In today’s globalized economy, materials & energy supply is based on increasingly complex production chains, coming along with a rapidly expanding spatial and temporal distribution of associated impacts on society and environment. At the same time, mass diffusion of technologies and products with increasing obsolescence rates accelerate primary resource consumption and dissipation.

Assessing the sustainability of materials & energy supply and consumption requires that these issues are addressed with adequate approaches. One of these approaches is life cycle thinking.

The LCAM group is dedicated to generating data and developing the methodological foundations for an application of the life cycle thinking approach by

• improving life cycle inventory modelling and providing sound life cycle inventory data;
• refining, expanding and complementing life cycle assessment methods towards integrated sustainability assessment.
     

This methodical background forms the basis for the application of life-cycle-thinking, with the ultimate aim of supporting informed decision making in the following fields:

• Biofuels and bioenergy
• (electric) mobility
• Buildings, construction components and materials
• Emerging technologies
    

The LCAM group is hosting the ecoinvent centre – the world’s leading supplier of consistent and transparent life cycle inventory data.
   

Contact:
Dr. Rainer Zah, Head of Group
  

Life Cycle Assessment and Modelling Group (-> www.empa.ch/lcam)
Technology and Society Lab (-> www.empa.ch/tsl)