This July marks the official launch of ECOPILOT and iLCA4SSbD, two collaborative projects funded by the Horizon Europe programme under the call HORIZON-CL4-INDUSTRY-2025-01-MATERIALS-52, which aims to accelerate the uptake of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodologies for the development of Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) chemicals, materials and products.

Both projects address one of the key challenges facing Europe’s green transition: improving the tools, methodologies and datasets needed to assess the environmental impacts of materials and products throughout their entire life cycle, from raw material extraction to end-of-life. They are fully aligned with the European Commission’s Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework and build on the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) methodology to support data-driven decision-making and compliance with upcoming European regulations.

ECOPILOT (A Conversational PEF Copilot for Safe-and-Sustainable Furniture & Mattresses – From Data Gaps to Design Decisions) aims to make advanced environmental assessment more accessible, particularly for SMEs.

The project will develop an AI-powered conversational PEF Copilot capable of guiding users through complex Life Cycle Assessment processes, overcoming major barriers such as data gaps, methodological complexity and limited digital accessibility. The platform will incorporate advanced capabilities including:

• AI-driven recommendations to fill data gaps.
• Predictive environmental footprint estimation.
• Dynamic inventory modelling and circularity assessment.
• Uncertainty analysis.
• Planetary Boundaries-based sustainability assessment.
• Compliance-ready outputs, including Digital Product Passports (DPPs).

Within ECOPILOT, Avanzare will lead the development and provision of datasets on alternative flame-retardant systems, supporting the assessment of non-halogenated flame retardants for upholstered furniture and mattresses. The pilot will assess non-halogenated flame retardant alternatives for upholstered furniture and mattresses, ensuring equivalent fire safety performance while evaluating indoor emissions, recyclability, environmental performance, and compliance with REACH and the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR).

Avanzare will also contribute data generated through pilot-scale production trials, helping to create robust LCA datasets that demonstrate the environmental and safety benefits of sustainable flame-retardant solutions for the furniture and bedding sectors.

The second project, iLCA4SSbD (Integration of Life Cycle Assessment methodologies for Safe and Sustainable by Design), aims to accelerate the industrial adoption of LCA by developing a user-friendly digital platform integrating state-of-the-art environmental, social and economic assessment methodologies.

The project will establish a three-tier Integrated Life Cycle Assessment (iLCA) approach, tailored to different stages of innovation and the needs of industry, policymakers, consultants, researchers and other stakeholders.

Key features include environmental Life Cycle Assessment, Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA), Life Cycle Costing (LCC), cost-benefit analysis, circularity assessment, absolute environmental sustainability assessment based on planetary boundaries and artificial intelligence tools to fill data gaps and reduce uncertainty.

The resulting datasets will be published in an Open & FAIR database and uploaded to the European Platform on LCA (EPLCA) in Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) format, providing valuable scientific evidence to support future European policies and regulations.

In iLCA4SSbD, Avanzare leads one of the project’s five case studies, focusing on the development of graphene- and MXene-based inks and masterbatches for electrodes and flexible electronics in smart textiles.

This case study provides an ideal testbed for AI-assisted Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), as it involves highly variable formulations, limited supplier transparency, a low Technology Readiness Level (TRL 3), and evolving performance requirements, conditions under which conventional LCA approaches often struggle.

By leveraging Artificial Intelligence, the project will enable LCA systems to identify patterns across novel material combinations, predict their environmental and safety profiles, and prioritise formulations with the greatest potential to meet the principles of Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD).

Avanzare’s participation in both ECOPILOT and iLCA4SSbD reinforces the company’s commitment to responsible innovation and the development of advanced materials aligned with the objectives of the European Green Deal and the transition towards a circular economy.

Together, these projects will improve the availability and quality of sustainability data for industry, facilitate evidence-based decision-making, and support compliance with key European regulations, including ESPR, REACH, the Digital Product Passport, and the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework.

Through its involvement in these two Horizon Europe initiatives, Avanzare continues to strengthen its position as a leading technology partner in advanced materials, delivering innovative solutions that combine high performance, safety and sustainability while contributing to a more competitive and environmentally responsible European industry.