On Thursday 24 November 2022, the Swedish Life Cycle Center organized its first non-digital network conference after the Covid-19 pandemic. The conference was titled “Life Cycle Thinking in Policy and Legislation” and brought together over 60 participants from the Center’s partners, SMEs and government agencies in collaboration with the Center along with some invited guests. The conference was held at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, which also hosted the conference.

The conference began with an opening speech by Björn Risinger, Director General of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. This was followed by an introduction to the day by Sara Palander, Director of Swedish Life Cycle Center and Lars Mårtensson, Chairman of the Board, who then handed over to Maria Rydberg, the moderator of the day.

Throughout the day, a number of different keynote speakers then spoke about their expertise within the field of “Life Cycle Thinking in Policy and Legislation”. The first keynote speaker was Serenella Sala, from Joint Research Center, EU Commission who spoke about the development of life cycle assessment and life cycle thinking in European policies. Serenella’s presentation was followed by presentations from our newest partners, Polestar (by Frida Røyne), Höganäs (by Hilmar Vidarsson), and CEVT (by Lionel Belzons). They talked about how they work with life cycle thinking and life cycle assessment in their organizations and how they face lifecycle-based requirements today and how well prepared they are for future legislation. This part was then followed by a presentation from Björn Spak, LCA specialist at Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, who spoke about the current development of environmental policy based on life cycle thinking. Among other things, he informed us about the EPA’s role in the Environmental Footprint process, the Battery regulation, the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation and the Green Claims Initiative. This presentation was followed by a presentation from Eva-Lotta Lindholm, Programme Manager Products Unit at the Swedish Energy Agency who gave an introduction to Ecodesign and Energy labelling. Eva-Lotta also spoke about the Carbon footprint in policy and on Photovoltaic modules. Eva-Lottas presentation was followed by a coffee break and networking opportunities for all participants.

After the coffee break it was time for the last presentation of the day, by Susan Iliefski-Janols, Vice President Sustainability Products and Services at Essity. She talked about the power of broad agreements, which sustainability trends affect their business, external agreements, their internal climate and sustinability goals and how they are affected by external life-cycle requirements. After the last presentation, it was time for a group discussion, where all participants had the chance to discuss the benefits, opportunities and risks of introducing life cycle thinking into policy and legislation.

The day ended with an after work at Sjöstaden Skybar, where all participants could continue the discussions from the day, mingle and network.

The Swedish Life Cycle Center’s network conferences are exclusive for partners to the center. If you want to know more on how to become a partner to Swedish Life Cycle Center, you can read more here or contact us.

The network conference was arranged by Swedish Life Cycle Center as part of the project Innovation cluster for the life cycle perspective, funded by Swedish Energy Agency and partners in Swedish Life Cycle Center.