DF 69 — Regionalization in LCA: Current status in concepts, software and databases 

Thursday, 13 September 2018, ETH Zürich, Alumni (GEP) Pavillon 

We cordially invite you to the 69th Discussion Forum on Life Cycle Assessment.
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 a lot of progress.
The topic has gained special importance due to the fact that the Life Cycle Initiative hosted by UN Environment recommends regionalized LCIA methods for water and land. The life cycle impact assessment methodologies LC-IMPACT and IMPACT World+ provide regional CFs. Furthermore, a growing number of regionalized LCI data is provided by LCI databases such as the World Food Database (WFLDB) and ecoinvent, even if coverage and the level of detail is still limited.

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 and challenges with regionalized LCI data, LCIA, and their combination. Software suppliers will show how their tools are currently able to accommodate regionalized product systems with complex supply chains and what developments are ongoing. Finally, database providers will present their strategies how to implement regionalized life cycle inventories. The forum allocates ample time for discussing different approaches and identifying the most important needs to bridge scientific advances and practical implementation and to foster the implementation of harmonised solutions.

This forum is targeted to LCA practitioners, LCA software developers and LCA researchers.

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Call for short presentations for DF 68 – DF 70:

DF 70 — Social LCA – Challenges and solutions in application and implementation. 

Thursday, 22 November 2018, ETH Zürich, Alumni (GEP) 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.