2 nd DIRE Working Group Meeting in collaboration with AISME - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

What is sustainable technology? The role of life cycle-based methods in addressing the challenges of sustainability assessment of technologies

Rome - 27 September 2012

2nd DIRE Working Group Meeting

in collaboration with AISME (Accademia Italiana di Scienze Merceologiche) and hosted by the 18th IGWT Symposium

D Development and I Improvement of LCA methodology: E Exchange of experiences R Research and

to create a platform for discussing and debating LCA methodology developments to create a platform for promoting the exchange of information and knowledge among its participants DIRE is a Working Group established in 2010 within the Italian network on LCA

• G. Barberio, L. Rigamonti, A. Zamagni – Rome 27 September 2012

DIRE WORKING GROUP

1st MEETING of DIRE WORKING GROUP: ECOMONDO 2010: Valutazioni di sostenibilità di tecnologie: quale ruolo per l’LCA? Discussion points:

• To improve the robustness of the LCA methodology
• Needs and opportunities of combining/integrating

LCA with other methods

• Towards a life cycle-based sustainability assessment
• G. Barberio, L. Rigamonti, A. Zamagni – Rome 27 September 2012

Economia Società Ambiente

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Economia Società Ambiente Economia Società Ambiente

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1st DIRE MEETING

• G. Barberio, L. Rigamonti, A. Zamagni – Rome 27 September 2012

2nd DIRE MEETING

“The 18th IGWT – International Society of Commodity Science and Technology - Symposium will focus on the different aspects of the development of innovative strategies following a global approach which is characteristic of commodity science.” What is sustainable technology? The role of life cycle-based methods in addressing the challenges of sustainability assessment of technologies

Main question of this 2nd meeting: What is sustainable technology?

• G. Barberio, L. Rigamonti, A. Zamagni – Rome 27 September 2012

“[…] technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral: technology’s interaction with the social world is such that technical developments frequently have environmental, social and human consequences that go far beyond the immediate purposes of the technical devices themselves, and the same technology has quite different results when introduced into different contexts or under different circumstances” (Kranzberger 1997)[1].

[1] Kranzberger M (1997) Technology and History: Kranzberger’s Laws’, in T.S. Reynolds and SH Cutcliffe (eds) Technology and the

West: A Historical Anthology from Technology and Culture (Chicago: Chicago University Press)

Overall, technologies in a broad sense behave like complex systems, characterized by non-linear relationships, feedback loops, emergent phenomena, and tangled connections among the parts.

TOPIC OF THE 2nd DIRE MEETING

The concept of technology is COMPLEX due to its consequences and implications

• n fields not strictly associated with the technology itself and its assessment is

QUITE CHALLENGING.

• G. Barberio, L. Rigamonti, A. Zamagni – Rome 27 September 2012

LCA and other life cycle-based methods offer a well-defined basis for the assessment, which however needs to be coupled and/or integrated with inputs from other domains of knowledge. The assessment of a technology is QUITE CHALLENGING for three main reasons:

• Firstly, emergent technologies like nanotechnologies produce products which often

are not end products, but can be applied to a quite broad range of (unforeseen) applications

• Secondly, many of these technologies are at laboratory scale and thus data

availability and scale up effects are open questions which strongly affect the assessment

• Finally, rebound effects may occur, when the increased benefit/efficiency gained by

the new technology is partly spoilt or turned into a loss.

TOPIC OF THE 2nd DIRE MEETING

• G. Barberio, L. Rigamonti, A. Zamagni – Rome 27 September 2012

10:30 – 10:45 INTRODUCTION Chairs: Grazia Barberio (ENEA), Lucia Rigamonti (Politecnico di Milano), Alessandra Zamagni (ENEA) 10:45 – 11:00 OPENING SPEECH Paolo Masoni, President of the Italian LCA Network – ENEA 11:00 – 12:00 KEYNOTE SPEECH Stig Irvin Olsen, Technical University of Denmark “Strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of LCA and life cycle-based methods for the sustainability assessment of nanotechnologies” 12:00 – 13:00 POSTER SPOTLIGHT

• M. Jorizzo “Life Cycle Approach and Ecoinnovation”
• M. Del Grosso “Eco-innovation of sand cores in aluminium gravity casting for the automotive

supply-chain: an LCA-based analysis M.L. Parisi “Life Cycle Analysis of Dye Sensitized Solar Cell Technology”

• H. Dura “Efficiency of today’s individual passenger transport with respect to its applicability in

urban areas. Comparative assessment of the performance of a light weight vehicle and conventional vehicle in urban living”

• N. Mirabella “Environmental sustainability assessment of a short wood supply chain”
• A. Filareto “Development and In-Field Testing of a Sustainability Assessment method for durum

wheat cultivation”

• A. Filareto “Is healthy eating healthy for the environment” The BCFN Double Food Pyramid”
• A. Fierro “The primary importance of more precise and locally available data for the evaluation of

net GHG emissions of N2O by means of LCA applied to agricultural production”

• V. Tascione “Environmental optimization of waste management systems by integrating LCA and

linear programming: a simulation”

• G. Arcese “Social LCA: a methodology for the application to the tourism sector”

13:00 – 14:30 LUNCH BREAK 14:30 - 16:45 PLATFORM PRESENTATIONS

• V. D’Incognito “Modelling biogenic and fossil carbon among domestic wastes with a material

flow analysis model”

• O. Amerighi “Life Cycle Costing of new technologies”

P.K. Ramirez “Subcategory Assessment Method (SAM) for S-LCA: stakeholder “worker” and “consumer”

• F. Thiebat “Life-cycle methods as design tools for assessment of technologies sustainability”
• J. Ren “An improved Grey Relation Analysis for technologies selection based on Life Cycle

Sustainability”

• A. Filareto “Barilla EPD Process System to increase reliability, comparability and

communicability of LCA studies” 16:45 – 17:30 DISCUSSION Wrap up of the sessions, discussion with the audience, draft of a “Discussion Paper” as main

• utcome of the meeting.
• G. Barberio, L. Rigamonti, A. Zamagni – Rome 27 September 2012

All the presentations and the debate that follows will provide food for thoughts for attempting an answer to the main question of the meeting:

• G. Barberio, L. Rigamonti, A. Zamagni – Rome 27 September 2012

What is sustainable technology?

Other questions:

• Is LCA suitable for assessing new and emerging technologies, such as

nanotechnologies?

• How can LCA be combined with and/or integrated to other methods to
• vercome its limits? And is there any risk in this integration process to stretch

too much methods that have been initially conceived for different applications?

• Are the data and the knowledge necessary to carry out a study of LCSA

available? Is there any risk to develop a methodology that is theoretically robust but whose practical feasibility appears to be difficult?

• How can the results of the assessment be used and communicated?

TOPIC OF THE 2nd DIRE MEETING

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to take the opportunity to thank all those who supported us in the

• rganisation of this meeting:
• the Italian LCA Network and its President Paolo Masoni (UTVALAMB-LCA

ENEA) for always encouraging the activities of the DIRE working group, for the continuous scientific support and advices

• the Accademia Italiana di Scienze Merceologiche (AISME) and the International

Society of Commodity Science and Technology (IGWT) for hosting the meeting and for the organisational support

• Roberto Morabito, head of the technical unit UTTAMB of ENEA, for his support,

and Diana Savelli and her staff of the technical unit UCREL-COM of ENEA for the publishing of the proceedings

• Stig Irvin Olsen for his keynote speech
• all participants for their contributions
• G. Barberio, L. Rigamonti, A. Zamagni – Rome 27 September 2012

• G. Barberio, L. Rigamonti, A. Zamagni – Rome 27 September 2012

PROCEEDINGS

Available at http://www.enea.it/it/produzione-scientifica/edizioni-enea/2012/lca-2012

If you want to contribute to DIRE activities sign up at

http://www.reteitalianalca.it/gruppi-di-lavoro/dire/iscrizione-Dire

• G. Barberio, L. Rigamonti, A. Zamagni – Rome 27 September 2012

Web site: http://www.reteitalianalca.it/gruppi-di-lavoro/dire E-mail: gruppodire@gmail.com

Coordinators: Grazia Barberio, Lucia Rigamonti, Alessandra Zamagni

DIRE WORKING GROUP

FUTURE EVENTS

Convegno della Rete Italiana LCA: LCA in Italia: ricerca, mercato, politiche

11-13th February 2013 Krakow, Poland Abstract submission deadline is 30 October 2012 www.glasgow.setac.eu 12-16 May 2013 Glasgow, UK

23rd SETAC Europe Annual Meeting Building a better future: Responsible innovation and environmental protection

Abstract submission deadline is 30 November 2012.

SETAC Europe 18th LCA Case Study Symposium: Sustainability assessment in the 21st century - tools, trends and application

http://lcacopenhagen.setac.eu www.sac-online.eu/yes2013 26-28 November 2012 Copenhagen, Denmark Ecomondo 2012 7 novembre 2012 Rimini www.reteitalianalca.it/info/eventi/lca- in-italia-ricerca-mercato-politiche

• G. Barberio, L. Rigamonti, A. Zamagni – Rome 27 September 2012