LCA4Climate takes part in the LCM 2019 conference

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From September 1 to 4, Laura Batlle-Bayer, leader of the Agrifood research line at the UNESCO Chair ESCI-UPF, has attended the 9th International Conference on Life Cycle Management (LCM). It is an annual international conference that focuses on practical solutions for the implementation of life cycle approaches into strategic and operational decision-making, whether in science, industry, NGOs or public bod­ies.

Under the theme “towards sustainable future”, this LCM conference year’s edition has been focused on current challenges and prospects in life cycle management: a business management approach that can be used by all types of products, technologies, organisations, markets, and policy and methodological solutions, in order to improve their sustainability performance.

“Being part of the conference has helped me to expand my network, creating connections with researchers of similar interests, and has also given me the opportunity of being involved in some fruitful discussions on the latest innovations in life cycle methodologies,” says Batlle-Bayer. Additionally, “it has allowed me to explore new ways to implement these methods at a business level, as well as in the political arena,” she adds.

Sustainable diets

During the conference, Batlle-Bayer has presented a new approach on how to compare the impacts of our food choices based on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method. “Food choices play a significant role. Previous research has shown that changes in dietary patterns towards a ‘healthy diet’, as well as the reduction of food waste, are the best strategies to ensure food security by 2050 while reducing current greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 45%,” she explains.

Facing this significant role of food choices and eating patterns, researchers at the Chair and the Universidad de Cantabria, headed by Batlle-Bayer, have presented a novel basis for comparing the environmental impacts of diets. By assessing Spanish dietary scenarios, “we have found that when considering both the energy intake and the nutritional quality of the diet, the comparison of GHG emissions among diets is energetic and nutritionally independent. In this manner, diets that differ in energy and nutritional intake can be compared,” according to the researcher.

Through this approach, the Chair aims to set a framework for future diet-related LCA studies quantifying all relevant emissions and resources consumed and the related environmental impacts associated with diets. Following this forum, “we are willing to present further research on diet-related LCA studies at the LCAFood2020 in Berlin, Germany, the 12th International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment of Food,” remarks Batlle-Bayer.