Environmental friendly transition of SMEs to Industry 4.0 through LCA. A case study of reinforced expanded polystyrene panels.

The actual context of the environmental concern is very important in the construction sector, which is called to make the transition to the Industry 4.0, trying to reduce the environmental impacts derived from its activities. To achieve this goal, the role of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which produce construction materials is very important. This study – a research between the PDTA Department of the Sapienza of Rome and a family business type enterprise – analyzes a technical and innovative solution for the production of reinforced panels of expandable polystyrene (EPS), through life cycle assessment to determine its environmental profile considering a cradle-to-gate approach. The analysis demonstrated that most of the impacts could be attributed to the raw material production stage rather than to the manufacturing stage. For example, in the case of global warming potential, 90% of the emissions of CO2 eq is attributed to the raw material production, and 10% represented the manufacturing stage. These results show the importance of empower the whole production chain with an environmental conscience and a responsibility to communicate their environmental data in an effective way to induce in the consumer environmental friendly actions in their daily decisions.