Mike Berners-Lee posts on the Guardian his findings. As it turns out riding a bike is about 1/10th the carbon footprint driving a car when taking into consideration the full life cycle of both transporation choices.
Mike presents a nice discussion on the points to consider when making this comparison, such as, differences in quality of life. The full blog post can be found here on The Guardian website:http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/08/carbon-footprint-cycling
The California Redwood Association claims that “Across the board, wood outperforms plastics, steel and concrete. Using concrete instead of wood, for example, can generate 80 percent more greenhouse gases and require about 40 percent more energy. With LCA, science clearly shows that using wood can save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
Details of the study can be found HERE
Do you agree? Send us a note by selecting the read more button and entering your comments in the comment field.
The Care to Air Design Challenge seeks the world’s most innovative, covetable, and sustainable air-drying solution for clothing. At stake? $10,000 in prize money from Levi Strauss & Co., the challenge sponsor – to be distributed among the finalists – in addition to an audience with our distinguished panel of eco-innovators.
A complete third party lifecycle assessment on a pair of Levi’s® 501® jeans revealed that, on average, almost 60% of the climate impact comes during the consumer phase. Nearly 80% of that is due to the energy intensive method we choose for drying. Levi Strauss & Co. is taking strides to bring its carbon footprint down to zero and build sustainability into everything they do – but the LCA revealed that the company needs help from consumers to make the biggest difference.
“The most effective way to reduce the climate impact of a pair of jeans is to air dry, yet the average US household chooses a dryer. Some communities have even banned clotheslines, calling them unsightly. Well Levi Strauss & Co. would like to challenge that point of view by finding clothesline designs or other innovative air drying solutions that are undeniably stylish, sustainable and effective.”
The so-called right-to-dry movement has been growing in the United States, according to Alexander Lee, executive director of Project Laundry List, an advocacy group based in Concord, N.H., that promotes cold-water washing as well as air drying.
To find out more details about entrance requirements and the judging criteria, visit the Care to Air Design Challenge on myoo website: http://myoocreate.com/challenges/care-to-air-design-challenge
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on May 20th, 2010, joined academic, business, government and environmental leaders in announcing the formation of the first-in-the-nation, non-profit Green Products Innovation Institute (GPII). The Institute will be headquartered in San Francisco, California and dedicated to developing comprehensive chemical standards for every day products that are safe and healthy for humans and the environment.
Companies will be able to come to the GPII to get advice on how to “green” their products are and how to improve them. It is a combination of third party C2C certification based on the MBDC method which has now been released to the public domain. The Governor backs it along with companies such as Method, Aveda, Wal-Mart, Herman Miller, Google (YouTube) and Shaw Carpets. Mike Volkema – Chairman of the Board, Herman Miller spoke at the announcement and said 100% of its products will be certified C2C.
The full press release can be found HERE
This course meets on-line on Tuesdays (June 1, 8, 15, 22) at 1:00 PM Pacific Time for 60-90 minutes.
Instructor: Thomas Gloria, PhD, Boston
This is an introductory course on life cycle assessment. Participants will learn the steps involved and complete a simple life cycle assessment in a business simulation using an Excel spreadsheet. You will gain an understanding of the scope, challenges and possibilities in applying life cycle assessment to decision-making processes. This is a great introductory course for:
This workshop is a prerequisite for the LCA certification training that ISSP hopes to offer later (although experienced LCA professionals can ‘test out’ of this course). We will not cover commercial LCA software tools such as SimaPro and GaBi and is not sufficient to pass the American Center for LCA (ACLCA), LCA Certified Professional (LCACP) exam ( http://www.lcacenter.org/certification.html).
Sign up for the class here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/488630507/bgi/
Instructor Biography
Thomas P. Gloria, Ph.D.is Managing Director of Industrial Ecology Consultants. He has more than 19 years of professional experience in sustainability management consulting and information technology engineering design. His work encompasses product innovation; LCA; LCM; methods and policy implications GHG inventories; and energy efficiency feasibility analysis.
This week, the most widely attended and foremost conference for LCA is being held in Seville, Spain. The SETAC Europe conference hosts the most progressive and active subjects related to LCA methodological development and application.
This year’s SETAC Europe LCA topics include:
Life Cycle Inventories – footprinting and critical reviews – posters
Life Cycle Inventories – footprinting and critical reviews - session
Life cycle management and putting life cycle thinking into practice - posters
Life cycle management and putting life cycle thinking into practice - Session A
Life cycle management and putting life cycle thinking into practice - Session B
Life cycle sustainability analysis - posters
Life cycle sustainability analysis – sessions
New Developments in LCIA – Poster
New developments in LCIA – Session A
New developments in LCIA – Session B
New developments in LCIA – Session C
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 December 2010
Special Issue Editor
Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Matthias Finkbeiner
Chair of Sustainable Engineering, Department of Environmental Technology, Technische Universität Berlin, Office Z1, Strasse des 17. Juni 135, D-10623 Berlin, Germany
Website: http://www.see.tu-berlin.de/
E-Mail: matthias.finkbeiner “at” tu-berlin.de
Interests: sustainable engineering; life cycle assessment; carbon footprinting; water footprinting; resource efficiency; eco-efficiency; life cycle costing; social LCA; life cycle management; sustainability assessment; sustainable production and consumption
Published Papers
No papers have been published in this special issue yet.
Special Issue Information
Letter from the editor:
Dear Colleagues,
Sustainability is nowadays accepted by all stakeholders as a guiding principle for both public policy making and corporate strategies. However, the biggest challenge for most organisations remains in the real and substantial implementation of the sustainabilty concept. At the core of the implementation challenge is the question, how sustainability can be measured, especially for products and processes. As long as these questions are not answered, there will be no consistent development towards sustainability and the use of the term remains arbitrary.
My hypothesis is, that the systems or life cycle approach has to be applied for all sustainability dimensions (environmental, economical, social) in order to achieve reliable and robust results. This can be put in the conceptual formula based on Klöpffer:
LCSA = LCA + LCC + SLCA
LCSA -= Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment
LCA -= Environmental Life Cycle Assessment
LCC -= LCA-type Life Cycle Costing
SLCA -= Social Life Cycle Assessment
This special issue seeks to demonstrate the important role that life cycle approaches can play for measuring sustainability. It is intended to provide a forum for scientific progress on both the overall concept of life cycle sustainability assessment as well as the individual tools supporting it.
Prof. Dr. Matthias Finkbeiner
Guest Editor
Submission
All manuscripts should be submitted to sustainability “at” mdpi.org with a copy to the Guest Editor. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. Article Processing Charges (APC) for publication in this Open Access journal are 300 CHF (Swiss Francs) per accepted Paper. English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.
Keywords
•life cycle sustainability assessment
•life cycle assessment
•life cycle costing
•social lca
The Aluminum Association has issued a public challenge to the recent PET Resin Assocation LCA study. A key aspect is the use of 1995 aluminum production data from the US LCI database versus more up-to-date information production information and recycling data that is publicly available.
The main position by the Aluminum Association regarding appropriate use of LCA is as follows:
“Also at issue with the PET study is the use of an LCA study to make comparative analyses of other materials, which is not the standard use of an LCA. LCA studies are traditionally used for self-education and to look for opportunities to increase efficiency within a product stream and not to look comparatively across products.”
“Traditionally, LCA studies have not been used to attack other products, since that’s not the intent of an LCA. We’d like to see the LCA study continue to be used as a tool for self-improvement, not for PR stunts. After our initial review, we do not believe that this study will withstand scrutiny from LCA practitioners.” Steve Larkin, Aluminum Association President concluded.
Details of the Aluminum Association challenge can be found on their website HERE.
The Aluminum Association will be hosting a teleconference and webinar to discuss the Life Cycle Analysis of the aluminum can on May 25th at 10 AM EDT.
Details to attend the teleconference can be found HERE.
The independent study of aluminum cans was peer-reviewed and undertaken in part to respond to Wal-Mart’s packaging scorecard.
Stratos and Industry Canada are pleased to announce the release of a study exploring innovative practices in communicating sustainability with consumers at the point of purchase. The study demonstrates how innovators are linking performance and communication, engaging consumers to reduce lifecycle impacts, and ensuring the accuracy of sustainability claims.
The research is based on the insights of seven innovators – Aveda, Boots, Canadian Tire, Marks & Spencer, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Procter & Gamble and Timberland. A tool for companies reporting sustainability claims can be founds as well: – Green Marketing Gets Real helps companies with the “Why”, “What” and the “How” of sustainability communication.
The full report, case studies and the tool can be found here: http://www.stratos-sts.com/insights/sustainability-reporting-and-communication.html
The corporate sustainability department of Vestas Wind Systems is recruiting a Life Cycle Assessment Specialist to join the Corporate Environment team.
Please find the full job description below.
To apply, please go to: www.vestas.com/jobs and search on Reference code: 00005987
Deadline: June 15 2010.
Job Description:
Life Cycle Assessment Specialist, People & Culture – Europe
Department
The Corporate Safety and Environment department is part of the People and Culture Business Unit. We develop the corporate sustainability strategy, implement and coordinate cross-organizational improvement projects and provide support within the Health, Safety and Environmental area to the Vestas organization.
Responsibilities and Tasks
As an experienced Life Cycle Assessment Specialist, your responsibility will be to take the lead on the journey of achieving Vesta’s objectives of becoming “As Green As It Gets” within the LCA area. You will be the corporate specialist and advisor within the LCA area and with your enthusiastic attitude you will participate to the ongoing development and implementation of LCA initiatives. You will be working closely together with the sustainability reporting unit, as well as climate and environmental specialists.
Your main responsibilities will be to develop, implement and continuously follow up on global/ corporate/strategic LCA initiatives and projects, both regarding products and in general corporate matters.
Furthermore your responsibilities will be to:
Qualifications and Work Experience