Discover the 2025 interview with Solenn MADEC, SOCOMORE Group’s Director of Sustainability, on the rollout of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate and reduce the environmental impact of SOCOMORE’s products. Learn about our methodology and our eco-design goals.
What is SOCOMORE’s overall vision and commitment to sustainability?
SOCOMORE has always been committed to reducing its impact. We have developed products with a lower impact throughout their life at SOCOMORE. We introduced cleaning wipes with solvents, which help reduce impact because we use less solvent. We have developed hexavalent chromium (chrome VI) replacement solutions, as well as NOP-free strippers. This is part of SOCOMORE’s history. We wanted to go further because today we face increasingly strict regulations, something we already factor in. We’re also receiving more and more customer requests related to sustainability. We operate in the context of climate change, which requires us to commit even more to reducing our impact.
Today, SOCOMORE is primarily committed to two impact-reduction pillars:
- First axis: reducing our carbon impact.
We launched a decarbonization approach. We first measured our carbon footprint, then rolled out a climate plan—mainly for SOCOMORE and SOCOMORE Ireland.
We are currently deploying both the measurement and a decarbonization plan across the group’s other entities. This first major pillar is integral to our strategy, since by 2030 we have a target to cut scopes 1 and 2 by 50%.
But we must not stop at carbon, because carbon is only part of the problem. We sell chemical solutions, and these solutions have impacts on health and on the environmen, so we have to look beyond carbon.
That is why we began deploying Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) at SOCOMORE: with LCA, we capture the total impact of our products.
This covers 16 environmental impact categories overall. For each product, we measure its impact, from the extraction of the raw material(s) that compose it through to the product’s end-of-life after use. This analysis gives us global impact metrics and enables ecodesign choices, for example, ensuring that if we decide to reduce carbon, it won’t negatively affect another indicator.
- Second axis: LCA-driven product stewardship.
This second key pillar is reflected in our strategy through a commitment to have LCA measurements covering 80% of our sales by 2030, as well as reducing CMR substances (carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic). The goal is to have over 90% of our products be CMR-free and to develop low-impact solutions. For us, “low impact” means solutions without hazard labeling or with a high level of biodegradability.
Can you give an example of low-impact products?
In this category, we have the entire Salveco range today, which is over 90% biodegradable overall. These products carry little to no hazard labeling, and they are more than 90% biodegradable. They are, for example, low-impact products. We also have items in Babbco’s NDT range that are over 80% biodegradable, which represents strong performance for these non-destructive testing products.
Is there a methodology for the processes SOCOMORE has put in place to collect data and ensure reliability?
We are in the process of rolling out Life Cycle Assessment. In 2024, we carried out an ecodesign diagnosis supported by BPI and ADEM. This assessment was launched on three of our flagship products:
- DIESTONE DLS, SOCOMORE’s historic flagship product,
- DIESTONE DLV, its alternative, which reduces VOCs by 30%,
- and a SOCOLEANER AIRCRAFT CLEANER developed by Salveco for aircraft cleaning.
The goal was to handle the concepts of life cycle assessment: how to measure them and identify the main impacts at SOCOMORE. We wanted to find out whether, as with the carbon footprint, the biggest driver would be scope 3—i.e. raw material or rather customer use, or transport. We realized it’s the same finding as for the carbon footprint. Today, the general or dominant impact comes from the raw materials that make up our product formulas. That’s where we’ll have to focus our efforts. But for now, we are only at the measurement stage.
In other words, this assessment helped us identify the main contributing materials and, more broadly, which life-cycle stage is most impactful. We found that, just like the carbon footprint, raw materials dominate. The idea is to measure first. We’re deploying measurement, and once we have fully mastered these concepts and how to use the tool, we’ll be able to pinpoint where the greatest impacts lie within the formulas and make better raw-material choices, or work on the customer-use phase, to reduce impact. That will come in a second phase: ecodesign. Today we’re in the first phase, measurement, because you can only reduce your impact once you know it.
Do you use any specific software or tools?
When we carried out the ecodesign assessment, the idea was also to learn how to measure and what to measure. We quickly realized, given the breadth of our range and the number of products we have, that we needed something other than an Excel file.
We benchmarked existing solutions on the market. We spoke with partners and academics who conduct life cycle assessments to determine what would be most suitable.
We moved forward testing two main tools:
- A simplified analysis tool, used for comparative assessments,
- And another widely recognized market tool, SimaPro.
The goal was to see whether a simplified tool and a more complex tool would yield comparable results, allowing us to favor simplified LCA.
Now that project is nearly finished. We’ve chosen a simplified life cycle analysis tool because with both tools we obtained almost the same results. And today, our focus is to carry out a large number of measurements and compare one product with another within the same range.
As you mentioned, has this led some products to have alternatives? For example, with the classic DIESTONE, did the life cycle analysis lead to its alternative, DIESTONE DLV?
That was earlier, based on a specific criterion: the customer wanted a product that emits fewer volatile organic compounds (VOCs), because there are regulatory requirements on VOC emissions at factories, emissions into the air.
It was a customer need, and the product was developed accordingly. Today, when we perform the life cycle analysis, we see that it is better than DIESTONE DLS, which is good news. However, it wasn’t eco-designed from the outset the way we’ll be able to do with this tool. It was created to meet a single specific criterion.
What we’re aiming for with life cycle analysis is the full picture. Some things seem intuitive, but in the end LCA shows they aren’t necessarily true.
For example, recycled cardboard fares worse in life cycle analysis than virgin cardboard, because recycling uses a lot of water and involves chemical treatments. It’s crucial not to develop a solution without considering all the elements; otherwise you end up with what’s called "impact shifting" reducing one impact while increasing another. That’s why it’s so important to develop these methods.
Could you provide an example of SOCOMORE products for which, for instance, the conclusions of the life cycle analysis lead to a change in the formulation or at least influence it?
At this stage, we’re not there yet. We’ve carried out the ecodesign assessment. About ten of us trained because we want to involve Purchasing—since they interact with suppliers, they’ll also seek out information and encourage suppliers to reduce the impact of their raw materials. We also involved the Product Managers, because they own the range deployment strategy, and R&D, which is at the heart of ecodesign. We brought them in from the very beginning. Today, it’s with them that we tested the tool and are measuring product impacts. Once we finalize this project, it will be rolled out to the teams.
It will become another tool to measure the impact of their products, and they will use it to determine, between one material or another, or one use case or another, what best reduces impact. That’s coming, and some products in the range will be revisited based on needs to improve our impact. But that’s the next step.
For now, we’re finalizing the tool selection; then we’ll start measuring and improving our measurement quality, since we begin with assumptions. We need to ensure the assumptions are consistent and don’t introduce bias; there’s still a consolidation phase before we can use it as an ecodesign tool.
Do you plan to share the conclusions of these studies,the life cycle analysis, with your clients?
Yes, it will serve as a communication tool, similar to labeling on a product, and we will share elements with them. It won’t necessarily be made public, since it’s a comparative analysis, but absolutely, we will communicate with clients. And to measure our impact accurately, we need to be close to our clients to understand how they use our products. Communication on this topic will be key.
Will this information be easily accessible, and will you share important levels of detail?
This will be communication with the client, but it will not be made public. For now, this is simplified life cycle analysis, it’s comparative. It isn’t raw data. We can’t communicate based on a single result; we need to state the context and the assumptions used, since uncertainty levels can still be quite high. We’ll share the information with clients upon request or when we’re co-developing a project. This data won’t be available right away as if it were a standard technical datasheet.
It will be a collaboration with the client. We’ll make progress, we’re at the beginning of the project. Perhaps in five years we’ll switch to a more advanced tool; that’s likely. But today we first need to get hands-on with the tool, identify the most significant impacts, and in the next step go further in our product knowledge and be more precise.
For life cycle analysis, what are the challenges and opportunities when implementing it for chemical solutions compared with other industries?
I think LCA applies across all industries, and the biggest challenge is data collection. Today, primary data, i.e. data directly from suppliers, is hard to obtain. Few suppliers provide full impact data. We’re seeing progress on carbon, but for the 16 life cycle impact categories we have almost no data. So we have to rely on databases, ADEM, Echo Event, or others, which are not exhaustive. That forces us to generate data ourselves.
There’s a real challenge in being able to share this data among industrial players, using the same data so everyone works from the same reference when performing LCAs, and also generating more data together to achieve the finest possible measurement. That’s the biggest challenge. Other sectors may be further along because environmental profiles are sometimes mandatory (for example, in construction). There is likely more data in those sectors, but in chemicals this is the key hurdle.
Are you also seeing growing demand from companies for this type of data?
It depends on the client. Since companies began doing their own carbon footprints, we’re now seeing requests for product carbon footprints, i.e., the product’s carbon impact. That’s one of the LCA data points. There are 16 environmental impact categories, including climate change and a product’s impact. Clients are asking us for these elements. It depends on each client’s maturity and where they are on their decarbonization and sustainability journey. It isn’t necessarily the decisive factor in choosing a product, but it’s one of the elements that helps the client decide between products.
Does SOCOMORE collaborate with other aerospace manufacturers and stakeholders?
SOCOMORE is part of IAEG, the International Aerospace Environmental Group, a group working on environmental topics for aerospace. It brings together OEMs, MROs, partners, competitors, we work and collaborate on environmental issues. There is a group focused on life cycle analysis, the “Working Group 12 LCIA”, in which SOCOMORE participates and exchanges. The goal is to help advance the methodology’s rollout, as they are drafting a guide and methodology for LCA in the aerospace sector. They’ve made solid progress, and we participate as a solutions provider for aircraft applications. We share best practices and work together to move the sector forward.
What are SOCOMORE’s ambitions and priorities for the role of LCA in its sustainability commitment?
Today our objective is about means and capability. The goal is to measure the bulk of our products, i.e. to have Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) measurements covering 80% of our revenue by 2030. Achieving this means gathering the data we need to perform those measurements. Then, our objective is to develop low-impact solutions, for both health and the environment. We have a target of €30 million in revenue from low-impact solutions by 2030. LCA will help us reach that target. The same goes for CMR substances, this is where our concrete commitment lies. As for the ecodesign side (how many products will be eco-designed), we don’t have a numerical target today; we’ll use the tool to drive progress, but we haven’t set an LCA “results” goal yet.
Our objectives are to:
- Perform the measurements,
- Deepen our product knowledge to develop better afterward.
We already have topics identified with Product Managers to develop low-impact products, and LCA will help. We do not have a specific results target tied to LCA itself.
What message would you like to address to these industries about the importance of integrating LCA into sustainability efforts?
I believe aerospace is already doing this. They have integrated LCA, and they’re also building a shared methodology around it so the profession can align. The train (or rather, the plane!) has left the station for them. The one message that applies to both aerospace and chemicals is that we will only move forward if we collaborate. Collaboration is what will allow all of us to reduce our impacts—by working as an ecosystem, sharing data, and ensuring environmental data is not treated as a competitive advantage, but as a lever to collectively reach impact-reduction goals.
