraction of 60 % of scrap, fully recycled steel from scraps, and a hypothetical ‘Carbon-free’ steel production process. The baseline scenario relies on data from an existing company producing steel radiators. The LCA study is conducted within SimaPro 9.4 software with data obtained from the Ecoinvent 3.8 database and adjusted according to the defined scenarios and the functional unit of ‘1 kg of steel’. The environmental impact is assessed according to EN 15804 requirements for construction product sustainability. The results have shown that standard steel has the highest impact (176.87 μPt), followed by 40 % scrap steel (137.46 μPt), 60 % scrap steel (104.36 μPt), ‘carbon-free’ steel (76.14 μPt), and 100 % scrap steel (38.17 μPt). The climate change indicator is found to be one of the most sensitive for steel production. The selection of ‘carbon-free’ or 100 % scrap steel permits a decrease of impacts by 70 % and 84 %, respectively. The study concludes that the choice of steel is a fundamental point in reducing the environmental impact of construction products such as steel-made radiators within the whole life cycle perspective. Furthermore, the results obtained through the EN 15804 method, tailored explicitly for the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), can be reused or taken as a starting point for further studies in the environmental labelling sector.