At Saint-Gobain Refractory Zirconia, we are committed to improving our environmental impact and advancing sustainability across our operations. Like the broader Saint-Gobain group, we strive for transparency, scientific rigor, and continuous improvement in how we assess and reduce our footprint.
To deliver on this commitment, we apply Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodologies to understand the environmental impact of our zirconia products and identify opportunities for eco-innovation.
A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a standardized, multi-impact assessment for evaluating the environmental impacts associated with a product throughout its life cycle.
Life cycle assessments offer a wholistic view of the environmental impact of a product, spanning multiple life cycle stages and impact categories. At Saint-Gobain, we perform cradle-to-gate assessments, covering the process from raw material extraction to the point our zirconia powders leave the factory.
By adopting this life cycle thinking approach, we ensure that our sustainability actions avoid impact shifting to different impact categories or life cycle stages.
Life cycle assessments are a multi-criteria assessment, allowing us to evaluate the impact of a product beyond its carbon footprint. At Saint-Gobain, we follow the EN 15804 standards based on EF 3.1 methodology, assessing the impact on various environmental impacts, resource uses, and output flows.
These indicators help us understand not only where we can reduce carbon emissions but also how we can preserve resources and protect ecosystems. Assessing our core impacts to these indicators can help identify levers to achieve our broader sustainability goals of Scope 1, 2, and 3 reduction, water use reduction, and waste reduction.
A Robust and Factual Assessment, Standardized and Recognized Internationally
Our LCAs follow the internationally recognized standards ISO 14040:2006 and ISO 14044:2006, ensuring that our results are rigorous, credible, and comparable across industries.
Transparency is a cornerstone of our sustainability strategy. Whenever possible, we seek third-party verification of our LCA data and results, reinforcing our commitment to openness and accountability.
Identifying Key Drivers of Environmental Impact
LCA enables us to pinpoint the stages or processes that contribute most significantly to our environmental footprint — whether it’s energy consumption in zirconia fusion, raw material extraction, or packaging and transport.
By understanding these drivers, we can focus our efforts where they matter most, implementing improvements that make a measurable difference.
Moreover, LCAs help prevent impact shifting: where reducing impact in one stage unintentionally increases it in another. This comprehensive view supports eco-design, helping us develop materials with optimized performance and reduced overall impact.
Through Life Cycle Assessment, we:
Our ultimate goal is to continually improve the sustainability profile of our materials while maintaining the exceptional performance our customers expect.
Driving Continuous Improvement
Life Cycle Assessment is more than a reporting tool. By combining the insights gained from LCAs with our advanced materials expertise, we are building a roadmap for reducing environmental impact across our value chain.
At Saint-Gobain Refractory Zirconia, LCA is helping us continue to deliver high-performance solutions that enable our customers’ success while contributing to a more sustainable industrial future.
