As Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) continues to gain relevance in policy, industry, and science, the need for a trusted global infrastructure to support its application has become increasingly clear. Building on ongoing efforts to address this gap, international experts convened from 10 to 11 July 2025 for the Global LCA Platform: Shaping the Future from Vision to Action Workshop in Milan, co-organized by Tsinghua University, the UNEP Life Cycle Initiative, and the University of Padova.

The workshop brought together representatives from government, academia, international organizations, and industry to agree on a shared vision for a Global LCA Platform: an inclusive, interoperable system that enables transparent data and methods exchange, quality assurance, and collaboration across regions and sectors. The platform aims to support science-based policy- and decision-making for sustainable consumption and production at scale.

Participants discussed key foundational aspects, including how such a platform should operate, how to promote interoperability among existing systems, and how to build mutual trust in the data and models it will rely on. The importance of transparent governance, stakeholder engagement, and long-term collaboration was a recurring theme throughout the discussions.

To carry the process forward, four technical working groups were defined, focusing on: 1) standards and methodologies; 2) data quality and curation; 3) governance and engagement; and 4) technical infrastructure. The workshop served as the foundation for this global effort, launching a collaborative process to design and implement the platform. In the coming months, the four technical working groups will initiate their work, progressively shaping the technical, governance, and engagement elements needed. This marks the beginning of a sustained effort to make life cycle data, methods and tools more accessible, consistent, and trusted worldwide.

Are you interested in contributing with your expertise to this global effort? Fill out this form indicating which working group you would like to contribute to, preferably by 20 September 2025.