Annual Report 2021

The life cycle perspective is being integrated in all levels in the society, from customer demands to new business models and in legislations. The need and demand for both life cycle information and life cycle competence continue to increase. So after 25 years, the Swedish Life Cycle Center and the life cycle community have an important role to play.

During 2021, the Swedish Life Cycle Center has gathered its expertise with the ambition of further strengthening life cycle science in Sweden by developing a joint application to the Swedish Energy Agency for a new Center of Excellence within the life cycle field. This joint effort has led to new collaborations and dialogues. Among others, this led to new collaborations with Electrolux and Polestar, which became new partners during the year. Both Electrolux and Polestar have experience of applying life cycle approaches in their business and are now joining the Center in our work towards the vision “Credible and applied life cycle thinking globally” and to drive the life cycle field forward.

This year a Scientific director has joined the Swedish Life Cycle Center with the aim of increasing the scientific quality of the Center. Formerly run by the Scientific Advisory Group, this role complements the Center’s Director, who is responsible for its operations and for running a Technical secretariat that manages the Center’s activities.

In 2021 we had the opportunity to dive deeper into the field of Environmental Footprint, an initiative of the European Commission, and the methodology aspects within the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) method. This initiative has been important to better understand and develop the method as PEF is expected to be used for legislation and in several new policies at an EU level. The field has attracted a large number of participants from companies, authorities, industry associations, universities and research institutes. From Sweden, Europe and outside Europe.

“Innovation cluster for the life cycle perspective” provides a meeting place where industry, academia, authorities and other parts of society come together to create opportunities for an increased understanding and use of the life cycle perspective. The innovation cluster has made it possible to develop new forms of collaboration for SMEs and to strengthen our relationships with other life cycle networks in other parts of the world. In 2021, this project enabled us to promote our working groups, expert groups, network conference and strategic intelligence meetings for an increased understanding and use of the life cycle perspective. The project is financed by the Swedish Energy Agency and Swedish Life Cycle Center’s partners and will run until May 2024.

If you are interested in knowing more about what Swedish Life Cycle Center did last year, please read our  Annual Report here