Life Cycle Assessment: when LIST travels to South Korea

The activities of the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) related to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) were presented to renowned researchers and scientists in Korea at the end of October 2017. Our expert in the field, Dr Enrico Benetto was invited to a series of seminars with the objective to present the institute’s innovative projects in the field. 

It started with a seminar at Samsung Electronics, Digital City in Suwon, that gathered 30 professionals of the Product Environment team, working on LCA and environmental certification. Dr Benetto met Dr. Young-Jin Suh, Vice-President, and Dr. Youngchai Cheo, Senior Environmental Manager. Large industries, like Samsung, face on a daily practice questions ranging from concerns for specific molecules or substances and holistic management problems, e.g. to design circular systems. The need to effectively integrate holistic environmental assessment (e.g. LCA) with expertise on REACH and environmental toxicology has therefore clearly emerged. LIST’s Life Cycle Sustainability and Risk Assessment Unit is well equipped to address these challenges.  

Following this seminar, Dr Benetto was invited by the Ajou University in Suwon, where he met Prof. Kun-Mo Lee, Director of Environmental and Safety Engineer Research Centre and Dean of Graduate School of Engineering, and a few of his PhD and MSc students for a seminar on Life Cycle Assessment. Following the seminar, insightful discussions about the implementation of uncertainty analysis e.g. in the assessment of diary systems and in water footprinting and in LIST’s recent developments in Dynamic LCA led to the definition of possible collaborations, e.g. in the framework of visiting PhD and postdoc students at LIST. 

The visit to Korea ended up with a meeting with Chun-Youl Baek, Yo Han Choi and Yoo Sung Park from the Korean National Cleaner Production Center (KPNCP) in Seoul. They shared interesting discussion about the role of Ecoindustrial Parks in the innovation ecosystem in South Korea: how Ecoindustrial Parks could serve and benefit from Circular Economy and thereby the opportunity to make collaborative research between Europe and Korea. Possible collaborations through the Eurostar2 programme is currently investigated.   

>> Contact Enrico Benetto via email for any information about LCA at LIST. 

Pictures sent by LIST partners: 1. LIST featured picture : KNCPC / 2. picture - Suwong seminar / 3. Picture - Ajou University