Niels Jungbluth, Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Critical review, verification, project management, inventory analysis

Niels Jungbluth is since 2006 owner and managing director of ESU-services Ltd. He conducts critical reviews and validation according to different standards for case studies and inventory data. Niels is listed as an approved individual (tool) verifier for the international EPD® System and IBU-Bau. He can also work for other EPD systems like PEP or KBOB.  Niels Jungbluth is in the editorial board of the “Int. Journal of LCA” and in the board of the LCA foods conference.

Niels Jungbluth studied environmental engineering at the Technical University of Berlin. He started working with LCA in 1994 and prepared his diploma thesis during a six-month stay at the TATA Energy Research Institute in New Delhi, where he carried out a life cycle assessment for cooking fuels in India. Between 1996 and 2000 he worked on a Ph.D. Project at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich at the chair of Natural and Social Science Interface. His Ph.D. thesis on the environmental consequences of food consumption has been awarded the Greenhirn Prize 2000 by the German Öko-Institut. In this thesis, he investigated food consumption patterns by means of life cycle assessment.

Degrees: Dr. Sc. Techn. ETH Zurich, Dipl.-Ing. Environmental Engineering, TU Berlin

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Curriculum Vitae Niels Jungbluth

The CV of Niels Jungbluth who is LCA expert, manager and owner of ESU-services Ltd. in Schaffhausen.

Educational Background

• Ph. D. student at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Department of Environmental Sciences, Natural- and Social Science Interface, Zurich, Switzerland. The thesis on Environmental Consequences of Food Consumption won the greenhirn price 1999/2000 of the Öko-Instituts Freiburg
• Studies of Environmental Engineering at the Technical University of Berlin (Germany). Intermediate Examination April 1991. Main Subjects of Studies: Water Purification, Waste Management, Ecology, Environmental Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Environmental Statistics, Water chemistry, Environmental Psychology.
  
  Project thesis “PCB-contaminated Capacitors in Washing-machines from the Eastern Part of Germany”
  
  Diploma thesis “Restricted Life Cycle Assessment for the Use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas and Kerosene as Cooking Fuels in India”. (download)
  
  Graduation as Dipl.-Ing. in Environmental Engineering in December 1995 (the diploma is comparable to the degree of Masters).
• Alexander-von-Humboldt-Secondary School, Hamburg-Harburg, Matriculation.

Practical Experience

• Since 2012 Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at ESU-services Ltd., Schaffhausen
• 2006–2012 Managing partner at ESU-services Ltd.
• 2000-2005 Project leader at ESU-services, Uster.
• 1.8.1996 to 4.2000 Ph.D. student at the ETH Zurich in 1996. First in the Energy – Materials – Environment Group (ESU) Since 1997 research assistant at the chair of Natural- and Social Science Interface. Working for the Integrated Project Society in the subproject Energy, Greenhouse Gases and Way of Living since August 1996. The Project was financed within the Swiss Priority Programme Environment (SPPU) by the Swiss National Science Foundation and ran from 1996-2000.
• 1996 International Centre for Energy and Environment, Leipzig GmbH, writing of proposals for research projects in different CIS states.
• 1996 Environmental Consult, Berlin. Data compilation, input, analysis and documentation for the computer program Environmental Manual.
• 2.1.1996 to 19.1.1996 German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) mbH, Eschborn ,working contract, data compilation, input, analysis and documentation for the computer program Environmental Manual.
• 1.11.1994 to 24.2.1995 TATA Energy Research Institute, New Delhi, India. Practical Training, Collection of data and information for a Life Cycle Assessment for Cooking with Kerosene and Liquefied Petroleum Gas.
• 17.1.1994 to 18.2.1994 Water Resources Agency, Freiburg im Breisgau, Practical Training, Working Groups Industry and Business, Water Resources, Soil Protection.
• 25.10.1993 to 19.11.1993 Authority for Environment and Nature, Schwerin, Practical Training Assistance for water related notices of approval.
• 12. – 17.9.1993 Working Group Environmental Statistic TU-Berlin (ARGUS), Kulmbach, Assistant, Screening and Registration of Waste Types at a Waste Reloading Station.
• 24.8.1992 to 18.9.1992 Engineering Office AKUT GmbH, Berlin, Practical Training, Environmental Impact Analysis for do-it-yourself products.
• 20.7.1990 to 10.10.1990 Farm in Nicaragua, Project for the Intermediate Examination, Planning and construction of a simple biogas plant for a farm.
• 1991 to 1996 Central Sports Organization of the Technical University in Berlin, Guide for white-water canoe courses for students.

Experiences

• Research, teaching and consultancies on Life Cycle Assessment, Energy, Biomass, Food, Consumption Patterns, Sustainable Development, Consumer Behaviour, Environmental Management
• Editorial Board and peer reviews for the Int. Journal of LCA, International Dairy Journal, AMBIO, Journal of Industrial Ecology and other journals
• Organization of the LCA foods conference as a member of the Scientific Committee

Professional Affiliations

• Swisscleantech
• IG Energie Schaffhausen
• Forum for Sustainability through Life Cycle Innovation e.V. (FSLCI)

Private Affairs

• My favourite activities are looking for my son, beaver watching, hiking, ski touring, canoeing, swimming and cycling.

Dissertation Niels Jungbluth

Environmental consequences of food purchases: A modular LCA to evaluate product characteristics developed in the dissertation of Niels Jungbluth

Supervisors: Prof. Roland W. Scholz, Prof. Olivier Jolliet, Dr. Olaf Tietje

Niels Jungbluth: “Umweltfolgen des Nahrungsmittelkonsums: Beurteilung von Produktmerkmalen auf Grundlage einer modularen Ökobilanz” Dissertation ETH Nr. 13499, Umweltnatur- und Umweltsozialwissenschaften, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, 316 Seiten, ISBN 3-89825-045-8 , dissertation.de, Berlin.

The thesis won the “greenhirn price 1999/2000” and is available with the same title by Öko-Institut e.V., Werkstattreihe Nr. 123, ISBN 3-934490-07-7.

Who hasn’t been standing once in front of the supermarket shelf and asked herself if the organic carrots from Italy or the cauliflower from her own country is the most ecological choice for the next meal, and then, finally, has decided to buy the delicious asparagus from the USA? The extent of environmental impacts of food consumption depends on various factors. It is not easy for consumers or even for experts to account for these impacts.

The goal of this research work was to assist consumers in considering environmental aspects. Separate LCA’s were calculated to assess various aspects of the consumers’ choices, e.g., the type of agricultural practice, the origin of the product, the use of packaging material, the type of preservation, and the consumption (including home transport, conservation, and preparation). A modular LCA approach was developed to model the impacts of the consumers’ decisions. This simplified method allows investigating the ecological tradeoffs among different decision parameters (such as assessing a biological product from the Netherlands vs. greenhouse from Switzerland). Most of the decision parameters might have an influence on the overall impacts of a vegetable product. Greenhouse production and products transported by aeroplane cause the highest environmental impact. The agricultural production determines the overall environmental impacts of meat products. The total impacts for purchased vegetable or meat products might vary by a factor of nine or seven, respectively. It could be shown that the environmental impacts of purchases by different consumer subgroups vary. Different hints for consumers were ranked, according to the variation of average impacts, due to a marginal change of consumption patterns.

A summary of this work has been published as an article in the Int. J. LCA. (A summary of the book, pdf-format).

The life cycle inventory data and LCIA results shown in this thesis have been updated in several projects of ESU-services. All datasets of the Ph.D. thesis are sold in the EcoSpold format and are linked to the most recent ecoinvent data. The data can be imported to several software products, e.g. SimaPro, Gabi or Umberto. We can also offer you to calculate up-to-date results for several LCIA indicators.

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