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Congrès International sur l’Analyse du Cycle de Vie Lille, Novembre 2011<br />
Seeds4Green<br />
www.seeds4green.net<br />
Hélène Teulon, Caroline Sorez<br />
SARL Gingko21 21F rue Jacques Cartier 78960 Voisins le Bretonneux<br />
Helene.teulon@gingko21.com ; caroline.sorez@gingko21.com<br />
Keywords: LCA; collaborative platform; eco-label; green purchasing; LCA community<br />
Presentation<br />
Seeds4Green is a free collaborative internet platform for LCA studies. In 2009 and 2010, Defra<br />
(UK) joined forces with Ademe (French Environmental and Energy Management Agency) to sponsor the<br />
development of a collaborative LCA website with the technical support of the EU’s Joint Research<br />
Centre. Seeds4Green is a wiki platform that aims to provide an easy way gather and share documents<br />
linked to environmental sustainability: life cycle assessment studies, environmental product declaration,<br />
green purchasing guides, eco-labelling criteria. Both agencies support the transparency and sharing of<br />
data and view this as a one of the solutions that allows a wider range of users to acquire LCA information<br />
more easily and promote sustainable goods and services. The purpose of the platform is to collaboratively<br />
build knowledge on the environmental quality of goods and to ease the diffusion of the results of LCA<br />
studies. It provides purchasing guidelines and systemised criteria making green purchasing operational<br />
and eco-labels even more transparent and comprehensive. We anticipate that the information stored here<br />
could be used by many audiences - from purchasers to eco-designers, businesses, eco-labeling teams<br />
within public authorities as well as LCA practitioners, researchers and students throughout the world. More<br />
than 200 LCA studies are already available on Seeds4Green. Besides, Seeds4Green is gathering green<br />
purchasing guides and eco-labelling criteria as well. Eventually the community will ensure an even higher<br />
level of quality for the information shared on the platform.<br />
How does it work?<br />
Seeds4Green is a free website. Thus, any anonymous person could consult the available studies.<br />
However, a user account is mandatory to add any content and to use the collaborative functionalities, such<br />
as leaving comments - subscription is for free. Advanced research functions are available in order to target<br />
a product or a product category. Research filters match the information fields of the online studies: type of<br />
the study, year of publication, comparative feature of a study, language, ISO 14040-44 compliancy… It<br />
makes the search for and the analysis of the studies easier.<br />
Who could use it?<br />
Everybody with interest for environmental evaluation! However, Seeds4Green seems to be a very<br />
valuable tool for the professions quoted below.<br />
Eco-designers<br />
Consultants, managers in eco-design or design team could use Seeds4Green like a context<br />
analysis tool. Indeed, Seeds4Green helps at elaborating an environmental survey on a product or a<br />
product category, thanks to the summaries of studies.<br />
Purchasers<br />
Seeds4Green provides to the purchaser the identification of the relevant environmental impacts of<br />
a product or a product category. Thus procurement departments could rely on Seeds4Green when writing<br />
down the environmental specifications of their product or when discussing with their suppliers on<br />
environmental issues. Besides LCA studies, green purchasing guides, eco-design guides and eco-labelling<br />
criteria are highly valuable for purchasers.<br />
LCA experts and academics<br />
For consultants or researchers, Seeds4Green provides a relevant bibliography for environmental<br />
evaluation or Life Cycle Assessment studies. Summaries of studies help them to identify the critical points<br />
of the product/service they are working on, and thus represent a gain of time, especially for data collection,<br />
which is the more time-consuming task when conducting a LCA study. For professors or students,<br />
Seeds4Green provides a good exercises/assignments support. Teachers could use Seeds4Green as a<br />
grading tool. This approach is rewarding for and appreciated by the students.<br />
Future<br />
Gingko21 wishes to develop Seeds4Green further in order to make it a complete eco-design tool :<br />
to keep on collaboratively adding LCA, Environmental declaration Product (EPD), eco-design guide and<br />
eco-labelling criteria and simultaneously to improve the environmental information quantitatively and<br />
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