Call for abstracts: SETAC Europe 19th Annual Meeting – Goteborg

SETAC Europe 19th Annual Meeting – Goteborg

31 May - 4 June 2009 Goteborg, Sweden

Call for abstracts: Deadline for abstract submission is 1 DECEMBER 2008 

Topics:

o    E03 - Life cycle assessment of nanotechnologies

Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies (N&N) offer a number of beneficial applications. However the potential impact on the environment and on human health of specific 'nanomaterials' and 'nanoproducts' is not yet fully understood and the potential environmental benefits of N&N over the life-cycle has only been scarcely investigated. LCA is a powerful methodology for a comprehensive assessment of N&N. Indeed, the EU proposed '...to take into account the impacts of nanotechnologies throughout the whole of their life-cycle, for example, by using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Tools.'
But LCA of N&N still requires resolving many modelling and impact assessment issues, as: 

•  an appropriate choice of functional unit, taking into account the new functionalities nanotechnologies can add to products;
•  selection of system boundaries; 
•  data collection in inventory analysis, particularly what and how to model or measure concerning nanoparticles release;
•  rebound effects;
•  specific impact assessment characterization factors, etc.

Authors are invited to present recent advances in data and methodological developments for the application of LCA of N&N, as well as full case studies

o    C01 - Advances in Life Cycle Inventory modeling

In the last years a vivid debate has been opened on several methodological issues, with special focus on LCI modeling. In particular, several contributions have been proposed to deepen the current LCI modeling, sometimes going beyond the basic structure of LCI, in order to improve reliability, significance and usability of LCA applications. Deepening of LCI modeling means including more mechanisms (beyond technological relations) and sophistication in modeling, like: economic relations; inclusion of behavioural aspects; time and space modeling; etc. 'Hybrid approaches', i.e. the use of other methodologies (like Input Output Analysis) combined with LCA, have been also developed and applied.
This session invites all stakeholders to present and discuss their approaches and ideas related to how to include more mechanisms and sophistication in LCI modeling. The consequences on the overall uncertainties should be also addressed. Contributions from other scientific domains are strongly encouraged.

o    C02 - Life Cycle Impact Assessment: Methodological advances and biodiversity damage assessment

Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) as a substantial part of LCA has to be continuously advanced to provide improved methods for environmental fields already covered and new emerging impact categories. The session addresses existing approaches (e.g. ecotoxicity of metals) and supplies new metrics closing the methodological gaps (e.g. indoor exposure impacts, noise impact). Also impact categories of particular significance for developing countries and tropical regions such as land use and erosion will be focused at. A major challenge for LCIA remains the assessment of damages to biodiversity in order to progressively integrate very different stressors such as toxic impacts on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. This session further aims at presenting results of methodological work and case studies supporting the improvement of damage modeling for both human health and ecosystems. Presentations that take LCIA a step ahead are invited to the LCIA session.  

o    C03 - Life cycle management - from scientific knowledge to decision making

Life Cycle Management (LCM) focuses on the implementation of life cycle approaches (LCA, life cycle costing, social life cycle assessments, etc.) in organizations (business and other). Essential are efficient and effective tools as well as the appropriate processes for the application of these tools and for bringing new insights into decision-making. In this context, a key question is how to efficiently transfer scientific development and environmental practices into the corporate world? Transferring both 1) the scientific knowledge to company thinking and management and 2) company needs and demands to the scientific community is challenging. For this session, presentations on using life cycle approaches for routine decision making as well as on the integration of LCA and related tools in business processes such as purchasing, product development, and marketing are invited. Intra- and inter-organizational interactions for the improvement of product life cycle performances are also addressed. The focus will be on how to leverage life cycle thinking and make it an integral organizational element, similar to quality management.

o    C04 - Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of Products

Sustainability assessments of products are becoming increasingly important. While many different heterogeneous schemes have been proposed by industry, coherent approaches for the integration of environmental, economic, and social aspects in product assessments are still a major task. For this session we invite contributions elaborating new approaches for integrating the three different pillars of sustainability into a sustainability assessment scheme performed on a product-system basis.

o    C05 - Life cycle thinking and assessment supporting environmental policies and environmental standards

The stage of development and the scope of policies for environmental sustainability on different levels (EC, national, regional) varies significantly. In parallel, environmental sustainability aspects in national and international standards are gaining more and more ground. These efforts can and should be supported by Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCT is a structured approach to evaluate goods and services ('products') in a comprehensive way to avoid overlooking relevant aspects and to avoid shifting of burdens. LCA is the method that quantifies life cycle thinking in the environmental domain. In this session we want to encourage contributions from all stakeholders which demonstrate the variety of available supporting applications, including tools and indicators, exemplifying both their strengths and weaknesses.

o    C06 - Regionalisation in LCA - managing global life cycle and regional needs

With the spread of LCA and Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) into new geographies, the topic of regionalization is timely and increasingly important. It might reduce uncertainties and increase the relevance and interpretability of LCA results, while on the other hand inflating data demand and complexity of a study. On the inventory (LCI) side, regionally variable aspects such as energy production or end-of-life options are issues which might call for regionalisation. From the impact assessment (LCIA) perspective, a need for regionally differentiated characterisation can be demonstrated for non-global impact categories, such as land use, human and eco-toxicity, acidification, or eutrophication. Questions between LCI and LCIA emerge in terms of data availability, consistency, practicability, and implementation into LCA software: This session is intended to be a broad exchange forum providing an overview and technical insights of ongoing research related to regionalisation in LCA. It aims to bring together experts in LCI and LCIA as well as LCA practitioners to improve the linkage between inventory, impact assessment and applicability around regionalisation. A global SETAC LCA Working Group recently has been formed on this topic and will provide important input for the session.

o    C07 - Assessing water use in LCA and water footprinting

The topic of water use and depletion of freshwater resources is rapidly gaining increasing attention and nowadays is perceived (almost) as important as climate change. While water use was mainly disregarded in LCA in the past, new methodological approaches are being developed both for an appropriate inventory modeling of water use and for impact assessment describing the impact pathways up to different areas of protection. This session invites presentations on method development for water-use related LCI schemes, complex LCIA metrics, and simplified assessment approaches for water footprinting. Aspects of spatial differentiation and data availability as well as applications to specific case studies will be discussed. The purpose of this session is to gather researchers and practitioners from business and industry dealing with environmental assessment schemes of freshwater use.

For any information: http://goteborg.setac.eu/home/contentid=13&pr_id=45