Life cycle indicators for resources: Resources, resource-efficiency, decoupling

Sustainable development is an underlying objective of the European Union treaties. An important part of sustainable development is its environmental aspect, as reflected in the Europe 2020 strategy and its Resource-efficient Europe flagship initiative. For quantifying and monitoring our progress towards sustainability in terms of the environmental performance, indicators are needed. These indicators should provide an integrated view on the links between consumption, production, resource depletion, resource use, resource recycling, environmental impacts and waste generation. One of the approaches that facilitate such integrated view is life cycle thinking. This integrative approach underlies the development of life cycle indicators for quantifying and monitoring progress towards the sustainable development of the European Union. This report outlines the development of the resource life cycle indicators. These indicators are intended to be used to assess the environmental impact of European resource consumption, efficiency of the use of natural resources, and decoupling of environmental impacts from economic growth.JRC.H.8-Sustainability Assessmen