Environmental Management

Protecting the environment and the sustainability of resources are increasingly important issues and Eurobitume endeavours to ensure that the bitumen industry responds to society’s environmental expectations.

The heightened awareness of the importance of environmental protection, and the possible impacts associated with products manufactured and consumed, has increased the interest in the development of methods to better comprehend and reduce these impacts.

Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) are techniques which have been developed for assessing the environmental aspects and potential impacts throughout a product’s life from raw material acquisition through production, use and disposal.

ISO standards for these studies exist and in accordance with these standards Eurobitume has developed a LCI (eco-profile) for paving grade bitumen.

Eurobitume seeks to provide adequate information to enable, or encourage, customers to carry out Life Cycle Inventories or Life Cycle Assessments of functions which use bituminous products.

In cooperation with Eurobitume, the European Asphalt Pavement Association (EAPA) has developed a LCI for asphalt pavement based on the LCI for bitumen. The Eurobitume LCI for paving grade bitumen may be also used by other organisations or customers developing environmental impact studies on bituminous products or applications.