The footprint of ceramics, measured in real time.
LIFE FORTURE built a dynamic model to monitor the environmental, economic and social impact of ceramic tile manufacturing — turning continuous production data into live sustainability indicators.
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TIMELINE
2017–2021
TOTAL BUDGET
€4,295,169
EU CONTRIBUTION
€2,577,101
PARTNERS
3 · IT & ES
— THE CHALLENGE
— THE CHALLENGE
Industry that builds the world —
and weighs on it.
Construction and its material supply chains, ceramics included, sit among the largest sources of resource use and emissions in Europe. Cutting that impact is no longer optional — it is the licence to operate.
30%
of EU industrial employment is generated by the construction sector.
10%
of the EU's gross domestic product comes from construction.
40%
of the EU's total energy consumption is linked to the sector.
36%
of the EU's greenhouse-gas emissions are attributable to it.
— THE IDEA
— THE IDEA
From a static snapshot to a living signal.
Technological progress has steadily reduced the ceramic sector's footprint — yet the environmental variable is still not fully embedded in day-to-day production decisions.
Conventional life-cycle tools (LCA, LCC, S-LCA) are used "ex post": built on historical time series, they assess impact only after it has already occurred, and collecting their data is slow for processes as complex as ceramics.
LIFE FORTURE turns that around. It builds an eco-design model able to predict sustainability indices across alternative design scenarios, and — on the production side — to monitor performance moment by moment and prescribe corrective actions whenever output drifts from its sustainability targets.
— THE APPROACH
— THE APPROACH
Beyond LCA — measuring all three dimensions of sustainability.
FORTURE overcomes the limits of conventional Life Cycle Assessment by adopting Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA): one framework that unites the environmental, economic and social performance of a product and process.
01
ENVIRONMENTAL
ENVIRONMENTAL
LCA
Life Cycle Assessment — quantifies resource use, emissions and environmental impacts across the product's life cycle.02
ECONOMIC
ECONOMIC
LCC
Life Cycle Costing — captures the costs and value generated along the same system boundaries.03
SOCIAL
SOCIAL
S-LCA
Social Life Cycle Assessment — evaluates effects on workers, the local community and society.LCA + LCC + S-LCA = LCSA Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment
CONVENTIONAL
Static Assessment
Periodic studies based on past time series — a rear-view mirror that arrives too late to steer products and processes.→
FORTURE
Dynamic monitoring
Continuous data collection and elaboration feeding live indicators — so sustainability informs decisions while they are still being made.— SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
— SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
Five objectives that move sustainability upstream.
FORTURE's goal is to remove the static nature of impact assessment and make sustainability a real-time input to design and production.
01
Integrate all three pillars of sustainability into the company's business model
Environment, economy and society — assessed together, inside the way the company actually runs, not as a separate report.02
From looking back to looking forward
Transform impact assessment from a static action on final results, based on time series, into a dynamic analysis carried out moment by moment on current data.03
Sustainability inside the quality system
Add sustainability parameters to the company quality system, so products are created with a lower environmental, social and economic impact by design.04
Validate with a real product
Prove the model by designing and producing a new collection of ceramic tiles with a high level of sustainability.05
Transfer to the wider sector
Share the technological innovation with the European ceramic industry and, more broadly, the building sector.— THE WORK PLAN
— THE WORK PLAN
Ten actions, one integrated programme.
FORTURE delivered its objectives by combining ten technical and support actions, developed over time according to the project's Gantt chart and grouped into five workstreams.
Core implementation
Building the dynamic LCSA model on a real production line.
The heart of the project: developing, deploying and validating the model inside Gresmalt's industrial environment, where it turns live production data into sustainability indicators.Workstream B · ImplementationA
Preparatory actions
Mapping the production system, data sources and the indicators that define environmental, economic and social performance.Baseline & designC
Monitoring of impact
Measuring sustainability performance — and the project's own environmental and socio-economic impact — throughout its life.Indicators & KPIsD
Communication & dissemination
Sharing methods and results with the ceramic district, the scientific community and policymakers across Europe.Outreach & networkingE
Project management
Coordination, reporting and quality assurance across three partners working in Italy and Spain.Governance— TARGETS & EXPECTED IMPACT
— TARGETS & EXPECTED IMPACT
The environmental gains FORTURE set out to deliver.
Validated on a real production line, the model was built to drive measurable reductions across the ceramic manufacturing process.
10%
↓ lower atmospheric emissions
15%
↓ fewer transport-related pollutants
20%
↓ less ceramic waste & related costs
15%
↓ reduced energy consumption
15%
↓ less environmental damage
01
A validated dynamic model
A working LCSA model that converts continuous production data into live environmental, economic and social indicators.02
A new sustainable tile collection
The model proven in practice through the design and production of a new ceramic tile collection with a high level of sustainability.03
Replicable & transferable
An approach designed to scale across the Sassuolo district and reach the Italian and Spanish ceramic industries and the brick sector.04
A contribution to the circular economy
Evidence and tools that support EU goals on resource efficiency, cleaner production and climate action.— THE CONSORTIUM
— THE CONSORTIUM
Industry and academia, two countries, one model.
A ceramic manufacturer provides the real production environment; two universities bring complementary engineering and management science to build and validate the assessment.
COORDINATIONG BENEFICIARY
Gruppo Ceramiche Gresmalt S.p.A.
Casalgrande (RE) · ItalyLeads the project and provides the live industrial environment where the model is built, tested and validated.
ASSOCIATED BENEFICIARY
University of Modena & Reggio Emilia
Modena · ItalyBrings life-cycle and process expertise to model the environmental performance of ceramic manufacturing.
ASSOCIATED BENEFICIARY
Rey Juan Carlos University
Madrid · SpainDevelops the economic and social assessment and the LCSA methodology uniting the three dimensions.— PROJECT VIDEO
— PROJECT VIDEO
From research to real-world impact.
Discover how LIFE FORTURE turned sustainability assessment into a dynamic tool for ceramic manufacturing. The video presents the project’s main outputs: DYCTA, the digital system designed to monitor environmental, economic and social performance in real time, and G3NIUS, the ceramic product concept developed to translate sustainability into an accessible industrial solution.
— POLICY ALIGNMENT
— POLICY ALIGNMENT
Working toward Europe's environmental agenda.
— GET IN TOUCH
— GET IN TOUCH
Let's talk about sustainable manufacturing.
For information on the project, its methods or its results, contact the coordinating beneficiary.
COORDINATING BENEFICIARY
Gruppo Ceramiche Gresmalt S.p.A.
ADDRESSVia Statale 467, n. 45
42013 Casalgrande (RE) · Italy
LIFE16 ENV/IT/000307
LIFE PUBLIC DATABASEPage updated
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