Life cycle assessment (LCA) has become an important tool to quantify the environmental impact of products and industrial processes. It provides a full picture of the impact, in order to find the best levers for improvement. This collaborative study analyses the environmental footprint from cradle to application to demonstrate the lower environmental impact of water-borne systems and identify the main levers for each technology. Sustainability has gained importance in past years and reducing volatile organic compounds (VOC) has been a strong driver to improve the environmental impact of wood coatings. This trend has been given extra momentum by ...