Goal

The new environmental challenges require that companies should have a dual competence: to know how, and make it know.

Now, it turns out that the scientific field responding to these issues: the environmental quantification (including LCA and all complementary approaches to studies of local environmental and sanitary impacts) is, compared to academic disciplines, still a young and relatively unstructured field. Thus, companies have a lack of support and local relays.

Large French companies have thus decided to join together to create a cooperative research structure about LCA and environmental quantification: SCORELCA. Three convictions are driving this project:

• the companies should be active partners in research: their questions or interrogations shall contribute to an orientation of the research, and the corresponding work (which is in particular done by research organisations) shall respond to the issues of our economy,
• research actions outside of the competition field (development of methodology, overview of situation, international monitoring etc.) deserve to be mutualised, as well at the quality and financial levels,
• commitment of companies in the environmental field has to be recognised and valued, as well at the French as the international level.

EDF, GDF SUEZ, RENAULT, TOTAL, VEOLIA supported by ADEME and RECORD association, wished therefore to support the creation of a cooperative research structure, dedicated to the work on LCA and environmental quantification, which is governed by industrial companies with support of the Scientific Board.

SCORELCA association is thus aiming to promote and organise cooperation between industrial, institutional and scientific actors, to promote a positive, shared and recognised evolution at the European and international level of life cycle assessment (LCA), and putting it into practice.