When completed, the Electronic Life Cycle Assessment (eLCA) will be available to small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Europe, and will provide software and guidance to assist with eco-design and establishing environmental impacts of their products. Such measures are increasingly being required as suppliers move towards green procurement, says the Environment Agency, and will be required under European law, such as the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive, due to become law in 2004 (see related story).
Whilst life-cycle assessments are becoming popular among big business, they are often too expensive for SMEs to carry out, says the Agency. In an attempt to make up for this, a group of organisations, of which the Environment Agency is one, are developing eLCA, which will be a multi-lingual website intended to allow SMEs to use this technique.
Anyone interested in taking part should contact Suzanne Harrison via email to suzanne.harrison@environment-agency.gov.uk.