Life Cycle Assessment in Sustainable Materials Manufacturing

Dear Colleagues,

The escalating demand for environmentally friendly products, driven by consumer awareness and increasingly stringent regulations, has catalyzed significant research and development in the field of sustainable materials. Materials derived from renewable feedstocks, designed for circularity, or formulated from waste streams are at the forefront of this industrial transformation. However, the manufacturing stage of these materials is often both energy- and resource-intensive, presenting complex trade-offs that can potentially counterbalance their intended environmental benefits.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) provides the standardized framework required for the evaluation of such trade-offs. By systematically mapping all inputs (energy and raw materials) and outputs (emissions and waste) from “cradle to grave” or “cradle to cradle,” LCA identifies environmental hotspots and enables a comparative analysis of different material and manufacturing choices. Its application is essential in order to validate the “green” credentials of new materials and to optimize their production processes with the aim of minimizing their overall environmental footprint.

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to our Special Issue,which aims to collate high-quality, original research and comprehensive reviews that showcase the latest advancements and applications of LCA in the context of sustainable material production. We seek to foster a deeper understanding of how LCA can be effectively integrated into the design, development, and upscaling of sustainable materials to ensure they deliver on their environmental promise.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome, and research areas may include the following topics:

• The development of new LCA methods tailored to emerging materials (e.g., nanomaterials or bio-composites).
• Addressing uncertainty and data gaps in life cycle inventories for novel manufacturing processes.
• The integration of LCA with other assessment tools, such as life cycle costing (LCC), social LCA (S-LCA), and material flow analysis (MFA).
• Dynamic and prospective LCA models to forecast the future impacts of emerging technologies.
• LCA case studies of sustainable materials manufacturing.
• Comparative LCA studies of bio-based versus fossil-based materials (e.g., bioplastics or biofuels).
• Environmental impact assessment of manufacturing processes using recycled feedstocks (e.g., recycled plastics, metals, or textiles).
• The LCA of advanced manufacturing techniques (e.g., additive manufacturing or 3D printing) for sustainable products.
• The application of LCA in the early design stages (eco-design) to guide material selection and process design.
• Quantifying the benefits of circular economy models (e.g., industrial symbiosis and closed-loop recycling) through LCA.
• Using LCA results to develop environmental product declarations (EPDs) and sustainability labels for materials.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Daniele Landi
Dr. Christian Spreafico
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• life cycle assessment (LCA)
• sustainable manufacturing
• sustainable materials
• circular economy
• eco-design
• bio-based materials