****Sorry For Cross-Postings*** *
24th LCA Discussion Forum:*
*Life-cycle Approaches for Sustainable Consumption*
December 2, 2004, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
Room CO 016
How to consume in a more sustainable way?
We are pleased to invite you to the 24^th Discussion Forum on Life Cycle
Assessment to address this question. Please note that there are
opportunities for short presentations (5-10 minutes). We encourage you
to submit an abstract using the attached application form.
Sustainable consumption is an emerging issue in many countries. At
present consumers are flooded with pieces of information on how to
consume in a sustainable way and not seldomly the information seems
contradictory. There is a need for reliable assessments of all
consumption activities and there is also a need to prioritise
consumption patterns and alternatives that can make a significant
difference.
Life cycle thinking is a powerful concept that spreads out more and more
in domains where sustainability is of importance. To look at individual
phases in the life cycle of goods and services is reductive; we need to
consider all impacts from the production throughout the use and the end
of life stage. Life-cycle approaches could probably provide the
scientific basis for all dimensions of sustainable consumption. They
gave already proof of there usefulness in studies to evaluate
environmental and economical aspects of sustainable consumption.
The 24th LCA discussion forum aims at determining and illustrating how
life cycle approaches can be used in the area of sustainable
consumption, e.g. to inform policy makers, select areas of action,
identify consumption patterns and lifestyles that are more sustainable,
advise consumers, and evaluate the effectiveness of measures.
In particular the 24^th LCA Forum will look at:
- Available life cycle tools for sustainable consumption;
- Life cycle approaches that allow assessing a majority of consumption
activities;
- Consumer acceptance of more sustainable products and consumption patterns;
- Life cycle approaches allowing evaluating problems that could be
caused by changes in consumption patterns (rebounds effects);
- Case studies on sustainable consumption using life cycle approaches;
Presentations and discussions will address and give tentative answers to
the following questions:
- What is the potential of sustainable consumption for impact reductions?
- How to measure sustainability (state of nature, social and economical
performance)? What are acceptable levels of damages and time horizons
for sustainable consumption?
- How to promote sustainable consumption (financial incentives,
legislative actions, etc.)?
We hope that this forum will be of interest to you and we are looking
forward to welcoming you in Lausanne.
Information on the LCA Discussion Forums can be found on the following
website: http://www.texma.org/LCA-Forum/lca-forum.html
For the Industrial Ecology – Life Cycle Systems group,
Best regards.
Prof. Olivier Jolliet, Josef Kaenzig, Yves Loerincik
Contact: [log in to unmask]
Practicalities:
* The forum takes place in Lausanne, at the EPF and will be held in english
--
Yves Loerincik
Environmental Science and Engineering
EPFL, bâtiment GR, GECOS
CH-1015 Lausanne
tel: ++ 41 21 693 57 46
fax: ++ 41 21 693 57 60
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