Congratulations and best wishes for success to the new Uganda LCA Network!

The Life Cycle Initiative has been providing support and advice in various countries to set up LCA networks for further strengthening of LCA activities in different regions. During February-March 2016, meetings were co-organized with support of local Bureau of Standards and local LCA practitioners in three East African countries: Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Since then local practitioners in these countries have been working towards formally setting up their own networks. As a result of these activities, the Uganda LCA Network has been launched in April 2018 as a leading network of professionals of international repute in conducting Life Cycle Assessment studies.

The network’s mission is to promote life cycle thinking in Ugandan society in support of sustainable development. Its key objectives include providing a forum for LCA issues in Uganda to act collectively on matters concerning LCA, popularizing LCA in academic institutions for inclusion in the curricula, establishing and maintaining a database of LCA experts and research work to promote better information exchange among members and other interested parties.

The network is governed by a Steering Committee comprising of six members. Working with the Uganda National Bureau of Standards and Kyambogo University, the network members had conducted life cycle assessment and carbon footprint pilot studies based on ISO TS 14067 and ISO 14040 at two local companies for pineapple products, hot pepper, coffee, sugar, papaya and briquettes. In addition, 25 participants were trained on the ISO 14040 methodology for LCA.

Looking ahead, the network plans to build a pool of trainers at the national level through training of LCA trainers, establish exchanges with other similar networks and take up training in product category rules (PCR) development particularly for agricultural produce.