How to consume in a more sustainable way?
Sustainable consumption is an emerging issue in many countries. At present consumers are flooded with pieces of information on how to consume in a sustainable way and not seldomly the information seems contradictory. There is a need for reliable assessments of all consumption activities and there is also a need to prioritise consumption patterns and alternatives that can make a significant difference.
Life cycle thinking is a powerful concept that spreads out more and more in domains where sustainability is of importance. To look at individual phases in the life cycle of goods and services is reductive; we need to consider all impacts from the production throughout the use and the end of life stage. Life-cycle approaches could probably provide the scientific basis for all dimensions of sustainable consumption. They gave already proof of there usefulness in studies to evaluate environmental and economical aspects of sustainable consumption.
The 24th LCA discussion forum aims at determining and illustrating how life cycle approaches can be used in the area of sustainable consumption, e.g. to inform policy makers, select areas of action, identify consumption patterns and lifestyles that are more sustainable, advise consumers, and evaluate the effectiveness of measures.

In particular the 24th LCA Forum will look at:

• Available life cycle tools for sustainable consumption;
• Life cycle approaches that allow assessing a majority of consumption activities;
• Consumer acceptance of more sustainable products and consumption patterns;
• Life cycle approaches allowing evaluating problems that could be caused by changes in consumption patterns (rebounds effects);
• Case studies on sustainable consumption using life cycle approaches;

 

Presentations and discussions will address and give tentative answers to the following questions:

• What is the potential of sustainable consumption for impact reductions?
• How to measure sustainability (state of nature, social and economical performance)? What are acceptable levels of damages and time horizons for sustainable consumption?
• How to promote sustainable consumption (financial incentives, legislative actions, etc.)?

We hope that this forum will be of interest to you and we are looking forward to welcoming you in Lausanne. Information on the LCA Discussion Forums can be found on the following website: www.texma.org/LCA-Forum/lca-forum.html

For the Industrial Ecology – Life Cycle Systems group, Best regards.
Prof. Olivier Jolliet, Josef Kaenzig, Yves Loerincik Contact: LCAforum@epfl.ch 

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Download:   Invitation and program