| Time | Title | Speaker | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:30 | Registration, Coffee and Croissants | ||
| 9:00 | Welcome and introduction | Carl Vadenbo | ETH Zurich (Switzerland) |
| Indicators and method development | Chair: Carl Vadenbo | ||
| 9:05 | Setting the scene: Overview of resource topics in LCA and MFA DF55-01 Hellweg.pdf | Stefanie Hellweg | ETH Zurich (Switzerland) |
| 9:30 | Ore grade decrease as life cycle impact indicator for metal scarcity DF55-02 Ponsioen.pdf | Tommie Ponsioen | PRé Consultants (The Netherlands) |
| 10:00 | Addressing natural resources as area of protection in sustainability assessment DF55-03 Dewulf.pdf | Jo Dewulf | EC-JRC / Ghent University (Belgium) |
| 10:30 | Coffee break | ||
| Indicators and method development (cont'd) | Chair: Carl Vadenbo | ||
| 11:00 | Abiotic resource availability in the context of sustainability – modelling environmental, economic and social constraints DF55-04 Schneider.pdf | Laura Schneider | TU Berlin (Germany) |
| 11:30 | Impact assessment of abiotic resources: the role of borrowing and dissipative resource use DF55-05 Frischknecht.pdf | Rolf Frischknecht | treeze Ltd. (Switzerland) |
| 11:50 | Comparison of resource depletion indicators: Quantitative differences and similarities DF55-06 Rorbech.pdf | Jakob Rørbech | DTU (Denmark) |
| 12:20 | Lunch break | ||
| Managing abiotic resources | Chair: Melanie Haupt | ||
| 13:20 | Assessing resource criticality of metals and its relationship to life cycle assessment DF55-07 Nuss.pdf | Philip Nuss | Yale University (USA) |
| 13:50 | Short presentations (SP) DF55-08 Du.pdf DF55-09 Laner.pdf DF55-10 Drielsma.pdf DF55-11 Althaus.pdf | Xiaoyue Du David Laner Johannes Drielsma Hans-Jörg Althaus | EMPA (Switzerland) TU Vienna (Austria) euromines (Belgium) swisscleantech (Switzerland) |
| 14:40 | Introduction to workshop topics and formation of groups | Melanie Haupt | ETH Zurich (Switzerland) |
| Workshop | Chair: Rolf Frischknecht | ||
| 14:45 | Coffee break | ||
| 15:15 | Discussion in groups, tentative topics: 1: Resource indicators: Practicality versus scientific rigour 2: What are the potential role(s) of exergy and other thermodynamic concepts for managing resource use? And how to combine it with other aspects such as scarcity and criticality? 3: Borrowing or dissipating resources, does it matter? | ||
| 16:05 | Summary of discussions from group leaders | ||
| 16:35 | Wrap-up + announcements for next discussion forum | ||
| 16:40 | Farewell | ||
| 16:45 | End |
DF 55 – Abiotic resources – New impact assessment approaches in view of resource efficiency and resource criticality
Dear colleagues with an interest in Life Cycle Assessment,
We cordially invite you to the 55th Discussion Forum on Life Cycle Assessment.
The official language of this event is English.
Security of abiotic resources has become a growing political concern with increased focus at resource scarcity, natural availability and dependency on foreign supply. For a near-future time horizon, both the USA and the EU have identified so-called “critical raw materials” (including platinum group metals, rare earth elements, niobium, and tungsten), and resource efficiency has become one key element of the sustainability policy of the EU and Switzerland. For the long time horizon, new as well as updated approaches for abiotic resource impact assessment have recently been developed within the context of life cycle assessment. This development has been extremely diverse with no unifying practice on how to assess resource extraction from the natural environment.
The goal of this discussion forum is to present and discuss these approaches with respect to
- the relevance of resources as a separate safeguard subject in environmental assessments;
- their interpretation of environmental mechanism related to resource extraction;
- usability and application relevance of resource depletion assessment methods, criticality assessment and resource efficiency assessment respectively;
- elemental coverage and alignment with other types of resources (biogenic and renewable abiotic funds and flows), and;
- the future direction for assessment of resource extraction within the framework of life cycle assessment.
We look forward to meeting you!
Rolf Frischknecht (treeze Ltd.), Melanie Haupt (ETH Zürich), Jakob Rørbech (DTU) & Carl Vadenbo (ETH Zürich)
Organizing committee, 55th LCA Discussion Forum
Download: DF55-Programme Abiotic Resources.pdf
Livestream / Videorecordings: access to the live streaming and chat was available at the day of the event. The recordings of all presentations are published on the following platform:
https://www.multimedia.ethz.ch/misc/lca/2014
All talks and discussions can be accessed individually.