Avant qu’il ne soit trop tard: a “circular” approach from theory to practice. Modeling an innovative technical solution through LCA

It is proven theory, unfortunately not implemented yet, that “sustainability” is not (should not be) an issue that can be dealt with separately as an individual sector; since it involves every aspect of society: i.e. our model of economic development; welfare; the environment. ESG (Environmental/Social/Governance) itself in defining the sustainability of investments incorporates the five Ps of sustainable development: Planet, Partnership, Peace, People, Prosperity. However to correlate economic, social and environmental sustainability, we should start by reversing the scale, starting from the bottom, from the territorial districts, moving upward to the Region and finally reaching the national level. The job should start immediately as it can’t wait any longer: avant qu’il ne soit trop tard and effectively, the transition from theory to practice should begin by analyzing the specificities of the economic context (industry 4.0), social (migrants, aging population, urbanization), environmental (green economy). The following research (the result of a collaboration between the PDTA - Sapienza di Roma Department with a family business enterprise - AC Engineering SpA) combines social sustainability (eco-friendly building), environmental sustainability (LCA) and economic sustainability (a family business that is taking off towards construction 4.0). The proposed methodology ̶ and the applied criteria, replicable in other realities ̶ provided for the analysis of the context from a social, economic and environmental point of view; a survey on the tools, operators, rules available today; to then proceed with a technical proposal paying particular attention to the environmental aspects measured through a “gate to gate” LCA to quantify the impacts and propose solutions to: improve environmental performance, proceed towards the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) certification and, thus as required by the new Procurement Code, meet the Minimum Environmental Criteria (CAM). How to proceed: in a transition phase that is already looking beyond industry 4.0, companies are called to innovate operating models: shifting from product companies to “product as service” companies. For those of us who work in universities, we need to collaborate with Competence Centers, centers of technological excellence, coordinated by universities using the public-private partnership formula, facilitating companies in digital transformation, while respecting the environment, towards the fourth industrial revolution.