Session
WE.2.D || Business Life Cycle Networks
Authors
Chapman, Sonia Karin
Abstract
Life cycle thinking contributes to a comprehensive look at impacts and responsibilities in value chains and the concrete practice of this competence is fundamental in strategic decision-making processes in companies. Rede ACV, a Brazilian association and business network launched 2013, is a forum for companies to exchange knowledge around LCT and LCA. Rede ACV’s members discuss topics, such as Circular Economy, Public Procurement, Labelling, Carbon Pricing, Global Database Integration, Organizational and Social LCA, all potential motivations for the adoption of LCT and LCA. With six working groups (Communication, Capacity Building, Database, Labelling, Circular Economy and SDGs), a Commission for the discussion of technical aspects around LCA, and segment platforms for Sustainable Construction, Finance, and Agriculture, Rede ACV addresses theory and practice and enables its members to become levers of sustainable growth. Growing digitalisation contributes to improve access to representative data and facilitates the exchange of information between actors along supply chains. In Brazil there are a small number of datasets that represent the environmental reality of Brazilian economy. On the other hand, we see growth in demand for LCA studies and interest for type III environmental declarations. Rede ACV’s Cornerstone project will increase the quantity and quality of inventories that represent Brazil, through ‘recontextualization’ of datasets from other regions related to the supply of electricity, bio diesel, diesel, natural gas, and road freight transportation. The datasets will be submitted to the national LCI database SICV Brasil and included in the ecoinvent database, hence benefiting the local and international LCA community. As a Life Cycle Initiative member, we believe that partnerships are key to advance LCT and LCA adoption in companies and society at large.