On 25 June 2025, the RELiEF project participated in the final event of the Horizon Europe TranSensus LCA Coordination and Support Action, held in Brussels, Belgium. The event brought together more than 60 stakeholders for a joint workshop exploring the needs and opportunities surrounding Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and its essential role in enabling a circular economy within Europe’s transition toward zero‑emission transport.
TranSensus LCA aims to develop a harmonised, Europe‑wide LCA framework for zero‑emission road transport, supporting the ambitions of the European Green Deal and contributing to the digital, climate‑neutral, and sustainable transformation of the mobility sector.
Representing RELiEF, partners TechConcepts, INEGI, and Avesta took an active role in the workshop. The RELiEF contributions were delivered in a two‑part presentation by Anish Patil (TechConcepts) and Joana Gouveia (INEGI), showcasing both the exploitation strategies and sustainability insights developed within the project.
TechConcepts Highlights Exploitation Strategies and Regulatory Insights
In Part I: Exploitation, TechConcepts introduced the RELiEF project’s overarching approach to lithium recovery and battery materials sustainability, emphasising the importance of the RELiEF Cluster Hub as a platform for stakeholder dialogue on regulatory opportunities and challenges.
During the session, TechConcepts shared key findings from stakeholder consultations and highlighted insights from a recent journal paper summarising the coherence—and inconsistencies—across major EU industrial and sustainability legislations, such as the Green Deal Industrial Plan, Net Zero Industrial Act, Critical Raw Materials Act, and the European Battery Regulation (2023). These overlapping frameworks were shown to create barriers to investment and innovation, stressing the need for clearer and more harmonised policy alignment.
INEGI Presents LCA for Ecodesign and Lithium Recovery Sustainability
In Part II: LCA for Technology Ecodesign, INEGI presented RELiEF’s sustainability assessment work, discussing approaches to secondary lithium recovery and the broader context of global lithium market dynamics. They introduced the RELiEF Life Cycle Approach, demonstrating how LCA informs process design, supports ecodesign improvements, and contributes to the development of more environmentally responsible technologies. The integration of LCA results into business model development was also highlighted as a critical step toward real-world impact.
Panel Discussion: Data Quality and Harmonisation Needs
Following the presentations, Joana Gouveia joined a panel discussion on the need for harmonised LCA principles across Europe. She emphasised the vital role of high‑quality, consistent data in ensuring robust environmental assessments and enabling better‑informed decisions in research, innovation, and circularity strategies. The SUNDIAL platform, developed by INEGI and expanded in RELiEF, was showcased as a practical example of digital tools facilitating structured and harmonised LCA data collection.
Advancing Future Collaboration
The event also facilitated discussion among multiple Horizon Europe projects on how collaborative efforts can continue beyond TranSensus LCA. For RELiEF, the case study of secondary critical raw materials offers a unique perspective on the environmental performance of zero‑emission vehicle technologies and underscores the need for data‑driven sustainability frameworks across mobility value chains.