Contents
- LC Net Focus
- Announcements
- Project & Activity Updates
- Our Calendar of Events
- Life Cycle Job Announcements
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Single-use plastic products and their alternatives
Watch the overview webinars & download the LCA meta-studies
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The Life Cycle Initiative has been supporting the compilation of LCA meta-studies on several products, namely carrier bags, bottles, take-away food packaging, beverage cups, tableware, feminine hygiene products, nappies, and face masks. Several of these studies (carrier bags, bottles, take-away food packaging) are already available on the website; other reports will be posted soon.
Outreach webinars were held over the month of October, attracting over 1,800 registrations in total and 4 extremely lively sessions that covered LCA meta-studies for the products mentioned above as well as policy examples from New Zealand, the UK, Colombia, Thailand, Mauritius, South Africa, the European Commission and Canada.
This work is part of UNEP’s response to the UN Environment Assembly Resolution 4/9 on Addressing single-use plastic products pollution.
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E-learning courses on Life Cycle Thinking (LCT)
Join upcoming demonstrations of our free courses on LCT basics, applications in business and in policy-making
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Have you ever wanted to learn more about life cycle thinking, but don’t know where to start? Don’t have time or resources to enroll in a traditional training course?
 The Life Cycle Initiative’s free e-learning courses on Life Cycle Thinking could be perfect for you! With life cycle terms becoming increasingly prominent in policy and business decision-making it is important to be informed.
With its modular structure, you can choose courses suited to your interest area (policy, business or academic) and take each course at your own pace. Collectively the courses will give you an overview in life cycle thinking (LCT) and the usefulness of life cycle approaches such as footprints, life cycle management (LCM) and life cycle assessment (LCA) in different circumstances.
To help you decide what courses would work best for you, join us for an introductory webinar:
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For more information contact Claudia.giacovelli@un.org
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Creation of a Global Life Cycle Impact Assessment Method (GLAM)
Participate in the upcoming stakeholder consultation on November 18th, 2020
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Please join us on November 18th, from 14:00 - 15:30 CET for the Stakeholder Consultation on the Creation of a Global Life Cycle Impact Assessment Method (GLAM). This 2nd stakeholder meeting will present results from the scoping phase of the project and will collect participants’ feedback. If you are interested in contributing, then register using the button below.
If you are not able to participate in the consultation on the 18th but would like to provide your written comments, please register using the link below and check the box saying that you want to part of the process.
Further information and dial-in details will be sent on 16 November to those who have registered.
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Roadmap for National LCA Database Development: From guidance to action
Join the upcoming webinar that will showcase the guidance and country implementation experience to date
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A lack of regionally representative data for Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) hampers the use of life cycle thinking in policy-making and environmental decision-making. In this webinar we will showcase the guidance on developing national LCA database roadmaps and learn from the experiences of countries that are successfully advancing their national LCA databases.
Join us November 19th, 2020, from 13:00 – 14:30 CET. Register using the button below.
You can already download the Roadmap Guideline report. For more information, contact Claudia.giacovelli@un.org
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Green Coffee from Latin America
The proposal for Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules for green coffee in Latin America is almost ready!
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To better compete in international markets, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have been carrying out Life Cycle Analyses (LCA) on their coffee production for several years. But the capacity to carry out an LCA and report on results are still limited.
 In response, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) have been working with stakeholders in the region through the Red del Café (Coffee Network).
The Network has been working to quantify and communicate to the international consumer the environmental impacts of coffee. It recently received support from the European Commission through the UNEP’s project “Resource Efficiency through the Application of Lifecycle Assessment (REAL)” to further discussions around a potential Product Environmental Footprint Category Rule (PEFCR) for green coffee.
The first draft of the PEFCR has been reviewed by technical teams in the participating countries and feedback incorporated. There is also an accompanying guideline document (with methodology and tools) to help coffee producers measure the coffee’s environmental footprint. This work will be presented via an open webinar held in Spanish during the first week of December. Use the button below to send an email to the organisers and indicate your interest to participate in the webinar.
The aim is to propose the PEFCR to the European Commission’s Environmental Footprint team before the end of 2020.
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Engage with GO4SDGS
Open call for proposals to NGOs for technical assistance provision
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Go4SDGs in collaboration with GIP, is launching a call for proposal for non-profit organizations to provide technical assistance for the “SME Self-Assessment in Latin America and the Caribbean”. This tool will support SMEs to implement solutions for resource efficiency.
The full call for proposals has details on format and to whom the proposal should be sent. Interested organisations should send in proposals before 23:00 GMT on November 16th, 2020.
Please help us raise awareness of this work by sharing this call with your networks. Thank you!
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Project & Activity Updates
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Life Cycle Thinking e-learning course in Portuguese launched
Overview video presents the course and its value to learners
For our Lusophone colleagues, you might be interested in a video from the Brazilian Life Cycle Management Conference, presented by Life Cycle Initiative member Diogo Aparecido Lopes Silva. His video explains the structure and content of the Life Cycle Thinking e-learning course now available on the Life Cycle Initiative's e-learning platform in Portuguese, in addition to English, French, Spanish and Arabic.
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Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products and Organisations 2020
Join the global launch event of the updated S-LCA Guidelines on January 21st, 2021
It has been over a decade since the publication of the first edition of Guidelines for Social LCA. Since then, researchers and practitioners have used these Guidelines to assess the positive and negative social and socio-economic impacts of products over their lifecycle. In parallel, the practice of S-LCA has evolved from a small circle of academic practitioners to one that now includes stakeholders from industry, policy makers, and business.
This evolution warranted a revision of the Guidelines, which was carried out under the umbrella of the Life Cycle Initiative. The updated Social LCA Guidelines will enable new and experienced practitioners to make informed decisions when planning, conducting or interpreting the results of a Social LCA.
The new Guidelines will be launched on January 21st, 2021 at 15:00 CET during an online panel discussion with representatives of different sectors. The publication will also be available for download on the Life Cycle Initiative website.
Please email the organisers using the button below to join the event.
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Circular Economy and Life Cycle Assessment Webinar
UNEP together with the Peruvian Life Cycle Assessment and Industrial Ecology Network (PELCAN) at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) hosted a webinar “The importance of using life-cycle methodologies to foster a circular economy”. Held on September 22nd, 2020, over 100 people from academia, public and private sectors in Peru participated.
Peruvian Vice-Minister for Environmental Management, Lies Linares, opened the event commenting on the importance of implementing a circular economy agenda in Peru and other Latin American nations. Dr. Ian Vázquez-Rowe moderated a debate where four experts on life-cycle assessment methods and circular economy discussed how Life Cycle Assessment is becoming a reference methodology in the quantification of environmental impacts to determine the benefits and challenges of transitioning to a circular economy:
- Dr. Ramzy Kahhat, a renowned expert in industrial ecology and a professor at PUCP provided insights on how life-cycle methods support the achievement of circular economy objectives, by citing specific examples linked to the waste sector.
- Dr. Diana Ita, professor from PUCP, provided local examples on how entrepreneurship in Peru has adopted circularity principles.
- Dr. Rubén Aldaco, of University of Cantabria (Spain) and currently the president of the Spanish LCA Network, explained the European Union’s adoption of an ambitious circular economy package.
- UNEP’s Ignacio Sánchez talked about public policy, describing how UNEP is supporting governments in Latin America and the Caribbean to transition to a circular economy.
Experts also identified the main challenges and setbacks of circular economy policies in the current world.
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The Imperial Life Cycle Network Virtual Seminar Series
Join the webinar on December 8th, 2020 • 18:30 – 19:30 CET
Join Dr. Llorenç Milà i Canals (UN Environment Programme, Life Cycle Initiative) on December 8th, 2020, from 18:30 – 19:30 CET to hear how UNEP’s Life Cycle Initiative is supporting progress towards the SDGs with life cycle approaches.
This webinar is part of a series of seminars hosted by the Imperial Network of Excellence in Sustainability through Life Cycle Approaches. The seminar series provides a platform to present and discuss topics relevant to the life cycle field. The online seminars are free and open to all.
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Addressing Marine Plastics: A roadmap to a circular economy
Join the report launch event on November 18th • 15:00 – 16:30 CET
Join the virtual launch of the new report “Addressing Marine Plastics: A Roadmap to a Circular Economy”, which is the result of a Global Environment Facility (GEF) Project led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in partnership with GRID-Arendal, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Ocean Conservancy.
This document provides an action-oriented strategy by identifying a core set of priority solutions to be implemented by targeted stakeholders from the whole plastics value chain. The recommendations aim to reduce the ecological and socioeconomic impacts from marine plastics, while transforming the linear “take–make–waste” economy into a circular one. This roadmap can be used as a reference by governments, businesses, funding agencies, and civil society organisations to define their respective action plans in a coordinated fashion, and to scale up interventions on plastic pollution.
The event is on November 18th, from 15:00 – 16:30 CET. Further details about the event will be sent with registration confirmation. If you have any problems registering please contact liana.mcmanus@grida.no.
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Additional events
- CILCA 2021 I IX International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment in Latin America - "Think long term and act immediately" I 29-31 March 2021 I Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Call for manuscripts I Energies Special Issue "Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Building Construction: Focus on Embodied Carbon and Energy"
- 75th Jubilee Swiss LCA Forum I POSTONED TO 2021
- The SETAC 8th World Congress I POSTPONED TO 2021/22
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Green Economy webinar/course moderator at UNITAR
UNITAR has an opening for an online Green Economy webinar/course moderator. They are looking for a consultant to help develop and deliver an in-depth training on Green Economy policy making and analysis for civil servants from the six Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries under the EU4Environment programme.
Application deadline: 8 November 2020.
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Ongoing call for LC Net contributions
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Members of the Life Cycle Initiative, please feel free to submit your event, job vacancy, news, capacity development opportunities, topics and stories related to life cycle thinking and LCA, to be shared with the global life cycle community. We are always looking for featured coverage on the experience how life cycle thinking contributes to different policy agendas, sustainable business and decision making, in various countries and regions.
Note that we cannot accept contributions of a commercial nature. LCNet is released bimonthly in the beginning of January, March, May, July, September and November; please send us your piece approximately two weeks before the release date. We look forward to your contributions in disseminating life cycle knowledge from global policy and business agendas!
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THANK YOU TO OUR FUNDING PARTNERS!
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