Development of an LCA-based framework for environmental performance interpretation in energy-intensive industries

This paper presents the IMPRINT framework, a structured method to enhance the interpretation of EF 3.1 midpoint indicators in energy-intensive industries. By clustering the 25 indicators into five domains - climate and energy, human health, aquatic quality, air emissions, and resource depletion - the framework improves the readability of LCA results, highlights environmental hotspots and trade-offs, and supports more informed decision-making in industrial technology evaluation and sustainability planning.