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Blueprint for Digital Product Information Systems: Driving Transparency Through LCA

The push for digital transformation to enable sustainability and circularity has led to the development of various yet isolated data exchange solutions worldwide. This transition depends on trusted, interoperable digital product information systems. UNEP’s One Planet Network and the Life Cycle Initiative, together with global partners, developed a Blueprint for Digital Product Information Systems that integrates environmental and social Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) data as a core element.

Transparent, standardized product data enable businesses, policymakers, and consumers to make informed decisions. By embedding LCA aspects, such as environmental impacts, resource use, and carbon footprints into digital product passports and related systems, we ensure science-based accountability across global value chains. The blueprint proposes the following data categories:

• Core product identifiers (e.g. material composition, origin)
• LCA based Environmental performance metrics (e.g. GHG emissions, water use, toxicity)
• Social LCA based performance metrics (e.g. workers’ rights, children, just transition)
• Circularity indicators (e.g. recyclability, reuse potential, end-of-life options)

In the coming months, we will organize consultations on these proposed data categories to ensure they are robust and relevant. Your feedback is vital in shaping a system that is inclusive, interoperable, and transparent, driving progress toward global sustainability goals.

Life Cycle Initiative Steering Committee – Elections

Each year alongside the General Assembly meeting we hold elections for three new Steering Committee members, and this year, our congratulations go to the following newly elected Steering Committee members:

• Government: Brazilian Institute for Science and Technology Information – Ibict, represented by Thiago Rodrigues (Latin America and Caribbean)
• Business: Edge Impact, represented by Jonas Bengtsson (Asia-Pacific)
• Science and Civil Society: Swedish Life Cycle Center (SLCC), represented by Anna Wikström (Europe)

More information on the Life Cycle Initiative’s governance

Join the International Industrial Ecology Day 2025 Webinar on “Global LCA Platform: Building a Global Infrastructure for Life Cycle Assessment”

🗓️ 21 November 2025 | 12:00–13:00 UTC (13:00 Paris time) • Online

The International Industrial Ecology Day 2025 is a 24-hour global event organized by the International Society for Industrial Ecology (ISIE), bringing together researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to advance sustainable production and circular resource management. The Life Cycle Initiative is organizing a webinar on Global LCA Platform: Building a Global Infrastructure for Life Cycle Assessment during IE Day.  The webinar is open to all to attend!

The webinar will explore how the global LCA community can collaborate to build a trusted, interoperable, and transparent infrastructure that supports Life Cycle Assessment worldwide.

The session will introduce the Platform’s vision and progress so far and open a discussion on opportunities for collaboration.

More information and registration

A warm welcome to Life Cycle Initiative’s new interns: Lucie and Sisi

Lucie Du Crest is from France and recently completed a double degree in Environmental Engineering through a joint program between the Technical University of Denmark and l’École Centrale de Lille. During her studies, she developed a strong interest in both quantitative and qualitative assessment tools that support sustainable decision-making. She gained hands-on experience with Corporate Social Responsibility, Life Cycle Thinking, and Life Cycle Assessment during internships in both French and Danish companies. Now based in Paris, she is excited to contribute to advocating for life-cycle thinking through her work with the Life Cycle Initiative. A fun fact about Lucie: she is a self-taught sewist who enjoys applying life-cycle thinking to her creative projects as well.

Shuangjun (Sisi) Yu is a master’s student in Sustainability and Social Innovation at HEC Paris, currently based in Guangzhou, China, and supporting the Life Cycle Initiative’s work remotely. Before joining UNEP, she gained experience in ESG consulting, helping companies improve their ESG ratings and strategy alignment. She also co-founded Stellstice, an HEC Launchpad-backed startup that streamlines ESG data management for fashion SMEs. Sisi is passionate about making sustainability tangible by integrating life-cycle thinking into real business operations. A fun fact about her: she has practiced yoga and meditation every day for the past five years—even while traveling—which keeps her grounded and inspired in her work.

Welcome to you both!

9th General Assembly of the Life Cycle Initiative – Driving Global Momentum for Life Cycle Thinking

The Life Cycle Initiative’s 9th General Assembly, held in Palermo and online, convened over 110 participants from across the globe, marking a vibrant hybrid exchange of ideas and progress. The Assembly featured two dynamic panel sessions that blended strategic reflections with project updates.

Strategic Insights: What’s Missing and What’s Next?

The first panel, moderated by Claudia Peña (EPD Latin America), explored the future of mainstreaming life cycle approaches. Experts from policy, industry, and academia—including Mauro Cordella (European Commission), Jitti Mungkalasiri (Thailand), Marisa Vieira (PRé Sustainability), and Pippa Notten (The Green House)—highlighted key priorities:

• Harmonisation of methodologies and data
• Strengthening infrastructure and human capacity
• Enhancing decision-maker access to actionable insights
• Integrating social dimensions, especially in the Global South

Launch of Portuguese Version of A Policymaker’s Guide to Life-Cycle Assessment at BRACV 2025

From 7–9 October 2025, the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), Sorocaba campus, hosted the 4th Brazilian Forum on Life Cycle Assessment (BRACV 2025), a key national platform uniting academia, industry, and policymakers to strengthen sustainability and circular economy dialogue in Brazil.

Organized by the Sustainability Information Laboratory (LIS/Ibict) in partnership with UFSCar’s Sustainability Engineering Group, the Forum advanced discussions on how Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can inform strategic decision-making for policy and business. A major milestone was the launch of the Portuguese version of A Policymakers’ Guide to Life Cycle Assessment – Policy Brief, developed by UNEP’s Life Cycle Initiative to support policy integration of life cycle thinking. UNEP’s Felipe Dall´Orsoletta contributed to the roundtable on “Life Cycle Analysis and Circular Economy,” highlighting the importance of cross-sector collaboration in accelerating national sustainability efforts.

Download the Portuguese Version (also available in English, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish! Arabic coming soon…) Developed with support from the European Union.

Strengthening the understanding of life-cycle approaches to support policymaking in Africa

Continuing the series of dissemination events on A policymakers’ guide to LCA, the Life Cycle Initiative organised a workshop on leveraging LCA for Circular Economy policy in Africa, during the annual meeting of the African Circular Economy Alliance (ACEA), in Addis Ababa 14-16 October. Representatives from 17 of the ACEA member countries participated actively in the discussions and shared that these generated very useful and practical understanding on how LCA helps assessing solutions and testing assumptions in the context of policies for Circular Economy and Sustainable Consumption and Production.

Participants highlighted the need for support to quantifying resource flows in the economy at the national level, as evidence to substantiate national CE roadmaps and strategies. In this sense, the existence of resources such as the Sustainable Consumption and Production Hotspot Analysis Tool (SCP Hotspots Analysis) or the International Resource Panel’s Global Material Flows Database were celebrated. At a more micro level, resources such as the LCA meta-studies comparing single use plastic products and their alternatives were also praised.

As life-cycle approaches continue to become embedded in policies that need to strengthen their scientific foundations towards sustainability, participants were also keen to know about the work on Chemical Footprint approaches in the context of the Global Framework on Chemicals. The session was in this sense an entry door for many governments to join the working groups on the topic and to seek opportunities for funding to enhance application of Chemical Footprint approaches to reduce impacts from chemicals in several sectors (e.g. textiles, buildings and construction, minerals and metals, electronics).

Intex Factsheets now released: Transforming the textile sector to #BeatPollution

Developed with the support of the European Union, the UNEP InTex factsheets showcase how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Kenya, South Africa, and Tunisia are applying life-cycle approaches to transform the textile sector toward sustainability and circularity.

From tackling chemical pollution, resource use and managing waste better, to creating circular, socially conscious businesses, fostering partnerships for circularity, and building transparent, traceable value chains – each of the six factsheet illustrates how life-cycle thinking guides decision-making across the value chain. These concrete examples demonstrate how LCA can identify hotspots, inform smarter production choices, and build resilient and circular businesses. They also highlight how life-cycle approaches help SMEs foster circular partnerships, improve transparency and traceability, and ultimately support the global effort to #BeatPollution through better data.

As fashion’s environmental toll mounts, these small clothes makers embrace sustainability – new article and video

The #BeatPollution series on textiles, spotlighting actions achieved through the UNEP InTex programme, was launched in conjunction to the  Twentieth Session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN-20), an instrumental gathering in steering the continent towards sustainable development.

UNEP has released a new article featuring examples from the factsheets here: ‘As fashion’s environmental toll mounts, these small clothes makers embrace sustainability‘. The story shows how the SMEs are applying life-cycle thinking, from raw material sourcing through manufacturing, usage and end-of-life, to drive circular, durable design and minimize chemical, water and energy impacts across the textile value chain. For example, it highlights how South Africa’s Soko used Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to find that more than 80% of a jacket’s environmental footprint came from the fabric itself, leading the company to source materials locally and choose lower-impact textiles.

A video on ‘Circular Fashion: the $700 billion opportunity to #Beatpollution’ is also available here. It displays how integrating LCA into design and operations enables the shift toward circular, low-impact, and economically resilient textile systems. It shows how Carthago in Tunisia a SME applied LCA results to improve dyeing processes, cutting water and energy use while reducing chemical pollution and how Seamline Atelier from Kenya applied life cycle thinking to focus on waste reduction and designing garments for durability and repair, minimizing their environmental footprint.

Textile Institute World Conference (TIWC) – 7-11 October, Porto

From 7–10 October 2025, the 93rd Textile Institute World Conference (TIWC) 2025 took place in Porto, Portugal. UNEP’s Claudia Giacovelli was a keynote speaker, discussing UNEP’s LCA work on textiles. The conference theme, Fibre to Future – Transforming Fashion and Textiles through Sustainability and Digitalisation, focused on the significant changes reshaping the global fashion and textile industry through sustainability and digital innovation. Hosted by AQUITEX, the event also highlighted the increasing collaboration between industry and academia.

Global LCA Platform: Building a Trusted Global Infrastructure for Life Cycle Assessment

The Global LCA Platform is advancing rapidly as a cornerstone for harmonized, high-quality life cycle data and methodologies worldwide. Following the July 2025 workshop in Milan, co-hosted by UNEP’s Life Cycle Initiative and Tsinghua University, stakeholders agreed on a shared vision for an inclusive, interoperable system that enables transparent data exchange, quality assurance, and global application of LCA.

Key developments include:

• Alignment with UNEP’s Global Environmental Data Strategy across governance, interoperability, quality, access, and capacity building.
• Launch of four technical working groups focusing on standards, data quality, governance, and infrastructure.
• A Blueprint for a globally connected LCA ecosystem is expected by early 2026.

This effort will strengthen science-based decision-making for sustainable consumption and production, ensuring mutual trust in models and data across sectors and regions.

Training on Data Collection for Hotspot Analysis – InTex India Project

In October 2025, under the UNEP InTex India project, data collection training commenced by the project’s technical intermediaries, the Centre for Responsible Business (CRB) and the Centre for Environment Education (CEE) with beneficiary small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the textile clusters of Karur and Surat. The sessions engaged merchandising, production, and compliance teams, building their capacity to collect reliable data across key sustainability parameters.

The data gathered will be used to conduct hotspot analyses, identify key environmental impacts across the production value chain, and support targeted interventions to address them. This capacity-building exercise will generate critical data to inform evidence-based action and accelerate the transition towards more sustainable and circular textile production in India.

LCA Food 2026 — Call for Abstracts & Workshops Now Open

The LCA Food 2026 Conference will take place on October 12–15, 2026 in Montreal, Canada. As the world’s leading forum on applying life cycle thinking to agri-food systems, LCA Food brings together experts from academia, industry, government, and civil society to exchange knowledge, share experiences, and shape the future of sustainable food systems.

The call for abstracts and workshop proposals is open and closes on December 23, 2025, with registration opening in April 2026. More information is available on the conference website, and updates will be shared on LinkedIn.

For all questions, please contact lcafood2026@conferium.com

SETAC Europe 27th LCA Symposium

SETAC Europe 27th LCA Symposium, will be held on October 19–21 2026, in Bruges, Belgium.

The event is anchored around “Designing Tomorrow: Advancing Life Cycle Approaches for European Sustainability Initiatives”. The programme is structured around five key tracks:
Track 1: Methodological advancements in prospective and consequential LCA;
Track 2: Digitalisation and artificial intelligence in Life Cycle Assessment;
Track 3: Policy integration and decision support through life cycle approaches;
Track 4: Sustainability steering in bio-based and circular economies;
Track 5: Resource efficiency and critical raw materials management.

Call to propose sessions for the symposium is now open. The deadline for submissions is January 14, 2026.

Further details are available on the SETAC Europe 27th LCA Symposium website.

Webinar: Life Cycle Talks: EU environmental policy landscape in a nutshell

05 December, 2025 • 13:00-13:30 CET • Online

Join the next Life Cycle Talks session (Free of charge) featuring An De Schryver, Principal Expert at PRé Sustainability, as she explores the fast-evolving environmental policy landscape in Europe. The talk will focus on how organizations can stay informed and adapt to new regulations affecting their industries. This session is ideal for professionals seeking to understand how policy shifts influence sustainability strategies and life cycle assessment practices.

More information

International Conference on Carbon Footprinting and Life Cycle Assessment in Ecosystem Management

17 – 18 January 2026 • Seoul, Korea

This conference brings together scientists, practitioners and policymakers to explore how carbon footprinting and life-cycle assessment (LCA) can be applied to ecosystem management and sustainability decision-making. Topics include emission-factor modeling, life-cycle stages of products/processes, and ecosystem-based assessments that link environmental impact metrics to real-world land, water and biological systems. Attendees will engage in sessions featuring method innovation, case studies, and cross-sector collaboration to advance the integration of LCA in ecosystem-focused interventions.

More information

10th International S-LCA Conference 2026 – First time in Asia Pacific in over two decades

17-19 June 2026 • Jakarta, Indonesia

The 10th International Conference on Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA 2026) will bring together researchers, industry leaders, policymakers, and innovators to advance social sustainability in life cycle thinking. Under the theme “Unity in Diversity,” S-LCA 2026 will explore the role of social impact assessment in fostering inclusive sustainability, strengthening cross-industry collaboration, and addressing global challenges. The event welcomes stakeholders from academia, businesses, financial institutions, NGOs, media, producers, and civil society, representing diverse regions and industries.

More information

15th International LCA Food Conference

12-15 October 2026 • Montréal, Canada 

The 15th International LCA Food Conference will take place in Montréal, Canada, 12-15 October 2026. The 2026 edition will bring together stakeholders from academia, industry, and policy to share the latest insights, foster collaboration, and explore solutions for more sustainable food systems worldwide. For the first time, food packaging will also be included in the topics discussed!

More information

Unilever – Global Sustainability Manager (Plastics) 
Unilever is seeking an interim Global Sustainability Manager to lead its plastics sustainability agenda, focusing on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and packaging regulation strategies. The 12-month role, based in London with hybrid work, involves driving partnerships with key organizations such as the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the Consumer Goods Forum, ensuring progress toward Unilever’s plastics reduction goals.

More details

PRé Sustainability & One Click LCA – Business Development Manager 
PRé Sustainability, developer of the SimaPro LCA software, has joined forces with One Click LCA to form one of the world’s largest sustainability platforms. Based in Amersfoort, this role drives business growth across the BENELUX and Western Europe, helping companies integrate LCA and sustainability metrics into daily decisions. Candidates should have 3–5 years of B2B sales or business development experience, ideally in SaaS or sustainability consulting, strong communication skills, and affinity with environmental impact assessment.

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Polytechnique Montréal – Assistant Professor in Data Science for Sustainable Development 
The Department of Chemical Engineering seeks a faculty member whose research connects data science with sustainable development, focusing on areas such as LCA, circular economy, and eco-design. Candidates must hold a PhD in engineering or a related field, show excellence in research and teaching, and achieve French proficiency before tenure.

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PepsiCo – Senior Analyst, Life Cycle Assessment 
PepsiCo is hiring a Senior Analyst, Life Cycle Assessment to support its global climate goals and greenhouse gas reduction strategy. Based in the U.S., the role focuses on managing Scope 3 emission factor programs, developing life-cycle-based methodologies, and guiding internal teams and suppliers on decarbonization initiatives. Candidates should have at least 3 years of experience in LCA and GHG accounting, proficiency in SimaPro, and strong data analysis and stakeholder engagement skills.

More details

Note that we cannot accept contributions of a commercial nature. LCNet is released bimonthly in the beginning of January, March, May, July, September and November; please send us your piece approximately two weeks before the release date. We look forward to your contributions in disseminating life cycle knowledge from global policy and business agendas!