Call for short presentations for DF 68 – DF 70:
You work on a topic relevant to one of the Discussion Fora in 2018 and wish to present your findings?
"Open floor" sessions for short presentations will be available in each forum. Please contact the LCA Discussion Forum secretariat – the sooner the better.
For more information and to receive news on the LCA Discussion Forum, please contact: lcaforum (at) ethz.ch
DF 69 — Regionalization in LCA: is it ready for mainstreaming?
Thursday, 13 September 2018, ETH Zürich, Alumni Pavillon
(The official language of this event is English.)
Regionalization in LCA has been a research topic over the last decade, but implementation in practice has still been limited. Since the last DF on regionalization in 2009, recent developments at all ends (underlying data availability, inventory, LCIA methods, software implementation) have made lots of progress.
The topic has gained special importance due to the fact that UNEP-SETAC recommends regionalised LCIA methods for water use and land use; moreover, the LC-IMPACT and IMPACT World+ methodologies provide regional characterization factors CFs (LC-IMPACT CFs are fully available, while IMPACT WORLD+ is still in beta mode). Furthermore, the vast amount of regionalized LCI data provided by science has been made available in products such as the World Food Life cycle inventory Database (WFLDB) and ecoinvent is constantly enhancing regional detail.
While regionalized assessment is an additional effort, it can be the low hanging fruit for improving LCA studies with limited efforts. This DF will include presentations on availability of regionalized LCI data, LCIA, software implementation and case studies show-casing application of regionalized LCA in practice. The forum allocates ample time for discussing different approaches and identifying the most important needs to bridge scientific advances and practical implementation. The attendees are invited to sketch possible ways forward with regard to regionalized LCA.
DF 70 — Social LCA – Challenges and solutions in application and implementation.
Thursday, 22 November 2018, ETH Zürich, Alumni Pavillon
(The official language of this event is English.)
Compared to environmental LCA, social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) is a young area with high potential for research and development. Besides new scientific findings and advances, e.g. regarding social life cycle inventories, impact assessment methods, assessment of positive impacts, databases etc., S-LCA has found its way into policy, industry and trade/ business.
The call for more socially acceptable products with reliable information on their social impacts is getting louder and cannot be ignored by governments and industry much longer. Especially in developing countries, the method is of high political interest. It is considered as a possibility to combat social inequality, unfair working conditions etc., and to promote more sustainable patterns of production and consumption. In developed countries, the claim for sustainable production, e.g. in the food sector, requires the consideration of social impacts in addition to the traditional environmental based LCA. Pioneer companies and organisations have already implemented specific approaches for the social LCA of their products.
The forum will cover both theoretical and practical approaches, presenting methodological progress and disseminating S-LCA applications. To begin with, the state-of-the-art of S-LCA and current research foci and progress will be outlined. The application of the method will be showcased by practical case studies for different economic sectors. Another block will expose concrete, individualized examples of the interpretation and implementation of S-LCA in businesses and policy. In this context, the challenges and obstacles actors along the value chains are facing are of special interest. The forum will offer ample time for fruitful discussions about the outlined and future steps.