The 5th General Assembly of the Life Cycle Initiative is approaching quickly. Like every year, one-third of the Steering Committee seats (i.e., one in each constituency) are being renewed through elections among the Life Cycle Initiative members. The election process will be electronic and will start during the General Assembly on September 23nd, 2020. Each member of the Initiative will be able to vote for the candidates in her/his constituency. The list of candidates is as follows:

Candidates for the Government Constituency

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

The Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development is the national authority in environmental issues in Argentina. The Secretary of Climate Change, Sustainable Development an Innovation is responsible, amongst others, for the design and implementation of innovation and new technologies programs, strategies and projects, in order to achieve sustainable production and consumption patterns.

We are currently executing the third and last phase of the National Strategy on Sustainable Consumption and Production. The Strategy was developed based on scientific assessments, inter-ministerial cooperation and multistakeholder dialogues. Two of the priority sectors of the Strategy, food systems and construction, were identified using the SCP-HAT tool. Four pilots of a strategic and cost-effective policy instrument in the context of national priorities are next to start. These pilots were also selected in the frame of the SCP-HAT exercise for Argentina.

We are also part of other initiatives related to life cycle thinking such as IKI, IREK I and II and PAGE.  Finally, we are glad to highlight that Argentina is the chair of the 10YFP Board since 2018, as well as a member of the Group of Friends for SCP and member of the Steering Committee of the International Resource Panel.

  • NSTDA representing Government of Thailand – Government, Asia-Pacific

The National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) was established in 1991 under the National Science and Technology Development Act 1991. The agency is affiliated to the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation and reports to the NSTDA Governing Board, chaired by Minister of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation. 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.

In 2021, Thailand establishes the “Bio/Circular/Green Economy” (BCG) as one national agenda for 2021-2026 with a key message “less for more”. The life cycle approaches and strategies will be applied in majority of business sectors for sustainability and sustainable consumption and production. With 15 years of experiences in Life Cycle Initiative, We could contribute our knowledges to the network as a robust Asia-pacific policy implementer.

  • NCPC-SA representing Government of South Africa – Government, Africa

The National Cleaner Production Centre South Africa is a national support programme that drives the transition of South African industry towards a green economy through appropriate resource efficient and cleaner production (RECP) interventions. The NCPC-SA’s mission is to drive RECP in industrial and selected commercial and public sectors by equipping them to operate in an efficient, sustainable and competitive manner. Services and focus areas include industry and sector knowledge-sharing, company technical support; green skills development; and advocacy and awareness-raising.

Candidates for the Business Constituency

  • Zero Waste & Sustainability School – USA

The Zero Waste & Sustainability School is an online platform providing environmental education in climate change, sustainable development, circular economy and eco-friendly living. Their platform connects like-minded people and serves as an impact hub where people are encouraged to develop critical thinking and explore world-changing ideas. Since September 2019, over 600 students have completed their courses, many of whom have started their own projects.

  • EHS Techniques – Spain

EHS Techniques is a Spanish environmental consulting firm founded by multidisciplinary EHS professionals and with a trustable experience on industrial multinational companies. Our mission is to provide ad-hoc services to our customers with the best available techniques. EHS Techniques Team is a leader in environmental compliance assurance and risk management services, as well as in the implementation of the best pollution prevention and control techniques and in an efficient environmental resources management.

  • Hub EPD LATAM – Latin America

The HUB Latin America (Hub EPD LATAM) has been part of the Steering Committee for the last 2 years. Our work there focused mainly on supporting the expansion of the use of LCA into new areas (by publications,  discussion, networking, and working at ISO TC323 & TC207 and as LC delegates in other organizations), under the current context in which the SDGs and the Circular Economy have gained great momentum worldwide.  The dissemination of LCT and in particular of LCA, and the proper implementation of LCA and LCA-based methodologies, have been part of our work since our very beginnings as a team in 2002, collaborating since then with the LC Initiative.We were founding members of the Ibero-American LC Network, and during these last 2 years at LC Initiative SC, we collaborated with them and with other organizations, to ensure that emerging countries have not been left behind in the journey to sustainability under a globalized world scenario. In this new term on the LC Steering Committee, we will continue to work on burning issues for the planet and for emerging regions. Also, we will work in the consolidation of our previous work and in the development and support of new visions and ideas to disseminate and keep LCT and LCA as valuable approaches to assess and find potential solutions to the crucial sustainability challenges that our generation must face.

  • EcoEd – Chile

EcoEd is a Chilean-based company established in 2016 that provides technology, training and consultancy to guide science-based decision making in the public and private sectors. We base all of our work on a life cycle perspective and have helped in the mainstreaming of life cycle in the region. We have experience working and collaborating with micro to large businesses in the region in building, textiles, electronic products and other sectors. LAC holds the greatest freshwater resources and many biodiversity hotspots of the planet. A life cycle perspective in LAC is key to driving private action towards sustainable development – one that leaves no one behind and preserves the environment. We’d be honored to serve and bring the perspectives of our sector, as well as helping spread life cycle knowledge and action.

Candidates for the Individual seat of the Science and Civil Society Constituency

  • Marcelo Langer, Ph.D. – Brazil

I am a professor of Life Cycle Assessment at the Federal University of Paraná and also develop and coordinate the BioCycleS program (Life Cycle Assessment and Sustainability Program) at this university. It is the first and only LCA program at UFPR and we are working in several areas of scientific knowledge for LCA.

I would very much like to learn and know more about LCI’s governance system and participate in the General Assembly. Therefore, I would very much like you to accept my request to participate in the Assembly.

  • Dr. Eman Alaaeldin Abdelfattah – Egypt

She is a lecturer of insect biochemistry and molecular science; project manager of waste recycling using eco-friendly technology funded by CU; project coordinator of WLMHE supported by UN Volunteers. Also, she is a scientific consultant for youth activities, head of press office; board member at quality assurance unit; team leader of strategic management committee; internal auditor of 9001:2015; 14001; 17025; and 45001:2018 at Faculty of Science, Cairo University; she is a member of the Life Cycle  Initiative hosted by UNEP; she is a member at fundraising committee for international branch of Cairo University; she is a member of international society of women in science, USA; she was Chemical safety and security program team member, she was a member at environmental service center; she was a member at community service and environmental development unit.

She has an experience in training students, postgraduate, and high levels of University leaders about various hotspot topics for more than 10 years, also, she has experience in organizing events for 7 years, she is a trainer of different topics to graduate students for 8 years, she has research activity of more than 10 years (Published more than 10 research papers, 3 theses, supervisor of Ph.D. and MSc. Thesis in various topics related to LCA and Environmental Science, supervisor and co-supervisor of 5 graduation projects), she does statistical analysis for  biological and environmental topics more than 8 years, she is an oral speaker in more than 5 international conference and workshops, she has more than 150 training modules and training of trainers from UNDP, GEF projects,  chemical security program, USA, DAAD office in Cairo, FLDC, Cairo University, Egypt, IRC, United states of America embassy, etc., she is familiar with UN project for 3 years.

  • Nasser Ayoub – Egypt

Nasser Ayoub is the CEO of EPD Egypt, Professor, Senior Environmental Consultant and a Certified Life Cycle Assessment Professional from the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment and Global Reporting Initiative Professional Training.  Prof. Ayoub is an Energy and Sustainability Expert, including Environmental Benign Bioenergy Supply chains, Waste Management, Life Cycle Assessment, LCA, Environmental Policy Analysis, Energy Conservation, Environmental Monitoring, and Environmental Emergency. Having more than 20 years of comprehensive academic and technical experience in seven different countries. He holds a Doctor of Environmental Engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology in the field of Environmentally Friendly Supply Chains and Life Cycle Assessment. He worked on analyzing wicked environmental policy problems and governmental intervention approaches to promote renewable energies He represented Egypt as an international delegate in the United Nations Leadership Program in 2009 (Young Leaders from the Global South). From 2011 to 2013, he worked in analyzing the adaptation and mitigation measures taken by four Arab countries to cope with the consequences of Climate Change. From 2013 to 2015, he worked in Qatar University and University of Ontario Institute of Technology on investigating methods and possibilities of energy conservation in buildings and developed a Risk-Based Life cycle assessment, RBLCA, framework to integrate risk management into assessing the environmental performance of systems. He has applied this framework to carry out a RBLCA on smart grid and transportation infrastructure in Ontario, Canada. From 2015 to 2016, he joined the Bioengineering Department in University of Missouri, Columbia, USA to carry out LCA for energy crops production in the Missouri/Mississippi River Corridor in. From October 2016 to March 2019, he worked as Senior Environmental Consultant in the Environmental Public Authority of Kuwait, KEPA. In March 2019, Prof. Ayoub joined a UNDP funded project to perform Data Gap Analysis to identify the potential data required to promoting the implementation of the Environmental Protection Laws and Multilateral Environmental Agreements. Since February 2020 he is working as Professor of Industrial Engineering at Helwan University, Egypt.

  • Nebiyeleul Gessese, Ph.D – Ethiopia

Nebiyeleul Gessese has over 25 years of professional experience in promoting and implementing energy and environmental management systems in various industries both in developing and developed countries.  Dr. Gessese is recognized for his innovations and pioneering works in the fields of industrial energy, environmental issues, and global environmental affairs.  His experience includes the development of policies and programs for sustaining environmentally-friendly industrial products and optimal energy utilization.  In conjunction with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Dr. Gessese has helped put into practice the theoretical knowledge of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Furthermore, he has had notable success in promoting energy and environmental management systems of manufacturing enterprises in Austria, Bangladesh, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Benin, Kenya, Lesotho, Ethiopia, India, Indonesian, Iran, Nigeria, Senegal, Thailand, Vietnam, Chad, and Zimbabwe. He has provided both leadership and technical support for the implementation of UNIDO’s Integrated Program for Ethiopia.  Dr. Gessese holds a Ph.D. from the Research Institute of Chemistry and Environment, Vienna, Austria. His research work was on “Ecological Comparison of Industrial Products with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): Influences of System Boundaries and Impact Assessment Methods with Examples.

  • Navneet Agarwal, MMS – India

I hold degree in Master of Management of Studies (MMS) from Mumbai University , India and Certificates in (A) Digital Agriculture from World Bank Academy, (B) Private Sector Partnership for UNSDGs from UNSSC Knowledge Centre for Sustainable Development and (C) Circular Economy for 2030 Agenda from UNSSC (D) Elements of Artificial Intelligence from University of Helsinki, Finland.

I am presently holding 25+ years of experience in Planning, Conceptualization, Development, Partnerships, implementing and scaling up of Countrywide Government Transformation and Social Development programs that have been managed by Government of India (MoCIT, MHRD, DST and many more) and Multilateral organizations through World Bank, UNDP, ADB, European Commission, AKF, FHI, GIZ, Corporate Foundations etc. I have been shaping up projects majorly in the domain of ICT and e-Governance, Primary Education, Agriculture, health, including Gender, HIV/ AIDS, CSR, skill development.

I have developed many strategic and sustainable partnerships with Public and Private Entities for scaling up and implementing the programs to reach to the grassroots level. To accomplish the tasks, my role has always been into Government & Multilateral Program Management, Procurement, developing project implementation roadmaps, project management, Preparing work/ Action Plan, its milestones and budget allocation, preparing LFAs (Logical Framework analysis), process improvements, program monitoring & evaluation, Team and Vendor selection & management, resource utilization, skill development.

During my working with the Government and Multilaterals, the role has always sought my continuous involvement into understanding and developing Business case for designing sustainable models for delivery of content, services, information that could allow Corporate and Social Development sector for a collaborative framework – to integrate their goals of profit as well as social objectives in least possible time, budget and resources.

I have high calibre to bring the Government, Corporate and Social Development Sector to a common platform to leverage the strengths of each one in conceptualizing ICT based projects under PPP mode. My involvement and continuous interaction with all kinds of stakeholders at policy level for the purpose of suggesting solutions for key issues in the larger interest of masses has always aspired me to build better Leadership and thus Excellence.

  • Joni Jupesta, Ph.D – Indonesia

Dr. Joni Jupesta works as Senior Researcher at The Research Institute of Innovative Technology for Earth (RITE) based in Kyoto, Japan since 2020. Previously he had worked as Senior Manager (2013-2020) at Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food based in Jakarta/Pekan Baru, Indonesia. He did three years postdoctoral fellowship (2010-2013) at the United Nations University (UNU) based in Tokyo, Japan. He had two visiting appointments: Visiting Research Fellow at UNU (2013-2016) and Visiting Scholar at The National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) (2011-2013); both based in Tokyo, Japan. Dr. Jupesta hold Ph.D. degree in Management Science and Technology (2007-2010) from Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. His work focuses on using life cycle assessment to assess the linkages between climate change and sustainable development i.e.: how to achieve net zero GHG emissions (CO2, CH4, and N2O) across sectoral i.e.: agriculture, energy, forestry in different scales: local, national, region, and global. Since 2015 he became the member of UNEP’ Life Cycle Initiative as well as Board of Director member for Indonesian Life Cycle Assessment Network (ILCAN). Since 2018 he was selected as Lead Author for Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report. Since 2020 he also becomes member in Natural Resource and Ecosystem Service Working Group of Global Life Cycle Impact Assessment Indicators (GLAM) project of UNEP’ Life Cycle Initiative.

  • Dewi Permatasari – Indonesia

Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Dewi Permatasari, an individual member since 2019. I earned the best graduate degree of Environmental Engineering and master degree from Geothermal Engineering of Institut Teknologi Bandung with focus on sustainability and renewable energy development in Indonesia. With a decade of experience on sustainability, I have supported more than 15 industrial sectors, solving socio-economic and environmental problems across Indonesia, from indigenous people to marginal society in the capital city. I have supported the overall power generation industry, starting from geothermal energy to non-renewable energy such as diesel-gas, gas-steam combined cycle, coal-fired, and to date also others renewable energy such as hydro and solar power. It also supports manufacturing sectors such as cement, fertilizer, aerospace, defence equipment & explosives, and mining sectors such as coal, clay, nickel, etc altogether to support their pursuance on sustainability within their surrounding.

Back in the beginning, I started my career in college with various projects about environmental studies. My very first field experience was solid waste reduction project conducted by Unilever Indonesia, in Surabaya area, I became a field coordinator to collect waste from 100 family house, with different economic background, the collecting process definitely was never been easy, not to mention the effort to bring all the solid waste using conventional cart, it was my lifetime learning experience that I believe bring me to where I am. I also manage to conduct EIA for some geothermal projects, and to date still considered as one expert about it. To add some sharing knowledge experience, I am having a chance to be trusted in ITB to become a visiting lecturer in Mining & Petroleum Engineering Faculty to teach about practical solutions on most occured environmental problems. I also trained new employees of local energy companies, and have also become a trainer for both practitioners and academicians as a collaboration of ITB – University of Southern California – USAID Indonesia – Star Energy, in 2012. Since then, I’ve been trusted to be Advisor for Environmental and Sustainability Issue for various industries I’ve mentioned above. In terms of global warming action, I act as Host Country Expert to support CDM verification and renewal in some industries in Indonesia.

I also have contributed to 26 international publications about sustainability issues and life cycle thinking to drive industries and their local community to embed sustainability behaviour on their daily basis.

I wish with all of these experiences, I can be considered to be one of the eligible candidates for this, and I believe in bringing diversity with fresh ideas, drives partnership among industries to contribute to the LCA database and also collaboration and support to LCI Agenda.

  • Rama Krushna Chary, MBA – Kuwait

Mr. CH. Rama Krushna Chary is an Environmental expert having International professional exposure. In addition to his professional service, he has been extending volunteer service to advance the Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) profession.

He is holding B.Tech in Chemical Engineering and Master of Business Administration (MBA). He started his professional career in India then moved on to various international assignments including Qatar and Kuwait. During his 20 years career, he presented and published his papers in various National & International HSE platforms.

His commendable volunteer service to American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) runs through various positions including Chapter President, Advisory Committee Member, Professional Development Chair and Advisory Board Member at Chapter, Regional, Society level. ASSP selected him for ANSI/ASSP Z390 Hydrogen Sulfide Safety Training Standard Committee in 2018. He is a very active member of Life Cycle Initiative (LCI) since 2018 and participating in various events of LCI. He received many national and international awards for his commendable volunteerism to enhance the HSE profession.   Considering his 20 years of environmental exposure including life cycle concept, sustainable development, circular economy, etc., he will be a very good helping hand to Life Cycle Initiative in achieving its vision, mission, and projects targets.

  • Naphat Chatchavalkosol -Thailand

I have been working with UN agencies for programme and project management for over 7 years where I help with resource allocation and work plan implementation. I was the Secretariat consultant working for UNICEF on a capacity development occasion. Over continuing years, I have been familiar with UN SDGs and strived for corporate sustainable development as I have credentials in corporate sustainability and innovation, including the life cycle sustainability assessment (LCA), by training from Harvard University. In 2019, I was a Global Ambassador for the Harvard University Extension School for the student community in the Asia and the Pacific region. I would love to contribute to the Life Cycle Initiative programme development and deliverables.