CHAINET: European network on chain analysis for environmental decision support. specified for the domains of design & manufacturing, waste management & recycling and transport

• Research unit: EU RFP
• Project number: 99.0003

Key words (English)

Life cycle thinking; environmental assessment tools; domestic clothe washing; automobile industry; electronic consumer goods

Alternative project number (English)

EU project number: ENV4-CT97-0477

Research programs (English)

EU-programme: 4. Frame Research Programme - 3.1 Environment

Short description (English)

See abstract

Partners and International Organizations (English)

CML Leiden (NL); University of Surrey, Guildford (UK); Wuppertal Institut, Wuppertal (D); Keele University, Staffordshire (UK); Technische Universität Dresden (D); Institute for Product Development, Lyngby (DK);Centre for Environmental Science, Leiden (NL)

Abstract (English)

CHAINET was a concerted action subsidised by the DGXII's Environment and Climate programme. CHAINET (ENV4-CT97-0477) was a European Network on Chain Analysis for Environmental Decision Support. CHAINET started in December 1997 and lasted for nearly 3 years. The tasks of this Concerted Action were to set up a network linking environmental stakeholders in three fields of human activity (referred to as 'cases') with experts on different environmental analytical tools, and to interactively write a guidebook on the use of these different tools. The guidebook provides a toolbox for chain analysis, linking demand for environmental information with supply of relevant information. In addition it gives information on the application of the toolbox in three different cases, indicating specific directions for design and development. These tasks were achieved through the organisation of meetings (network meetings, preparatory meetings and workshops), the establishment of a homepage on the internet and the production of reports in collaboration with CHAINET members.
CHAINET had three general goals:
1. To link the different scientific tool communities and stakeholders.
2. To link demand for environmental information with supply of relevant information.
3. To investigate how tools can be applied in three different cases - the supply, use and waste management chain for automobiles, for consumer electronic goods and for domestic clothes washing - indicating specific directions for design and development.
The published guidebook is concerned with assessment tools as an aid to environmental management and decision-making. It focuses on the environmental dimension of sustainable development, but puts this explicitly in the context of the social and economic aspects of decision-making. Current EU policy includes a continuing movement away from an 'end-of-pipe' philosophy of environmental protection, towards a more integrated approach in which environmental considerations encompass the whole material and energy supply chain and are viewed in relation to the full economic and social structure. This book aims to support this change in perspective. It focuses on the production of goods and services, and the tools which can be used for analysing the impact and the reduction of the environmental burden of these goods and services. Goods and services are first of all the decision domain of industry, and the considered tools are therefore of primarily interest to industry and consultancy. However, given the role of government in environmental policy regarding business, the guidebook is relevant for users in governmental agencies.

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 99.0003