International experts community in LCA and sustainable development strategies met in Luxembourg

The 9th edition of the Society and Materials Conference, SAM-9, was held at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) on the 11th and 12th May 2015. SAM conferences address the issues of sustainability assessment of processes and products, by fostering the interaction of soft and hard sciences. The conference brings together an interdisciplinary research community to discuss developments of new metrics beyond common LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) and strategies of sustainable development.

About 80 participants, including process and materials engineers, industrial ecologists, social scientists, practitioners of LCA and MFA (Materials Flow Analysis), political scientists and economists met in Luxembourg for this 2015 edition, jointly organised by LIST, the Institut de Recherche Technologique Matériaux, Métallurgie et Procédés (IRT-M2P), the University of Liège, ArcelorMittal and ESTEP.

Main conference themes were the new developments in LCA, MFA and methodologies beyond LCA, social, economic and sustainability indicators, the internalisation of societal and environmental externalities in economics and circular economy. The communications focused on diverse fields of application such as infrastructure and mobility for sustainable cities, biodiversity and ecosystem services, resources, biomass and land use, sustainability and eco-design of processes, products and services, climate change and materials.

The speakers came from all over the world. LIST contributed with several presentations. Alina Beloussova introduced the development of a circular economy approach in Luxembourg. Florin Capitanescu presented global algorithms for LCA-based multi-goal constrained optimization of potable water plants, and Alessio Mastrucci, a Luxembourg case study of characterisation of urban building stocks in a LCA framework. Rodolphe Meyer, Tomás Navarrete, Benoît Othoniel and Emil Popovici contributed to the poster sessions. They are all researchers at LIST's Environmental Research and Innovation (ERIN) department, which develops strategies, technologies and tools to better monitor, access, use and safeguard natural and renewable resources. One of ERIN's research units and main research topics is life cycle sustainability and risk assessment. In this domain, ERIN has earned an international reputation. In particular, the unit develops methods and transferable tools for integrative sustainability assessment of products, technologies and policies leading to the definition and implementation of resources and energy efficient strategies, as well as applicable and reliable tools for environmental and human risk assessment for chemicals with a focus on nanomaterials present in water, air or soil.