On Thursday, November 23, 2023, the Swedish Life Cycle Center held its annual network conference. This year’s theme was “LCA Data & Methodology,” and a diverse group of over 70 participants representing academia, industry, research institutes, SMEs, and government agencies attended the event at Chalmers University of Technology.

The network conference commenced with an engaging introduction from the Center, setting the stage for a day rich in knowledge-sharing and collaboration.

The subsequent presentations featured insights from notable speakers. Professor Thomas Zobel of Luleå University of Technology, the Center’s recent partner, introduced their research on digitalization and the circular economy. Archana Datta, representing UNEP’s Life Cycle Initiative, delivered a keynote speech on global perspectives regarding the current state and future possibilities of life cycle approaches. Babak Kianian from Höganäs AB discussed the application of life cycle thinking within their organization, while RISE researchers Raphael Gazzotti and Valentina Ivanova explored the integration of LCA data with AI and the Semantic Web.

World Café discussions covered a wide range of topics, including biogenic carbon modeling in LCA, the prospects for prospective LCA, effective data utilization, waste management modeling, the monetary valuation of environmental impacts, envisioning the future of LCA data sourcing, social LCA, and maintaining data quality for credible communication. These discussions were led by experts from Chalmers, Ecoinvent, Essity, IVL, KTH, RISE, and SLU.

The event concluded with a networking session, providing attendees with the opportunity to engage with peers and experts, fostering collaboration and innovation in the sustainability field.

For those interested in participating in exclusive partner activities such as the network conference, workshops, and seminars, please reach out to the Swedish Life Cycle team via lifecyclecenter@chalmers.se.

To catch a glimpse of this year’s event, browse through the photo gallery below.

This event is arranged within the project Innovation Cluster for the Life Cycle Perspective funded by Swedish Energy Agency and partners in the Center.