DF 69 — Regionalization in LCA: Current status in concepts, software and databases

Discussion forum on Life Cycle Assessment
Thursday, 13 September 2018, ETH Zürich, Alumni (GEP) Pavillon

Regionalization in LCA has been a research topic over the last decade, but implementation in practice has still been limited. Since the last DF on regionalization in 2009, recent developments at all ends (underlying data availability, inventory, LCIA methods, software implementation) have made a lot of progress.
The topic has gained special importance due to the fact that the Life Cycle Initiative hosted by UN Environment recommends regionalized LCIA methods for water and land. The life cycle impact assessment methodologies LC-IMPACT and IMPACT World+ provide regional CFs. Furthermore, a growing number of regionalized LCI data is provided by LCI databases such as the World Food Database (WFLDB) and ecoinvent, even if coverage and the level of detail is still limited.

While regionalized assessment is an additional effort, it can be the low hanging fruit for improving LCA studies with limited efforts. This DF will include presentations on availability of and challenges with regionalized LCI data, LCIA, and their combination. Software suppliers will show how their tools are currently able to accommodate regionalized product systems with complex supply chains and what developments are ongoing. Finally, database providers will present their strategies how to implement regionalized life cycle inventories. The forum allocates ample time for discussing different approaches and identifying the most important needs to bridge scientific advances and practical implementation and to foster the implementation of harmonised solutions.

This forum is targeted to LCA practitioners, LCA software developers and LCA researchers.

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Final Programme

Download:    DF69-Programme_Regionalization_in_LCA.pdf