Environmental Product Declaration of Nautical Ropes: A Multi-Impact Category Analysis Through Life Cycle Assessment

Sustainability and climate change represent increasingly critical challenges for contemporary society. This reality demands the development of low environmental impact products and production processes, with particular attention to reducing CO2 emissions. To achieve this goal, it is essential to gain an in-depth understanding of the environmental impact associated with each product and production process. In this regard, the calculation of the environmental impacts through LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) model applied to marine components has been performed, with a specific focus on two sailing ropes used in sailboats. LCA was conducted following the PCR (Product Category Rules) specific to the maritime sector with the aim of developing an EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) under the ISO 14025 standard. Three different lifecycle phases were analyzed, i.e., Upstream, Core, and Downstream, representing the main phases involved in products lifetime. Particular attention was paid to estimating the impact of transportations, both from the supplier to the manufacturer and from the manufacturer to the final customer. This study highlighted the added value provided by the evaluation of various environmental impact categories, including aquatic ecosystems, acidification, and water usage, in addition to the well-known Global Warming Potential (GWP). The results revealed that most of the impacts are generated during the Upstream processes, which include raw material extraction and associated transportation. In conclusion, this study emphasizes the importance of the LCA methodology, which provides a detailed assessment of environmental impacts across multiple indicators.