• Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of Argentina, Rodrigo Rodríguez Tornquist – Government, Latin America and the Caribbean

I hereby would like to notify Argentina´s interest of being part of the Steering Committee of the Life Cycle Initiative.

Mr. Rodrigo Rodríguez Tornquist, Secretary of Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Innovation of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of Argentina is currently representing the GRULAC (Latin American and the Caribbean Group) and acting as Chair of the 10 Year Frame Programme (10YFP) Board.

Argentina is highly committed to the transition to sustainable consumption and production patterns and SDG targets. In this regard, Mr. Rodríguez Tornquist is leading the National Strategy on SCP through inter-ministerial and multi-stakeholder dialogues and consultations within the National Cabinet of Climate Change.

Life Cycle Thinking is a cross cutting issue in the national strategy, which aims to address not only sustainable consumption and production (SDG 12), but also decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9) and sustainable cities (SDG 11). It’s relevant to highlight that it includes the use of the Hotspots Analysis Tool to support the identification of high-impact sectors and intervention areas at country level.

Regarding the Terms of Reference of the Steering Committee, Argentina is looking for a seat for Government representation and to ensure geographical representation for the Latin America and Caribbean region. We would be grateful if you could take Argentina´s candidacy into consideration for the SC election.

• IBICT (Institute for Science and Technology Information), Marcel Garcia de Souza – Government, Latin America and the Caribbean (opting for re-election)

Ibict is a research unit from the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. The institute has 66 years of experience with scientific and technologic data management. Ibict has been working with Life Cycle Information since 2006, when it started to build the brazilian national life cycle inventory database – SICV Brasil. 14 years later, SICV Brasil was implemented and many more activities related to LCT were realized. Ibict is widely recognized as a great player in the consolidation of the LCT and LCA in the Latin America. It is the house for the Latin American LCA journal – LALCA – and the president of the Brazilian LCA National Program – PBACV. Also is the organizer of the BRACV, the brazilian biannual LCA forum.  So, the institute is present in the main achievements of LCA in the region. Ibict has been cooperating with the international LCA community for a while now. The V International Forum for LCA cooperation (2016) was held in the institute and since then there have been many great achievements. The Global LCA Data Access Network – GLAD – is one of them. This new decade has already its own challenges and LCT has been one of the most important metrics to deal with them. The role of Ibict in promoting the LCT in Latin America and Caribbean regions stands out. By staying in the Steering committee of Life Cycle Initiative, Ibict remains as the major player in the region and can certainly increase the implementation of the SDGs through the LCT actions.

• DG Environment, Hugo Schally – Government, Europe

Fully acknowledging the need to mainstream LCA globally and foster more sustainable consumption and production, the European Commission, one of the institutions of the European Union, is closely involved in the activities developed under auspices of UNEP in this area. Since 2015, the European Commission is involved in the Global LCA Data Access Network (GLAD) and since 2016 is financing projects such as the Resource Efficiency through Application of Life cycle thinking (REAL) and InTextile project (to increase the uptake of circular economy by textile businesses and governments). At same time, the European Commission developed the Product Environmental Footprint and the Organisation Environmental Footprint methods, and tested them during the pilot phase 2013-2018 to finally publish updated versions in 2018.The European Commission has therefore a leading role in the promotion of the life cycle thinking. Mr. Hugo Schally will represent the European Commission in these works.

• Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, Laura Platchkov – Government, Europe

The Swiss Federal Office for the Environment has been a long-standing supporter of the Life Cycle Initiative. In our view, a necessary step towards the sustainable management of resources is for impacts to be quantified and compared. This in turn requires internationally recognized, scientifically robust indicators and a comprehensive global Life Cycle Assessment (LCIA) method. This is critical for countries, businesses and consumers to better understand their environmental impacts.

This is why we engage actively at the international level, to put the topic at the highest level on the global political agenda. We are thus pleased that the resolutions adopted at the Fourth United Nations Environment Assembly UNEA4 for instance provide a strong acknowledgement that life cycle approaches are necessary to achieve sustainable consumption and production, increase resource efficiency and reduce risks (e.g. of hazardous chemicals and waste). The role of the initiative is critical for UNEP to respond to the requests of the Assembly to deliver specific studies, knowledge and support to member states. Switzerland also engage on a technical and project level, through our support to GLAM project in developing a consistent multidimensional LCIA methodology as well as the Sustainable Consumption and Production Hotspots Analysis Tool (SCP-HAT).

In this context, Switzerland is pleased to propose its candidacy for the election of the Steering Committee. We believe that our experience and expertise will allow us to represent the government perspective appropriately and further contribute to strengthening the momentum around life cycle approaches and in particular the initiative.

• The National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) of Thailand, Jitti Mungkalasiri – Government, Asia-Pacific

The National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) was established in December 1991 as an autonomous government agency under the National Science and Technology Development Act 1991. NSTDA is affiliated to the Thai Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, with the Minister serving as the chairman of NSTDA Governing Board.

NSTDA is entrusted with an important task to accelerate science, technology and innovation development in Thailand in order to respond to the need of the industry and enhance the country’s competitiveness in the global economy, and as a result, making contribution to national economic and social development. Our mission is to perform and support Research and Development, Design and Engineering, Technology Transfer, Science and Technology Human Resource Development and Infrastructure Development. This mission is implemented through working with partners from academic, government, private, and non-government sectors, both domestically and internationally. Since 2019, NSTDA’s LCA unit has been upgraded to the Technology and Informatics Institute for Sustainability, which has within its mandate to collect/manage/disseminate related data for sustainability (including National LCI database). Channelled through the NSTDA, Thailand has been strongly engaged with many activities of the Life Cycle Initiative, including the development of the Global LCA Data Access network (GLAD). The NSTDA is looking forward to providing the Steering Committee of the Life Cycle Initiative the perspective from implementations of new sustainable approaches in the Asia Pacific Region.

• Ecoinnovazione, Alessandra Zamagni – Business, Europe

Ecoinnovazione s.r.l is a research and consultancy firm set up as a research spin-off of the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA). Building upon life cycle-based methods and tools for sustainability, and upon its relationship with research community and European Policy makers, Ecoinnovazione’s mission is to support private and public organisations in integrating sustainability in their daily practice and in their strategic agenda. Ecoinnovazione and its members have a long-standing collaboration with the Initiative, which dates back to 2008 with the involvement in the SETAC Europe LCA Steering Committee, the definition of review criteria for Life Cycle Inventory datasets, the Social LCA Alliance, the GLAD and GLAM Initiative, and participation in the draft of the 2017-2022 strategic plan (as individual expert).

Working in the sustainability field, with a systemic perspective and in a multi-stakeholder environment, we believe that working at the interface between the scientific development and the policy process is key for enabling sustainability decisions and for driving the change towards sustainable production and consumption. And now we would like to make use of this experience for supporting the Initiative in delivering its vision, mission, and programme, which we share and believe in.

• Sciaena, Siegfried Anton Schmuck – Science and Civil Society, Europe

Sciaena is a non-profit entity, with both national and international scope, created in 2006. It envisions a healthy marine environment and an informed population engaged in its conservation.

In plastics, Sciaena is working foremost to tackle the marine litter problem. Realising the importance of pollution from land-based sources, life cycle assessments were identified as an excellent science-based means to further a sustainable economy. Besides SDG 14, we have been actively supporting the work on SDG 11 and SDG 12 through our collaborative policy work and outreach activities. In Brussels, we work on the implementation of the European Directive on Single-Use Plastics, on the EU industrial transformation, on the G20 Osaka Blue Ocean Vision, and a global treaty on ocean plastic. In Portugal, we work with stakeholders on national and municipal levels to implement policies and devise policy and advocacy campaigns with impact (e.g., #Justthetwoofus, https://www.facebook.com/MarUsarRecuperar/). Sciaena’s scope of multi-stakeholder work both on the national and European level gives us among the Brussels-based NGOs the unique position to quickly act on national developments and feed them into our European and international policy work and vice versa. Through our participation in the Steering Committee, we would like to leverage this strength to seek further synergies between the LC Initiative and the legislative work done in Brussels and use our large network among Brussels-based NGOs to reach out to more stakeholders and potential funders.

• World Resources Forum Association, Sonia Valdivia – Science and Civil Society, Europe (opting for re-election)

The World Resources Forum Association is an international non-profit organisation that serves as a platform connecting and fostering north-south knowledge exchange on resources management amongst business leaders, policy-makers, NGOs, scientists and the public. We aim to make our vision of sustainable use of resources worldwide a reality through the implementation of flagship projects in Africa, Latin America, Europe, dissemination of relevant research findings, development of resource efficiency indices, setting standards for sustainable resource use (ISO and European Standards), as well as through the engagement of key global partners and local leaders and multipliers from the emerging economies (e.g. through the Sustainable Recycling Industries program in Ghana, South Africa, Egypt, Colombia and Peru). Key spaces for exchange are our Annual WRF Conferences being the next WRF Conference in 2021 in Ghana. WRFA is committed to the inclusiveness of economic growth, gender balance and elimination of poverty and marginalization, thus making these issues a core element in any objectives we pursue. Currently, WRFA is closely supporting the Life cycle Initiative in the areas of LCA Award, Circular Economy, Social LCA and Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment.