How does plastic pipe compare with its competitors, based on a lifecycle assessment? Pipelife has an app that considers a wide range of factors, showing plastic is more competitive than other materials.
The Life Cycle Analysis or LCA shows the environmental impacts of products over their entire lifecycle, including extraction of raw materials, production, construction, use and end-of-life treatment. The app covers PVC, PE and PP pipes.
One important selling point: the results can be entered into an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), an internationally standardised evaluation that lets the user compare the environmental impact.
“We wanted a simple & visual way to show our customers what an EPD is and what the results are,” says Zoran Davidovski, Vice President of Marketing and Innovation at Pipelife. “Our sales people can just take out a tablet, fire up the app, and show the result.”
Pipelife did this project as a member of TEPPFA (the European Plastic Pipes and Fittings Association), “to help raise awareness of how important our products are for a sustainable future,” says Davidovski.
The project was based on an independent study by the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) and validated by the Denkstatt sustainability consultancy in Austria.