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UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative and Contribution since 2002 to the Rio+20 Process

(Sonia Valdivia, Guido Sonnemann) Version 6, 15 September 2010

Summary The present paper has the aim of introducing the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative and to present the main areas of its contribution since 2002 to the Rio+20 Process in support of greening economies and building capacities for more solid institutional frameworks for sustainable development. In 2002 the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) teamed up the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) to launch the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative, with the overall goal being the promotion of the development and application of life cycle approaches worldwide. 2012 is an important year in the international political agenda with the upcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Summit). The three aims of the Conference are to secure renewed political commitment for sustainable development, to assess the progress to date and the remaining gaps in the implementation of the outcomes of the major summits on sustainable development, and, finally, to address new and emerging challenges. Following suggestions of member states, two cross-cutting themes of the Conference are the green economy, in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, and the institutional framework for sustainable development. A life cycle perspective is essential in globalized economies where, for example, the extraction, production and consumption of many products are happening in different regions of the world. Trade-offs of impacts are often underestimated and overlooked. Only by taking into account an integrated, holistic view of product chains, will a balanced judgment on economic, social and environmental impacts of human activities be possible and thus allow for better decisions for sustainable development to be made. Life cycle based tools (e.g. life cycle management (LCM), life cycle assessments (LCAs), carbon footprint and water footprint, ecolabelling and ecodesign) can assist in ensuring better informed decisions in businesses, governments and society at large. Capability development is a complementary key dimension for the successful implementation of life cycle based approaches. To leapfrog experiences and improve the life cycle thinking evolution trends, especially in the developing world and emerging economies, global coordination is important, according to statements from governments, national and international organizations. The Life Cycle Initiative through its global community has played a key role in supporting the fulfillment of the aims of Agenda 21 (1992), the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (2002) and the Malmö Declaration (2000) by catalyzing many individual, national and regional efforts on the promotion of life cycle thinking. Given that preparation for the Rio+20 is under way, the Life Cycle Initiative would like to present to member states and other stakeholders involved in the Rio+20 process its achievements and learnings by having them included into the Conference report in order to continue contributing to the next steps as they may correspond to Rio+20 agreements. The achievements of the Life Cycle Initiative include1: A) a set of guiding life cycle impact assessment criteria adopted by the International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management (Resource Panel) and used to help develop the 10 Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP), i.e. the “10 YFP”, expected to emerge from the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) 19; B) a series of best practice guidelines for LCM and implementation tools developed, including, among others, the USETox for toxicity impacts, Social LCA and carbon and water footprinting; C) a large

1 All the guides, reports and contacts are available upon request to the Secretariat of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative (ilci@unep.org) or directly through the Initiative’s web page: (lcinitiative.unep.org).

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number of capacity-building activities carried out and over 2,000 people from some 80 countries having attended training workshops and seminars; and D) strong global partnerships established with professional communities, civil society organizations and in particular with industries, advocating LCM and making LCA a good business mode for numerous enterprises worldwide. A road map has been prepared to illustrate how the Initative through UNEP, SETAC and their partners can provide support beyond Rio +20. It includes the facilitation of the following:

• The development of national databases by governments following the Global Guidance Document on Life Cycle Databases.

• The use of the global framework for life cycle sustainability assessment by decision makers from governments and the private sector.

• The creation of international scientific bodies for other impact categories that are a priority in the global environmental agenda different than that of climate change as the IPCC has been created to address this impact category.

• Capability development activities, especially for decision makers in governments in non-OECD countries, is foreseen and the creation of a type of forum for governmental exchange on life cycle based policies is an option.

Having laid the foundations, the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative envisages a future where policy and decision making within governments, businesses and individual consumers utilize information on the full life cycle consequences of those actions to ensure a sustainable future so that no unexpected or unanticipated impacts occur throughout the entire life cycle. Background Without labeling it as such, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (1972, Stockholm) had already underlined the unsustainable trends within our society due to “man’s capability to transform his surroundings” by referring to “incalculable harm to human beings and the human environment.” Twenty years later (1992), the warning was explicitly reiterated in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development: “To achieve sustainable development and a higher quality of life for all people, States should reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and consumption and promote appropriate demographic policies.” Agenda 21 dedicated Chapter 4 to the different aspects of “Changing consumption patterns”, focusing on production and consumption. However, during the nineties, production and consumption were often addressed separately. It was the era of cleaner production and sustainable consumption. It was as if supply and demand were not seen as interlinked. Pioneers trying to push forward sustainable consumption and production as a cross-cutting issue in many sectors had a difficult time. Sustainable consumption and production emerged as a major issue in the Malmö Declaration (2000). The latter constitutes a formal call from the world’s environment ministers for a life cycle economy that extends beyond the traditional focus on production site and manufacturing processes to include the environmental, social and economic impact of products over their entire life cycle, “from cradle to grave”. It was not until the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002 that the international community – as part of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation – launched a 10-year Framework of Programmes (10YFP) on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP). One year later, the 10YFP became the Marrakech Process, leading the international community to an overall review. This review was followed by a negotiation on an enforced policy formulation at the UN Commission on Sustainable Development in 2010-2011. UNEP DTIE and UN DESA are the lead agencies of this global process, with an active participation of national governments, development agencies, and civil society. As they point out: “Sustainable Consumption and Production is working at promoting sustainable resource management in a life cycle perspective for goods and services produced and used by governments, business and civil society.” More recently the European commission presented an Action plan on sustainable production and consumption and sustainable industrial policy (European Commission, 2008) in which the role of life cycle

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methodologies for sustainable production and consumption is emphasized. While it may be clear that supply and demand are interconnected, it is still common practice to look at SCP from different angles. Twenty years after the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, the time has come not only to review and assess what has been achieved on the basis of this vision, but also to build upon it and revive its promise of integration, unity and aspiration: the “spirit of Rio”. For the 20th anniversary of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio, the UN General Assembly is organizing a three-day conference known as Rio + 20: The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012. That meeting in 2012 has three aims:

(a) securing renewed political commitment for sustainable development, (b) assessing the progress to date and remaining gaps in implementation of the outcomes of the major

summits on sustainable development, (c) addressing new and emerging challenges.

Two themes of the Conference are (1) the green economy in the context of sustainable development and (2) poverty eradication and the institutional framework for sustainable development. The green economy approach is led by the The UNEP Green Economy Initiative and is an attempt to unite under one banner a broad suite of economic instruments relevant to sustainable development. Regarding the second theme of the conference a broad picture will be analyzed of the institutions for sustainable development that have been established so far, with a special focus on the Commission on Sustainable Development and the United Nations Environment Programme in the context of the international environmental governance process. The UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative: its aims and contributions The UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative aims to promote life cycle approaches worldwide through (1) fine-tuning methodologies and (2) promoting and facilitating the application of knowledge and tools for the target groups (governments, businesses and researchers). The Initiative currently has more than 2,000 registered members, which is six times the amount registered in 2002. Europe is still dominant regarding the number of participants with 51%, followed by America with 20% (10% for North America and 10% for Latin America and the Caribbean), then Asia with 13% and Africa with 10%. Other surveys consider 2,000 to be a low figure and estimate that life cycle practitioners from governments, businesses and the civil society amount to 10,000.

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Figure 1: Distribution of participation according to country of origin [UNEP/SETAC, 2008]. The UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative is seen as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for knowledge, experiences and free guidance materials and tools. A web-based knowledge management system containing training tools on life cycle based tools is operating and freely accessible. The most downloaded publications are the Life Cycle Management Guide for Business and the Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products (http://lcinitiative.unep.fr/). Since its launch, the Initiative has made various significant contributions in areas highlighted in Figure 2. The UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative has pushed to promote life cycle thinking through various methods/tools, ranging from LCM and various types of LCAs to ecolabelling and eco-design. Capability development is a parallel process towards the acquisition of tools and a level of maturity towards SCP. The next couple of paragraphs will highlight and further explain these contributions and provide various real-life examples.

Figure 2: A diagrammatic representative of the tools developed as a result of capacity building activities.

The Initiative counts on internationally acknowledged life cycle methodologies. A framework for environmental life cycle impact assessment including impacts on climate change and ozone layer depletion has been presented to the international community and is currently broadly accepted worldwide. Midpoint and end point categories are part of the framework (Olivier Jolliet et.al., 2004). Later, global consensus on a life cycle toxicity assessment method (named USETox model, available at www.usetox.org) was reached, allowing companies to understand the potential toxicity of products. Further research work was done in the areas of life cycle impact assessment of use and depletion of water and of land use on biodiversity and ecosystem services; a framework to assess impacts of water (Jean-Baptiste Bayart, et.al, 2010) and land use has been proposed and is at the early stage of testing.

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Figure 3: General structure of the LCIA framework.

A portal providing free access to good quality and transparent LCA databases worldwide has been created to simplify the selection of databases needed to do LCA studies: http://lca-data.org. Guidelines on Corporate Water Accounting (2010) have been published in cooperation with the Corporate Water Accounting, which is a UN Global Compact Initiative and a joint effort of UNEP and the CEO Water Mandate. The Guidelines are part of the ongoing work to harmonize international efforts on water accounting with special consideration of particularities of developing and emerging economies. The Carbon Footprint (CF) work is led by a core group of The UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative that liaises with other international activities and initiatives to support the harmonization of approaches. Solid linkages exist between the CF group and the corresponding ISO sub-committee. The UNEP/SETAC “Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products” were launched in May 2009 and are now available in English and French (UNEP, 2009). The guidelines propose the assessment of social and socio-economic impacts throughout the life cycle of products by using 31 subcategories of impacts and corresponding indicators, which are connected to five stakeholder groups: local community, consumers, society, workers and value chain actors. The guidelines are being discussed for policy making purposes in European countries and for implementation by individual corporations that want to understand their social and socio-economic impacts. Since the launch of the Guidelines there has been a recorded average of a 1,000 downloads per month. More than 45 organizations from the developing world and emerging economies have been granted with life cycle tools by the Life Cycle Initiative’s award program since 2006. Tools were provided thanks to several long standing sponsors of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative. Eleven best life cycle studies have been awarded as of 2010. Topics addressed dealt with biofuels, energy and land use. Project leaders of case awarded studies come from Brazil, China, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Argentina and Nepal and demonstrated leadership skills and excellence in their fields of work. Currently, they are recognized as national or international leaders and are completing advanced projects for their countries and regions. A network of national champions and multipliers has been instrumental in disseminating life cycle thinking globally. Since 2001 a number of training activities have been developed worldwide with particular attention to the needs and support of developing countries’ participation (see the events listed in Annex 1); for example, two Chinese Life Cycle Management conferences and three Latin American life cycle conferences have been co-organized as of 2010. Other international communities are teaming up with our capability development efforts, such as industrial ecology and life cycle engineering, as there is a consensus that without capability development no substantial improvements can be expected.

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As a result, experts in more than 80 countries of the world have been identified. A model for building capacities in companies and their supply chains is also available and has raised the interest from Asian, North American, Latin American and European companies (http://supply-chain.unglobalcompact.org/site/article/45). A workbook providing guidance on how to implement the plan-do-learn-act cycle in companies and suppliers is part of the results. Selected examples on how companies are using life cycle based tools are illustrated in the pictures and described in the text below. Danone in Argentina implemented recommendations as a result from the carbon and water footprinting studies, which led them to reduce their water consumption up to 5% in 2008 and their CO2 emissions up to 20% in 2010.

CO2 Water

Production

Packaging

Logistics

Selling points

End-of-life-cycle

Reducing the footprint and increasing benefits in Danone (Source: Danone, 2010).

In one Chinese case, e-waste recycling could be improved thanks to an integrated assessment including eco-efficiency analysis and social life cycle assessment. From a separation system fully mechanical to a combined option that includes manual separation, the recycling and reuse rates were increased, more jobs were generated, the environmental performance and the economic added value increased (source: Bin Lu, 2009).

Life Cycle Costing AnalysisCosts & benefits (CNY) Scenario A Scenario B

Payment to consumer 6.00 6.00

Transportation cost in city 0.05 0.00

Long distance transportation cost 1.40 1.40

Pre-treatment cost 0.20 1.00

Materials recovery cost 0.60 0.50

End value 16.93 19.50

Added value 8.68 10.60

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Collection & Transportation

Treatment, Reuse, Recovery & Disposal

Scenario A

Scenario B

Obsolete E-waste

Sustainability assessment including life cycle costing for e-waste recycling (source: Bin Lu, 2009) A Brazilian beauty care company, Natura, following recommendations from LCA studies of their products, engaged to re-design many of their products and packaging materials, which currently present a different composition and an increased market share.

A Brazilian based beauty care company

Sustainable resource management in Natura (source: Natura, 2010)

Ecolabelling is putting down its roots in developing countries, as national efforts are succeeding in Ethiopia, South Africa, Mexico and India. Roadmap for the future A reason for the slow development of life cycle thinking in the developing world has been the limited access to capability development data and tools. Developing countries and emerging economies have expressed the need for simplified/streamlined tools.

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In addition, emerging industrial initiatives, such as The Sustainability Consortium in North America, are spreading the use of environmental product declarations; in Asia and Latin America the need and use of water and carbon footprints is increasing exponentially. A road map has been prepared to illustrate how the Initative through UNEP, SETAC and their partners can provide support beyond Rio +20. It includes the facilitation of the following:

• The development of national databases by governments following the Global Guidance Document on Life Cycle Databases.

• The use of the global framework for life cycle sustainability assessment by decision makers from governments and the private sector.

• The creation of international scientific bodies for other impact categories that are a priority in the global environmental agenda different than that of climate change as the IPCC has already been created to address this impact category.

• Capability development activities, especially for decision makers in governments in non-OECD countries, is foreseen and the creation of a type of forum for governmental exchange on life cycle based policies is an option.

Conclusion 10 years of existence of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative have provided a positive impact by leading to a better understanding and dissemination of life cycle and SCP tools worldwide, especially in emerging and developing countries, as well as the development of consensus among international experts and practitioners worldwide. In turn, this has served to provide a solid basis, although limited in reach, for better decision making both for the private and the public sector. The vision for Rio+20 and beyond offers the opportunity to extend this reach, which is highly needed for the greening of economies, the alleviation of poverty and the continual improvement of businesses and organizations around the world in the path that sustainable development requires all nations to follow. Having laid the foundations, the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative envisages a future where policy and decision making within governments, businesses and individual consumers utilize information on the full life cycle consequences of those actions to ensure a sustainable future so that no unexpected or unanticipated impacts can occur throughout the entire life cycle.

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Annex 1: Training Activities

2001

• First Workshop of the UNEP/ SETAC Life Cycle Initiative: What is Best Practice on LCA. The workshop with more than 150 participants was held in Tokyo and was sponsored by the Research Center for LCA of the Japanese National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST).

• Life Cycle Management: UNEP-Workshop - Sharing Experiences on LCM. The specific purpose of the workshop organized in Copenhagen by UNEP in cooperation with SETAC was to define the focus of a possible UNEP programme on Life Cycle Management under the UNEP/ SETAC Life Cycle Initiative.

2002

• Barcelona Workshop on definition studies, in conjunction with SETAC/ ISIE LCA case study symposium, 1 December 2002.

• Workshop Gateway to Life Cycle Impact Assessment for APEC Member Economies with AIST, organised back to back with the 5th International EcoBalance ConferenceTsukuba, Japan, 7 November 2002.

• Workshop with SAE on LCM in the automobile sector in Chicago, 22 August 2002. • Johannesburg Workshop back to back with TC 207 ISO working group meeting on LCM for business, 12

June 2002. • Study trip with ACE on LCM to StoraEnso, Sweden, 19 June 2002. For further information please contact

Kevin Bradley. • ICMM/ APEC - GEMEED and NRCan on LCA and metals in Montreal, 15-17 April 2002. • Launch of the UNEP/ SETAC Life Cycle Initiative by Mr. Klaus Toepfer, UNEP's Executive Director, and

Ms. Lorraine Maltby, President of SETAC Global, at the opening of UNEP's Seventh High Level Seminar on Cleaner Production in Prague, 28 April 2002.

2003

• Lausanne Meeting of the Working Groups of the Life Cycle Initiative, in conjunction with SETAC/ISIE LCA case study symposium, 2 December 2003.

• International Expert meeting on Toxicity models in Life Cycle Impact Assessment organised with the European OMNIITOX project at the Faculty de Lausanne, Switzerland, 1-2 December 2003. For more information see LC.net article or please contact Olivier Joillet.

• International Workshop on Quality of LCI Data organised by the Research Centre Karlsruhe, Germany, 20-21 October 2003.

• International Conference and workshops on environmental product declarations. Arranged in collaboration with the Nordic Council of Ministers in Stockholm, Sweden, 29-30 September 2003.

• 2nd International Forum on Life Cycle Management organised at Weyerhaeuser, Seattle, USA, 26 September 2003. For more information, please contact Guido Sonnemann.

• Life Cycle Initiative events at the SETAC-Europe Annual meeting in Hamburg, Germany, 27 April - 1 May, 2003. One year after the launch of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative, activity levels have reached an all time high. The initiative was present with several events at the SETAC conference in Hamburg:

o Opening session, 27 April 2003, Jacqueline Aloisi de Larderel, chair of the International Life Cycle Panel, gave a keynote speech. She said, “the Life Cycle Initiative is starting to serve as a global catalyst for life cycle knowledge transfer, fostering the use of life cycle thinking in government, industry, and consumer decision-making world-wide.”

o Life Cycle Impact Assessment Workshop, 30 April/ 1 May US EPA and the Life Cycle Initiative co-organised the Workshop on Taxonomy of Impact Categories and the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) Framework - Criteria to systematically proceed.

o Kick-off meeting for Working Groups, 29 April 2003. Around 100 experts attended the Kick-off meeting for Working Groups. The initiative’s programme managers informed the interested experts about the current state of the three definition studies. Open questions were discussed. The experts expressed interest in further supporting the initiative’s work. It is expected that many will participate in a series of Taskforces over the upcoming year.

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2004

• 7 September 2004, LCM task forces, in conjunction with the International Conference 'Electronics Goes Green' in Berlin, Germany.

• 25 October 2004, capacity building related task forces, in conjunction with the 6th International Conference on EcoBalance in Tsukuba, Japan.

• 6-8 September 2004. International Conference 'Electronics Goes Green', organised by Fraunhofer Institute and other partners in Berlin, Germany.

• 18 November 2004, afternoon, all task forces, at the end of the Symposium on sustainable management of resources at the Fourth SETAC WORLD CONGRESS, 25th Annual Meeting in North America, in Portland, Oregon, USA.

• 6-8 September 2004. International Conference 'Electronics Goes Green', organised by Fraunhofer Institute and other partners in Berlin, Germany.

• 14-15 October 2004. Workshop on Design for Environment as part of Life Cycle Management, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden.

• 26-27 October 2004. 4th AIST Workshop on LCA for APEC Member Economies, 'Capacity Building in the region' at the 6th International Conference on EcoBalance, 'Development and Systematizing of EcoBalance tools based on Life-Cycle-Thinking', in Tsukuba, Japan.

• 14-18 November 2004. Symposium on Sustainable Production, Use and Recycling of Natural Resources as part of the SETAC 4th World Congress and 25th Annual Meeting in North America, Portland, Oregon, USA.

• Green Lead Workshop co-chaired by UNEP and ICMM, Heathrow Sheraton, London, UK, 28-30 April 2004. • Prague Meetings of the Task Forces of the Life Cycle Initiative, at the end of the 14th Annual Meeting of

SETAC Europe, Prague, Czech Republic, 22 April 2004. • Life Cycle Assessment; Integrated Waste Management Workshop, organised by European Commission

Enlargement Action Program and other partners, Prague, Czech Republic, 13-16 April 2004. • Eco-Efficiency Conference, 'Eco-efficiency for sustainability - Quantified methods for decision making ',

Leiden University and other partners, the Netherlands, 1-3 April 2004.

2005

• Planned Working Group meetings for Task Forces

Planned Working Group meetings for Task Forces Life Cycle Initiative working groups and tasks force meeting in conjunction with the SETAC North America Annual Meeting, Baltimore, 15 November 2005.

• Asia Pacific Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production with LCM training courses in Melbourne, 10-12 October 2005.

• 2nd Canadian Forum on Life Cycle Management of Products and Services, Montreal, 26-27 October 2005. • 1st East European LCA meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, 12-13 September 2005. • 2nd International Conference on Life Cycle Management in Barcelona, Spain, 5-7 September 2005. See

LCM 2005 for more details. • 1st African LCA Symposium Life Cycle Inventory Training and Workshop in Nairobi, Kenya, 29 August

2005. Organised by the ALCANET and the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative, in collaboration with the African Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production (ARCSP) at UNEP’s Headquarters with the theme: Towards life-cycle based risk and benefit assessments to inform and critique environmentally sustainable and socially beneficial economic growth in Africa. Please contact Harro von Blottnitz or Toolseeram Ramjeawon.

• Meeting Life Cycle Management Task Forces and Social Aspects Task Force in Bologna, Italy, 12 January 2005.

• CILCA - International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment, first time in Latin America in San José, Costa Rica, 25-28 April 2005, including four training sessions on LCA.

• StEP Solving the e-waste problem; Workshop, Geneva, 10 February 2005. • Workshop on LCA Data Format, Lille, France, 26 May 2005. • Life Cycle Initiative Working Groups and Task Forces Meeting , Lille, France, 26 May 2005. • ESTIS training course, Paris, 28 May 2005.

2006

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• SETAC Europe Annual Meeting, The Hague, The Netherlands. With the following side events directly organized by the Life Cycle Initiative:

o 5-6 May, LCIA toxicity model comparison workshop (Invitation-only meeting). For more information on how to apply for participation please contact the LCIA TF3 leader (mailto: mic@ipl.dtu.dk).

o 9 May, 13:30-17.30, Working groups and task forces meetings of the Life Cycle Initiative. o 10 May, 14-15.45 (open-ended discussion), Special Symposium UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle

Initiative: 'Promoting life cycle thinking in development countries', including also presentations and discussions on the shape of the next phase of the Life Cycle Initiative.

o 11 May, Meeting of the International Life Cycle Panel, the board of the Life Cycle Initiative (Invitation-only meeting).

• International Workshop 'Material Design and System Analysis. • Integration of Economic and Environmental Aspects into the Development Phase, Karlsruhe, Germany, 16-

18 May 2006. • 13th International Conference on Life Cycle Engineering in Leuven, Belgium, 31 May - 2 June 2006. • 2nd International Conference on Quantified Eco-Efficiency Analysis for Sustainability in Egmond aan Zee,

The Netherlands, 28 - 30 June 2006. • Definition of Best Indicators for Land Use Impacts for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Working Group

meeting for the Task Force on Natural Resources and Land Use, Centre for Environmental Strategy, Guildford, UK, 12 - 13 June 2006.

• 29th LCA Discussion Forum - Life Cycle Perspective for Social Impacts; Meeting of the Task force on Inclusion of Social Aspects

o 29th LCA Discussion Forum, Lausanne, Switzerland, 15 June 2006. o Meeting of task force on inclusion of social aspects, in conjunction with LCA Forum, Lausanne,

Switzerland, 16-17 June 2006. • The role of the Life Cycle Assessment in the industrial performance towards sustainable development

o Implementation of a Center of Excellence in Life Cycle Assessment – Call to selection of multipliers to participate in this project, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 28-29 June 2006.

• UNEP/SETAC LCIA Task Force meeting on Toxicity: Second Model Comparison Workshop (Per invitation only), UNEP-DTIE in Paris, France, 31 August, 1-2 September 2006.

• Seminar on Emerging Environmental Requirements for Electrical & Electronic Products, organized by SIRIM and partners: Thailand Environment Institute (TEI), IZM Fraunhofer IZM of Germany and the Innovation Center CiTQ of the University Rovira i Virgili of Spain; Penang, Malaysia, 4-8 September 2006.

• ISWA Annual Congress 2006, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1-5 October 2006** • Sustainable Manufacturing IV Global Conference on Sustainble Product Development and Life Cycle

Engineering, São Paulo, Brazil, 3-6 October 2006** • InLCA/LCM 2006 Business and Government Moving Ahead, Washington DC, USA, 4 - 6 October 2006**

The paper of the Initiative awarded as Best Paper • Market Opportunities in Life Cycle Thinking, First Symposium of the Nordic Life Cycle Association, Lund,

Sweden, 9 - 10 October 2006** • UNEP/SETAC Task Force Meeting on Social Issues (Per invitation only. If you might be interested please

contact sc@unep.fr), UNEP-DTIE in Paris, France, 9-10 October 2006. • Sustainable Innovation 06-Global challenges, issues and solutions. 11th International Conference, Chicago,

USA, 23-24 October 2006. • LCA in Prague - Seminary for Central European Countries, Organised by Ekomonitor, Prague, Czech

Republic, 31 October 2006 (In Czech and/or Slovak language). • Working groups and task forces meetings of the Life Cycle Initiative, in conjunction with SETAC North

America Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada, 7 November 2006. • Going Green - CARE INNOVATION 2006 - From WEEE / RoHS Implementation to Future Sustainable

Electronics, Vienna, Austria, 13-16, November 2006** • 5th AIST Workshop on LCA for Asia Pacific Resion, organized and sponsored by the Research Center for

Life Cycle Assessment, AIST, Tsukuba, Japan, 14-15 November 2006** • 7th International Conference on EcoBalance "Designing Our Future Society Using Systems Thinking",

Tsukuba, Japan, 14-16 November 2006** • Fifth Australian Conference on Life Cycle Assessment organized by The Australian Life Cycle Assessment

Society (ALCAS). Submit your 150 word abstract to abstract@lca-conf.asn.au, Melbourne, Australia, 22-24 November 2006**

• SCORE (Sustainable Consumption Research Exchange)! Launch conference, The event is organised by the UNEP-Wuppertal Institute Centre on SCP, Wuppertal, Germany, 23-25 November 2006**

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• International Conference on Green and Sustainable Innovation - Integrated Approaches for Sustainable Society" co-organised by the Thai LCA Network in Chiang Mai, Thailand, 29 November - 1 December 2006.

• Sustainability Communication in the Building Sector in different World Regions – Connecting Life Cycle Information with Market Impacts, per invitation only (if you are interested, please contact sc@unep.fr or paolo.frankl@ecobilancio.com), Stuttgart, Germany, 6 December 2006.

• Conference on "Sustainable resource management, raw materials security, Factor-X resource productivity - tools for delivering sustainable growth in the European Union", Wuppertal, Germany, 6-7 December 2006**

• UNEP/UNIDO's 9th International Seminar on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP9) - Creating Solutions for Industry, Environment and Development, Arusha, Tanzania, Germany, 10-12 December 2006 (for more information, please, e-mail: smontillaud@unep.fr or sc@unep.fr).

• Sustainable Consumption session during ISEE (International Society of Ecological Economics) conference, Delhi, India, 15-18 December 2006.

2007

• International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment CILCA 2007, Brazil, 26 - 28 February 2007**. Following session is co-organized by the Life Cycle Initiative: 28 February (morning), Special Symposium UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative on Life Cycle Management and Presentation of Brazilian Awarded Life Cycle projects (Click here to see the detail of this programme.)

• UNEP/SETAC Meeting of the Focus Work Area on Social Issues, (Per invitation only. If you might be interested contact please sc@unep.fr), Sevilla - Spain, 5 March, 2007.

• WBCSD - UNEP/SETAC First Roundtable Meeting on Life Cycle Management, (Per invitation only. If you might be interested contact please sc@unep.fr), Geneva, Switzerland, 12 March, 2007.

• SETAC Europe 17th Annual Meeting, Porto, Portugal, 20-24 May 2007. With the following side events directly organised by the Life Cycle Initiative:

o 20 May (Sunday), 15:00 - 18:00, Business Room 3 - Closed Meeting of the Life Cycle Impact Assessment Program of the Life Cycle Initiative (Invitation-only meeting). Contact Person: Olivier Jolliet (University of Michigan)

o 22 May (Tuesday), 07:30 – 09:00, Business Breakfast Meeting of the Life Cycle Impact Assessment Working Group on Comparative Assessment of Chemicals. The exact venue will be indicated 1 week before the meeting. Contact Person: Olivier Jolliet (University of Michigan)

o 22 May (Tuesday), 14:30 – 16:30, Room: Ribera - Life Cycle Impact Assessment Working Group Meeting. Contact Person: Olivier Jolliet (University of Michigan)

o 22 May (Tuesday), 14:30 – 16:30, Room: Joao (Tuesday) - Information Meeting on the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative - Finalization of Phase 1. Contact Person: Guido Sonnemann (UNEP DTIE)

o 22 May (Tuesday), 16:30 – 18:30, Room: Joao - Information Meeting on the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative - Start up of Phase 2. Contact Person: Guido Sonnemann (UNEP DTIE)

o 23 May (Wednesday), 08:00 - 09:30, Business Room 1 - UNEP/SETAC Consultation meting (Invitation-only meeting).

o 23 May (Wednesday), 10:00 - 14:30, Business Room 1 - WBCSD-UNEP/SETAC core group meeting on the LCM Industrial Roundtable (Invitation-only meeting). Contact persons: Guido Sonnemann (UNEP DTIE) and Brigitte Monsou (WBCSD)

o 24 May (Thursday), 9:00 – 17:00, Room: Joao - Meeting of the International Life Cycle Panel the board of the Life Cycle Initiative (Invitation-only meeting). Contact Person: Guido Sonnemann (UNEP DTIE)

o 24 May (Thursday), 9:00 – 12:00, Room: Ribera - Life Cycle Inventory Program: Workshop on the UNEP/SETAC database registry. Chair: Christian Bauer (Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe)

• Events of the Life Cycle Initiative organized in conjunction with the LCM 2007 Conference , Zürich, 27-29

August 2007**

o 26 August (Sun), 16:00 – 18:00 - Training Workshop on the “Development of a Country's Life Cycle Inventory and on Life Cycle cases from non OECD countries”, back-to-back to the LCM 2007 Conference, ETH Ramistrasse Main Building, 101, Room HGF 33-5, Zurich–Switzerland.

o 27 August (Mon), 13:30 – 17:00 - Session on “Promoting Life Cycle Thinking” of the LCM 2007 Conference. Conference center at University of Zurich at Irchel, room 03-G85, Zurich – Switzerland.

o 28 August (Tue), 19:00 – 23:00 - Ceremony LCA Award (3 best projects from developing economies awarded, Dinner event, back-to-back to the LCM 2007 Conference, Zurich – Switzerland.

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o 29 August (Wed), 17:00 - 19:00 - "UNEP Workshop on the 2nd phase of the Life Cycle Initiative", as special session of the LCM 2007 Conference. Conference center at University of Zurich at Irchel, room 15-G-40, Zurich – Switzerland.

o 30 August (Thu), 09:00 - 16:00 - WBCSD – UNEP/SETAC Sustainable Value Chain Initiative - Part I: Product Stewardship, back-to-back to the LCM 2007 Conference, Zurich – Switzerland, per-invitation-only meeting.

o 30-31 August, 09:00 - 17:30 - UNEP/SETAC Task Force on Social LCA, back-to-back to the LCM 2007 Conference, Zurich – Switzerland, if you are interested in joining this meeting please contact sc@unep.fr.

• Meeting of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative Project on Social LCA, Montreal, 24-25 October 2007. If

you are interested in joining this meeting please contact sc@unep.fr. • SETAC Europe 14th LCA Case Studies Symposium, Göteborg, Sweden, 3-4 December 2007. • ILCP meeting: in UNEP DTIE (Paris). Invitation only meeting, Paris, France, 6 December 2007. • Cycle 2007: 3rd Canadian Forum on the Life Cycle Management of Products and Services - Towards a Life

Cycle Economy, Montreal, Canada, 22-23 October 2007. • SETAC North America 28th Annual Meeting, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, 11 - 15 November 2007. • SETAC Europe 14th LCA Case Studies Symposium , Göteborg, Sweden, 3 - 4 December 2007.

2008

• Meeting of the Project Group on Social Life Cycle Management, UNEP DTIE, Paris, France, 25-26

February, 2008. • 5th Meeting of the Project Group on the WBCSD - UNEP/SETAC Sustainable Value Chain Initiative,

Montreux – Switzerland, 13 March, 2008. • 1st Meeting of the Capability Development Work Area, UNEP DTIE, Paris, France, 23 April, 2008. • 6th Meeting of the Project Group on the WBCSD - UNEP/SETAC Sustainable Value Chain Initiative, UNEP

DTIE, Paris, France, 25 April, 2008. • 1st Meeting of Project Group on Assessment of Water us within LCA, back to back to the SETAC Europe

18th Annual Meeting, Room Sienkiewicz, Warsaw, Poland, 25 May, 2008. If you are interested in it, please send an e-mail to sc@unep.fr.

• Meetings of the Work Areas of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative back to back with the SETAC Europe 18th Annual Meeting, Warsaw, Poland, 27 May, 2008. If you would like to see a detailed agenda, please click in Agenda.

- 16:00 - 17:30 - Capability development activities, update on new projects, partnerships and ways to participate as a project member - Room Rudniew

- 17:30 - 19:00 - Experiences from implementing LCM: What Works and What Does not - Room Rudniew

- 17:30 - 19:00 - Database registry and worldwide data availability - Room Puszkin • 13th Meeting of the International Life Cycle Panel back to back with the SETAC Europe 18th Annual

Meeting, Warsaw, Poland, 29 May, 2008. Per invitation only. • 10th Meeting of the Project Group on Social Life Cycle Management, Oeko-Institut, Freiburg, Germany, 2-5

June, 2008. • 1st Meeting of Project Group on Land Use, back to back with the 35th LCA Forum on Assessment of Water

Use within LCA, Zurich, Switzerland, 4 June, 2008. If you are interested in it, please send an e-mail to sc@unep.fr.

• Life Cycle Management in Business – What works and what does not: Carbon Footprint and other approaches, as part of the COPENMIND Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2 September.

• 11th Meeting of the Project Group on Social Life Cycle Management, UNIDO, Vienna, Austria, 25-26 September 2008.

• Knowledge Cafe: Towards the reduction of impacts along the life cycle of goods and services, Barcelona, Spain, 7 October 2008. As part of the IUCN World Conservation Forum.

• 14th Meeting of the International Life Cycle Panel back to back to the EcoBalance Conference, Tokyo, Japan, 9 December, 2008. Per invitation only.

2009

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• Expert Meetings of Various Work Areas back to back with the 15th LCA Case Studies Symposium SETAC Europe, Paris, France, 21 and 24 January, 2009.

• Second session of the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM2), Switzerland, 11-15 May 2009.

• Expert meetings of Various Projects in conjunction with the SETAC Europe 19th Annual Meeting. • 15th LCA Case Studies Symposium SETAC Europe•LCA for decision support in business and government

for Sustainable Consumption and Production, Paris, France, 22-23 January, 2009* • 3rd Arab Cleaner Production Workshop, Amman, Jordan, 2-4 February, 2009. • 6th Australian Conference on Life Cycle Assessment, Melbourne, Australia, 16-19 February, 2009. • 37th LCA Discussion Forum: Carbon footprint and LCA: identify the most effective way to reduce the

environmental footprint of consumer's goods, Lausanne, Switzerland, 19 March, 2009. • CILCA 2009 , Santiago, Chile, 27-29 April, 2009* • UNEP/SETAC workshop "How to work collectively to enhance communication of product chain information

to consumers?", Wuppertal, 28 and 29 April 2009. • 3rd International Seminar on Society & Materials- SAM3 , Freiberg, Germany, 29-30 April, 2009. • 16th CIRP International Conference on Life Cycle Engineering (LCE 2009), Cairo, Egypt, 4-6 May 2009. • International Green Product Forum - from a life cycle perspective , Shanghai, Chine, 7-8 May, 2009. • Second session of the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM2) Geneva, Switzerland,

11-15 May 2009. • SETAC Europe 19th Annual Meeting, Göteborg, Sweden, 31 May - 4 June, 2009* • Joint action on climate change, Aalborg, Denmark, 8-10 June, 2009. • 2009 ISIE Conference. Transitions Toward Sustainability , Lisbon, Portugal, 21-24 June, 2009. • LCM 2009, Cape Town, South Africa, 6-9 September, 2009* • LCA IX, Boston, 29 September - 2 October 2009. • SETAC Latin America, Ecotoxicology and Social Responsibility, 5-9 October, Lima, Peru 2009. • 4th SETAC Africa Meeting, Status and Strategies for Sustainable Environmental Quality, Munyongo,

Kampala, Uganda, 2-5 November 2009. • 39th Discussion Forum Regionalization in LCA, November 13, 2009, 9:30, ETH Zurich, Semper Aula

(registration form here). • 2nd LCM China Conference, Beijing, China, November 14 - 16 2009* • SETAC North America 30th Annual Meeting , New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, 20-24 November, 2009. • International Symposium on a Sustainable Future – featuring Life Cycle Thinking - Mumbai, India, 11-13

January, 2010. • SETAC Europe 16th LCA Case Studies Symposium - From simplified LCA to advanced LCA, Poznan,

Poland, 1-2 February, 2010* • 20th SETAC Europe Annual Meeting, Seville, Spain, 23-27 May, 2010* • 3rd International Conference on Eco-Efficiency and Eco-Innovation Modelling, Evaluation and Drivers for

Sustainable Development, Egmond aan Zee, the Netherlands, June, 2010* • Brazilian LCM Conference 2010, Florianopolis, SC, Brazil, 13-15 October 2010* • EcoBalance 2010, Tokyo, Japan, 9-12 November 2010 (contact: ecobalance2010@sntt.or.jp)*

2010 - 2011

• UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative’s sessions took place back to back with the 20th SETAC Europe Annual Meeting in Seville, Spain, 23-27 May, 2010.

o Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) from Water Use, Annette Koehler and Emmanuelle Austin, Monday May 24th

o Social Life Cycle Assessment – News on Methodological Sheets, Andreas Ciroth and Sonia Valdivia, Monday May 24th

o Launch of USEtox™, Michael Hauschild and Guido Sonnemann, Tuesday May 25th UNEP/SETAC Database Registry, Andreas Ciroth, Tuesday May 25th

o Capability Maturity Framework for Business, Tom Swarr and Bruce Vigon, Wednesday May 26th o Integrated Framework for Life Cycle Impact Assessment – a UNEP Proposal, Guido Sonnemann

and Sonia Valdivia, Wednesday May 26th o 6th International Consultation on the ‘Global Guidance Process for LCA Databases’, Guido

Sonnemann and Bruce Vigon, Wednesday May 26th

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o International Life Cycle Board (ILCB) Meeting, Thursday May 27th • 2nd Announcement: FENIX - 1st International Conference on Life Cycle Thinking. REGISTRATION NOW

OPEN! 14th. September 2010 in Barcelona, Spain. • Swiss Discussion Forum on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) 2010 in Switzerland: Zurich on 20 April, in

Ittingen on 22 June and in Lausanne on 19 November, 2010. • SAM 4 International Seminar, Ecole des Mines de Nancy, Nancy, France, 28-29 April, 2010. • CYCLE 2010 – 4th Canadian Forum on the Life Cycle Management of Products and Services, Montréal,

Canada, 4-5 May, 2010. • The 17th CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering: LCE 2010, Anhui, China, 19-21 May, 2010. • 20th SETAC Europe Annual Meeting, Seville, Spain, 23-27 May, 2010. • II Latin-American Seminar on Life Cycle Analysis, Santa Clara, Cuba, 1-4 June, 2010. • SETAC Asia/Pacific 2010 Conference, Guangzhou, China, 4-7 June, 2010. • 3rd International Conference on Eco-Efficiency and Eco-Innovation Modelling, Evaluation and Drivers for

Sustainable Development, Egmond aan Zee, the Netherlands, 9-11 June, 2010. • FENIX - 1st International Conference on Life Cycle Thinking, Barcelona, Spain, 14 September, 2010. • World Water Week, Stockholm, Sweden, 5-11 September, 2010. • 7th International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment in the Agri-Food Sector, Università degli Studi di

Bari, Italy, 22-24 September, 2010. • Meeting on Sustainable Consumption and Production and Integrated Product Policy, Brussels , Belgium, 6-7

October, 2010. • OECD Global Forum on Environment, Mechelen, Belgium, 25-27 October, 2010. • LCA X Conference: “Bridging Science, Policy and the Public,” Portland, Oregon, U.S.A., 1-4 November,

2010. • Going Green – CARE INNOVATION 2010, Schönbrunn Palace Conference Centre, Vienna, Austria, 8-11

November, 2010. • EcoBalance 2010, National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, Tokyo, Japan, 9-12 November,

2010 (contact: ecobalance2010@sntt.or.jp). • The 7th Australian Life Cycle Assessment Conference, Melbourne, Australia, 9-10 March, 2011. • Brazilian LCM Conference 2010, Florianopolis, SC, Brazil, 24-26 November, 2010. • IV International Life Cycle Conference in Latin America, Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, 4-7 April, 2011. • The 18th CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering: LCE 2011, Technische Universität Braunschweig,

Germany, 2-4 May, 2011. • LCM 2011, Berlin, Germany, 28-31 August, 2011.

Annex 2: Publications and portals

• UNEP, Corporate Water Accounting - An analysis of methods and tools for measuring water use and its impacts (2010, English, 60 pages).

• Jean-Baptiste Bayart, Cécile Bulle & Louise Deschênes, Manuele Margni, Stephan Pfister, Francois Vince, Annette Koehler, A framework for assessing off-stream freshwater use in LCA, Int J Life Cycle Assess (2010) 15:439–453.

• USEtoxTM model, http://www.usetox.org

• UNEP/SETAC Database Registry-Beta version, http://lca-data.org

• UNEP/SETAC, Life Cycle Management - How Business uses it to decrease footprint, create opportunities and make value chains more sustainable ( 2009, English, 48 pages).

• UNEP/SETAC, Lignes Directrices pour l'analyse sociale du Cycle de Vie des produits (2009, French, 103 pages).

• UNEP/SETAC, Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products (2009, English, 104 pages).

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• Finkbeiner, M. (2009) Carbon Footprinting - Opportunities and Threats. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 14, pp. 91-94.

• Hellweg S, Demou E, Bruzzi R, Meijer A, Rosenbaum RK, Huijbregts MAJ, McKone TE, Integrating Human Indoor Air Pollutant Exposure within Life Cycle Impact Assessment, Environmental Science and Technology 43, 1670–1679, 2009.

• UNEP, Communication of life cycle information in the building and energy sectors, (2008, English, 176 pages).

• Koehler, A. (2008): Water use in LCA: managing the planet’s freshwater resources. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 13(6): 451–455.

• Rosenbaum, R. K., Bachmann, T. M., Gold, L. S., Huijbregts, M. A. J., Jolliet, O., Juraske, R., Koehler, A., Larsen, H. F., MacLeod, M., Margni, M., McKone, T. E., Payet, J., Schuhmacher, M., van de Meent, D., Hauschild, M. Z. (2008): USEtox - The UNEP-SETAC toxicity model: recommended characterisation factors for human toxicity and freshwater ecotoxicity in Life Cycle Impact Assessment, International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 13 (7), 532-546.

• Guido Sonnemann, Sonia Valdivia, First Phase 2 Activities of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative (2007-2010), The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 2007, Volume 12, Number 7, Pages 544-545

• Jim Fava, Sonia Valdivia, Bas de Leeuw, Andreas Ciroth, Allan A. Jensen, et al., New activities launched in Warsaw and consultations on emerging ideas, The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 2008, Volume 13, Number 5, Pages 371-373.

• UNEP/SETAC, Life Cycle Management: A business guide to sustainability, (2007, English, 52 pages).

• UNEP, Life Cycle Approaches - The road from analysis to practice, (2005, English, 89 pages).

• UNEP, Background document for Life Cycle Management, (2005, English, 108 pages).

• UNEP, Declaration of Apeldoorn on LCIA of Non-Ferrous Metals, 2004.

• Olivier Jolliet, Ruedi Müller-Wenk, Jane Bare, Alan Brent, Mark Goedkoop, Reinout Heijungs, Norihiro Itsubo, Claudia Peña, David Pennington, José Potting, Gerald Rebitzer, Mary Stewart, Helias Udo de Haes, and Bo Weidema,The LCIA Midpoint-damage Framework of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative, Int J LCA 9 (6) 2004, pages 394-404.

• UNEP/SETAC, Why Take a Life Cycle Approach? (2004, 24 pages) | English| French| Spanish| Japanese| Chinese|

• UNEP, Evaluation of Environmental Impacts in Life Cycle Assessment (2003, English, 96 pages).

• UNEP, A Bridge to More Sustainable Products (ppt.) (2003, English, 81 Slides).

• UNEP, Towards a Global Use of Life Cycle Assessment (1999, English, 71 pages).

• Lu B (2009). Integrated LCA of Obsolete PC Recycling System, Research Center For Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the 2nd LCM China Conference, Beijing

• Valdivia S, Ciroth A, Ugaya C, Lu B, Sonnemann G, Fontes J, Alvarado C, Tischhauser, A UNEP/SETAC Tool Box for LC Sustainability Assessment of Products, Proceedings of the Ecobalance 2010 Conference, Tokyo, Japan

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Annex 3: References

• UNCED (1992). Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Rio de Janeiro, 3−14 June, United Nations publication

• ISO 14040 (1997). Environmental Management – Life Cycle Assessment –Principles and Framework, International Organization of Standardization

• WSSD (2002). Report of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Johannesburg, South Africa, 26 August−4 September, United Nations publication

• ISO 14004 (2004). Environmental management systems -- Requirements with guidance for use. International, Organization of Standardization

• ISO 14040 (2006). Environmental Management – Life Cycle Assessment –Principles and Framework, International Organization of Standardization

• ISO 14044 (2006). Environmental Management – Life Cycle Assessment – Requirements and Guidelines, International Organization of Standardization

• European Commission. (2008). Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the Sustainable Consumption and Production and Sustainable Industrial Policy Action Plan. Commission of the European Communities, Brussels

Websites:

• Declaration of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio, 1992) www.unep.org/Documents.multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=78&ArticleID=1163

• Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm, 1972) www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=97&ArticleID=1503

• Malmö Ministerial Declaration (2002) www.unep.org/malmo/malmo_ministerial.htm

• Marrakech process (2010) esa.un.org/marrakechprocess/index.shtml

• UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative lcinitiative.unep.fr/

Annex 4: Definitions What are life cycle approaches? Life cycle approaches reflect the incorporation of life cycle thinking in the decision making processes. Life Cycle Thinking helps planners in businesses and governments to develop a holistic view. It expands the traditional focus on the production site and manufacturing processes by incorporating various aspects over its entire life cycle from cradle to cradle (i.e. from the resources’ extraction through the manufacture and use of the product, to the final processing of the disposed product). Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (E-LCA) is a tool to evaluate the environmental performance of products along their life cycle. Extraction and consumption of resources (including energy), as well as releases to air, water and soil are quantified throughout all the stages, followed by an assessment of their potential contribution to important environmental impact categories, including climate change, toxicity, ecosystem damage and resource base deterioration. Life cycle costing (LCC), is a compilation and assessment of all costs related to a product, over its entire life cycle, from production to use, maintenance and disposal. Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) is a social impact (real and potential impacts) assessment technique that aims to assess the social and socio-economic aspects of products and their positive and negative impacts along their life cycle encompassing extraction and processing of raw materials; manufacturing; distribution; use; re-use; maintenance; recycling; and final disposal.

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Life Cycle Management (LCM) is a product management system aiming to minimize the environmental and socio-economic burdens associated with an organization’s product or product portfolio during its entire life cycle and value chain. LCM supports the business assimilation of product policies adopted by governments. This is done by making life cycle approaches operational and through the continuous improvements of product systems. Carbon footprint (CF) is a measure of the direct and indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with all activities in the product’s life cycle. A CF can be calculated by performing a life cycle assessment that concentrates on energy consumption and GHG emissions that have an effect on climate change. Water footprint (WF) is a measure of the impacts of the direct and indirect water consumption associated with all activities in the product’s life cycle. WF not only addresses water use but also consumption, which is especially relevant for water-intensive processes and at locations where water scarcity is a serious problem.