Learn from the best - "Best Practice in Applied LCA and Carbon Footprinting" Symposium 2009

Summary Messages

by Michael Betz, Claudia Meder, Daniel Maier, PE INTERNATIONAL & Jim Fava, Five Winds International

What a day was had on 28 October 2009 in Stuttgart, Germany. Over 200 professionals from throughout Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and Latin America participated in what was one of the best interactions to learn on applying life cycle assessment and carbon foot printing.

Twenty years of LCA and GaBi Software

Twenty years ago, Dr.  Peter Eyerer, then director of the LBP – University of Stuttgart – initiated a program entitled life cycle engineering, which lead to the creation of one of the best, if not the leading LCA software GaBi, its extensive global life cycle inventory data base, and the generation of hundreds of life cycle professionals entering the workforce.

LCA - to understand the impact of products

During a similar timeframe, the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) was embarking on their efforts to establish the technical framework for life cycle assessment, which laid the foundation for the ISO LCA standards and ultimately the partnership between UNEP and SETAC with the life cycle initiative to advance the practical life cycle approaches globally. The junior author was instrumental in moving this latter expansion of the development and application of LCA over this period. Collectedly these efforts have shaped the future of life cycle assessment moving towards a practical tool to understand the impacts of product systems over their entire life cycle.

sustainable buildings, greener products, carbon footprints..

Until recently the focus on environmental issues was often on the manufacturing facilities; now with the globally accepted importance of understanding the full life cycle impacts of products linked to more sustainable buildings, greener products by retailers and consumers, and critical need to reduce our carbon releases, tools like life cycle assessment are in demand.

Key learning’s

This important forum provided an in-depth examination of several key learning’s:  

There is proven experience in conducting LCA and carbon footprint studies – we have now 20 years with IKP, PE and others, ISO LCA standards exist, and we are also moving towards carbon and water standards with groups like WRI/WBCSD and ISO. Software, databases and simpler user friendly tools (what if tools) are surfacing and becoming more common within companies – e.g., VW’s experience to reduce the time to complete assessments from originally 150 days to 30 days to 3 hours in certain applications; Alcan Packaging’s ASSET tool and other industrial design support tools (e.g. SolidWorks). There was a call for a continual need for updated, reliable data and user friendly software.

We will continue to improve our tool box, including LCA tools – e.g., land use, water use; and we will also go beyond LCA tools to include complementary tools like life cycle costing, eco-efficiency, social – moving towards life cycle sustainability assessment.

There is increasing interest in applying the results to provide additional information to inform decision making – within the private sectors users/buyers, e.g., fleet managers, retailers, building and construction architects and engineers, and greener electricity providers are using or talking about using LCA; and within the government sector, the enormous buying power of governments; and the creation of stimulus packages (percent greener technologies being used) are examples of this increasing application.  

Ability to communicate with the downstream market place and application of a proven methodology to identify tradeoffs are just two of the proven applications of LCA

• The results from LCA and CFP studies informs the downstream market place customers on the environmental benefits of products and materials (e.g., EPD, environment certificates, carbon labels)
• LCA provides a proven methodology to identify intervention points where actions can be taken to reduce footprints and create business value (e.g., reliable and stable recommendations; identification of trade-offs and development of greener products/technologies; full systems – not just packaging)

Sustained applications of life cycle approaches requires integration into the company and business units functions

• Establishment of environmental policy/sustainability officer/councils
• Integrated of environmental/social factors into business practices – e.g., branding, product development, material selection, procurement
• Translate technical LCA language into the language of the business
• Build capacity within the companies to better understand the value of and how to utilize a  life cycle approach

The Symposium - a success

The forum to learn from the best was successful. While we learned a lot, there is obviously much more to be learned particularly in building capacity in both the user of life cycle knowledge and information as will as the practitioners who perform the studies. Our collectedly abilities to be able to communicate to the scientific, business and broader society with stories and explanation that can be understood will be a critical factor in the long term success in taking a life cycle approach towards a more sustainable future for ourselves and our children.