GEOSustainability · Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of Bio-Based and Conventional Ground Improvement Systems for Climate-Resilient Infrastructures

The present project (GEOSustainability) addresses the urgent challenge of reducing the environmental burden of soil stabilization, a process central to modern infrastructure but dominated by carbon-intensive cement. The project proposes a comparative, cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) framework specifically designed for soil stabilization systems, bridging the gap between geo-mechanical performance and environmental sustainability. GEOSustainability introduces alternative stabilizers, biopolymer-based pectin (a plant-derived polysaccharide), biomass-derived biochar (a carbon-rich product from pyrolyzed organic waste), and their hybrid composite, that are low-cost, abundant, and often sourced from agricultural and food industry residues. These materials hold the potential to transform ground improvement into a more circular and climate-aligned practice.The project pushes the state-of-the-art by i) designing soil–stabilizer mixtures tailored to material properties and testing their strength and durability across varied curing regimes, ii) integrating geotechnical performance data with life-cycle environmental metrics for a systems-level perspective, iii) developing a unified LCA methodology for soil stabilization applications, iv) benchmarking the life-cycle performance of bio-based stabilizers against cement across representative infrastructure scenarios, and v) identifying optimal material–soil–application combinations using multi-criteria decision analysis.The expected outcome is a scientific and methodological framework that enables robust decision-making for sustainable soil stabilization, directly supporting the EU’s climate neutrality goals, circular economy principles, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 9: Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure; SDG 11: Sustainable Cities & Communities; SDG 13: Climate Action).