What year is it? Navigating time in LCA (11:00 UTC)
Session Organiser: Timo Diepers, Amelie Müller
Institution: Institute of Technical Thermodynamics RWTH Aachen; Institute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University
Location/Local Time: Aachen, Germany; Leiden, Netherlands, 12- 1pm
Abstract:
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a well-established tool for assessing the environmental impacts of products and services. However, LCA typically assumes static product systems and technosphere-biosphere interactions, overlooking their inherent dynamic nature. Recent research has made significant progress in criticizing this steady-state assumption of LCA, highlighting how the various building blocks of LCAs are interlinked with time.
This session explores the importance of incorporating time into LCA, with a particular focus on time-based life cycle inventory generation and usage. We also aim to discuss critical areas for future research towards a fully coherent treatment of time in the LCA framework.
Session Details:
Speakers:
- Romain Sacchi (Laboratory for Energy Systems Analysis (LEA), Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Switzerland)
- Simon Bruhn (Department of Green Technology (IGT), University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Denmark)
- Amelie Müller (Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), Leiden University, Netherlands and VITO, Belgium)
12:00 - 12:05: Welcome and introduction by Timo Diepers
12:05 - 12:20: Romain Sacchi: Bridging Future Energy Scenarios with LCA: Adapting Background Databases for Prospective Sustainability Insights
12:20 - 12:35: Simon Bruhn: Historical LCA - what can the future learn from the past
12:35 - 12:50: Amelie Müller: Time-explicit LCA: combining the strengths of dynamic and prospective LCA in a temporally coherent method
12:50 - 13:00: Synthesis and discussion
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