Working with the life cycle perspective is of strategic importance for more and more organizations and the Swedish Life Cycle Center, hosted by Chalmers University of Technology, is a unique platform for collaboration. The Center has since 1996 brought together Swedish life cycle competence and front-running companies and has been instrumental in developing and adopting life cycle approaches in the Swedish society, whilst making important contributions to international initiatives. Now the Center is entering the next stage.

– The need and demand for both life cycle information and life cycle competence continue to increase. The demands come from customers, consumers and investors, but we can also see more legal demands today, both at a national level and within the EU. Even companies that want to create advantages in the market and attract labor are applying and communicating the life cycle perspective, says Sara Palander, Director at Swedish Life Cycle Center.

With 25 years of collaboration in the life cycle field, the Swedish Life Cycle Center continues its operation with several new partnerships between academia, research institutes, industry and government agencies. And on January 1, 2022, the Center entered stage 10 with three new years of collaboration and competence building activities, with over 500 professionals among its partner-network.

Some of the issues that will be addressed in the coming years are: circular economy, climate neutrality, Environmental Footprint (an initiative of the European Commission), life cycle data communication as well as biodiversity. New for this period is that the Center has appointed a Scientific director who will further increase the scientific quality.

– It is incredibly important to have a holistic view when working with sustainability. The life cycle perspective is therefore crucial for achieving our sustainability goals as a society, organization or company, says Lars Mårtensson, Chairman of the Swedish Life Cycle Center Board and Director environment and innovation at Volvo Trucks. 

The Swedish Life Cycle Center plays an important role for all its actors within the Center to build networks, competence and influence future development. How the partnership is used is up to the partner. Some partners value the direct contact to the network and research. Others are engaged in expert groups that go in line with their organization’s agenda. And for some organizations, Swedish Life Cycle Center has been and is a key to their continuous work with life cycle related improvements.

An example of a partner collaboration is the project “Innovation cluster for the life cycle perspective”, with funding from the Swedish Energy Agency and center partners. Thanks to this project there is an opportunity to spread knowledge about the life cycle perspective to a broader target group.

– Together with our new partners, we have the opportunity to strengthen the collaboration, exchange knowledge and work towards our vision: Credible and applied life cycle thinking globally. “Partnership is the new leadership” and based on that, I look forward to learn, being inspired and explore how we together can elaborate and expand our knowledge in, for example, circularity and climate neutrality, says Lars Mårtensson.

Interested in collaborating and becoming a partner? Please contact Sara Palander, Director Swedish Life Cycle Center, sara.palander@chalmers.se or +46 (0)31 772 56 40

Want to know more about the life cycle perspective and its application? Subscribe to our newsletter to receive invitations to trainings and webinars etc. https://www.lifecyclecenter.se/registration-to-public-newsletter/

Partners in 2022

CEVT, Chalmers University of Technology (host of the center), Electrolux, Essity, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Polestar Performance, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Scania, SKF, SLU Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, Vattenfall, Volvo Car Group, Volvo Group.

Contact

Sara Palander, Director Swedish Life Cycle Center

sara.palander@chalmers.se or +46 (0)31 772 56 40

About Swedish Life Cycle Center

Founded in 1996 and hosted by Chalmers University of Technology, the Swedish Life Cycle Center is a Center of Excellence and collaboration platform for academia, research institutes, industry and government agencies. It fosters competence-building and knowledge exchange in advancing and applying the life cycle field. With its multidisciplinary methodology and collaboration between researchers, practitioners and decision-makers, the Center is a recognised player in the field.

The Centre’s vision is “credible and applied life cycle thinking globally” and the mission is to work for the integration of the life cycle perspective into processes and decision-making in industry, government policy and other parts of society. It is a partner-driven collaboration, with the partners setting the agenda and managing all the activities. Today, the Center consists of a network of some 500 people (between the various partners) involved in research projects, working groups (for learning) and expert groups (for impact and influence), training (professionals and higher education) and in networking and communication activities (internal conferences, webinars etc.).

Text by Sara Palander & Stina Hallman