Engaging in D ocumenting S ust ainabilit y En vir onment al F ootprint Calculations Cir cular E c onom y is a c entral part of the C ommission s Gr een Deal E ur omines has work ed c onsistently sinc e 2011 to pr o vide an understanding of the disc o v ery and use of mineral r esour c es to en vir onmental policymak ers as a bet ter basis for sound r esour c e efficiency cir cular ec onom y and sustainable pr oduct policies In particular E ur omines has led a global industry effort to impr o v e the scientific ba sis for the EU s En vir onmental F ootprint EF methodology and is also an in vited c ontributor to the United Nations En vir onment Life C y cle Initiativ e a global focal point of life cy cle practitioners and stak eholders fostering the global use of cr edible life cy cle knowledge for mor e sustainable societies Howev er man y of the pr oposed indicators for Cir cular E c onom y and Sustainable C onsumption and Pr oduction ar e not suitable to inform about the sustainability of pr od ucts or sectors Particularly the practic e of Life C y cle As sessment has often r elied on an inc orr ect application of poorly understood c onc epts sometimes leading to sug gestions that politicians should artificially incr ease the c ost of metals and minerals in the EU mark et to r educ e their use ex clude metals and minerals fr om some pr od ucts or ev en to ex clude primary pr oduction of metals and minerals fr om the range of appr o v ed ec onomic activities in EU T o a c ertain extent this is still r eflected in the EU C om mission s 2020 Cir cular E c onom y Action Plan pr oposal announcing legislativ e initiativ es on sustainable financ e substantiating gr een claims sustainable pr oduct policy and a global agr eement on the management of natural r e sour c es In a nutshell E ur omines participation in the EU s en vir on mental footprint discussions has been to c orr ect the Mal thusian m yth that metal and mineral r esour c es c ould soon be entir ely depleted Significant pr ogr ess was made during 2019 with br oad industry support on two fr onts 1 The SUstainable management of PRIMary raw mate rials thr ough a better appr oach in Life C y cle Sustain ability Assessment SUPRIM Pr oject with funding fr om the E ur opean Institute of Inno vation T echnol ogy R aw Materials and 2 The post pilot phase of E ur opean Union Pr oduct En vir onment F ootprint method dev elopment includ ing a c ommitment to operationalise c onsideration of dissipation rather than extraction of valuable r esour c es Table of Contents page 20 of 35 S ustainabi li ty and Competi ti veness