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Swiss LCA discussion forum

ESU-services Ltd. has organized in the recent years several of the LCA discussion forums. Since 2010, ESU-services Ltd. is sponsoring the Swiss LCA Discussion forum. More information, program and registration forms are available here. Special conditions apply for new Swiss and Austrian SimaPro customers.

DF 49 Sustainable Consumption Patterns

Date: 18.9.2012 in the GEP at the ETH Zürich

Several national and international initiatives aim for a considerable reduction of environmental impacts due to today’s consumption patterns. This LCA discussion forum intends to show and discuss life cycle approaches used for the analysis of consumption patterns. Concepts like the “2000 Watt Society” will be explained. The existing potentials for a substantial reduction of environmental impacts and the possible role LCA can play in the analysis and quantification of such potentials will be outlined. There will be room for presentations about Webtools such as personal footprint calculators or other means of communication for highlighting results of an overall analysis of consumption patterns.

Contact: Niels Jungbluth

DF 47 LCA of energetic biomass utilisation: actual projects and new developments

April 23, 2012, Berne-Ittigen (in English)

In the last years, the use of biomass for energy purposes, such as electricity, heat, and transport services, has been seen as a promising option to reduce the use of non-renewable energy sources and the emissions of fossil carbon. However, LCA studies have shown that the energetic use of biomass also causes impacts on climate change, and, furthermore that different environmental issues arise, such as land use and agricultural emissions. While biomass is renewable, it is not an unlimited resource. Its use, to whatever purpose, must therefore be well studied to promote the most efficient option with the least environmental impacts. Consequently, there is a need for up-to-date inventories of biomass and its energetic use to provide such studies with best available data. This is the focus of projects financed by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, which are presented in this discussion forum. In the forum current developments of LCA studies in the field of biogas, biomass combustion, biofuels, and energy crops are discussed.

Contact: Matthias Stucki

DF 45 Environmentally extended input-output-analysis and LCA

DF 45, 15. September 2011, Berne-Ittigen (in English)

So far environmental extended input-output-analysis was rarely used in Switzerland. A Swiss study has recently investigated the total environmental impacts of consumption and production of Switzerland. Within this project a hybrid-methodology was developed for assessing the imports by combining trade statistics and LCA data. The study shows that environmental impacts due to imports are more important than domestic impacts. The inventory data will be available in EcoSpold format and can thus be used by LCA practitioners. They cover all emissions and resources that are assessed with the ecological scarcity method. The forum will also discuss the economic background, uncertainties and possible improvement options of such an analysis. International speakers are invited and will provide a broader view on this approach.

Download of presentations

DF 44 LCA of food

Niels Jungbluth: Environmentally friendly food consumption: What does this mean for consumers? in Lausanne, June 21st 2011

DF 41 Environmental Product Information

In the recent past, several initiatives were launched to show the carbon footprint or other life cycle based environmental information for consumer products. While the provision of environmental product information (EPI) may contribute to more informed purchase decisions and would help to increase the attention of companies towards environmentally more efficient products and production processes, several key aspects still need clarification. During this forum we discuss the strengths and weaknesses, the opportunities and the limits of environmental information for products in detail.

In a first part expectations of the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment are outlined. Results of a Swiss feasibility study investigating a possible concept for EPI are presented in a second presentation. This shows the main challenges for meaningful information that should direct consumer decisions. A special issue of EPI is the consideration of the use and end-of-life phase. These phases may be very important, depending on the type of product. However, the use phase often shows a high variability and different end-of-life options exist. Furthermore, the use and the waste management of a product can only partly be influenced by the producer. One has to decide also about the level of decision making addressed by the approach and thus about the functional unit for which information can be shown. The presentations evaluates also which environmental indicators are sufficiently comprehensive and accepted internationally. The reaction of consumers on such information and the best ways of providing complicated interrelations in a simplified way will be presented in the next presentation.

Than different approaches developed in neighbouring countries are presented for providing environmental information on products based on life cycle thinking. These presentations should highlight the differences as well as similarities in the development of concepts for EPI.

Within the third part we present practical examples of EPI or environmental product declarations for single products or product groups. From these problems we can learn more about the challenges while providing such information. It is evaluated how far such examples can be generalized in order to establish one type of environmental information for all types of products.

Summary of the discussion forum:

Presentations of ESU-services:

Feasibility study

DF 36 LCA of future biofuels

ESU-services organized together with the EMPA the discussion forum No. 36. This took place on November 17, 2008 in Dübendorf. Download of all presentations. 

Nowadays the discussion about biofuels is dominated by food security issues and ecological concerns. Indeed, various studies on currently used biofuels have shown that environmental impacts over the whole production chain are often higher than for the fossil reference. New hope is set on coming technology developments and improved feedstocks. They promise higher efficiencies and lower environmental impacts.

The conference provides an overview on recent LCA approaches and results of several case studies about future bioenergy, including BtL-fuels and synthetic natural gas (SNG), as well as emerging feedstocks like jatropha and algae. Crucial questions from an LCA viewpoint are:

  • Is the overall environmental performance of future biofuels better than that of current biofuels?
  • Which feedstocks should be preferred? What are the most promising technologies?

However, LCA deals with only one aspect of sustainability. To obtain a complete picture of the future potential of biofuels, environmental impacts should be weighted against impacts on the socio-economic level. At this conference a holistic approach for the technology assessment of future biofuels will be presented. Furthermore opportunities and threats of biofuels from the perspective of the rural poor will be discussed.

N. Jungbluth: Life Cycle Assessment of Different Pathways of BtL-Fuels from Wood, Straw and Miscanthus. Presentation during the DF 36.

DF 30 LCA of biofuels

See project homepage.