Keynote Speakers

Wednesday, 12 October | 8:40 – 9:10 CEST

The Role of LCA in Raw Material Sustainability  and Circularity

Karel Van Acker

Prof. Karel Van Acker is full professor at KU Leuven in Circular Economy (CE) with a joint mandate at the Department of Materials Engineering (Faculty of Engineering Sciences) and at the Centre for Economics and Corporate Sustainability (Faculty of Business and Economics). At KU Leuven he is currently the chairman of the Sustainability Council, has been for 12 years coordinator of the KU Leuven Materials Research Centre (>500 researchers), and is now head of the division of Sustainable Materials Processing and Recycling (SeMPeR). Additionally, he leads the policy research centre “Circular economy” for the Flemish government and is member of the steering committee of Circular Flanders.

His research focuses on developing strategies to implement the circular economy (CE) and on the sustainability assessment of these strategies, including recycling, materials substitution and sharing economy.  With many international collaborations, he has developed expertise in lateral, interdisciplinary, and industry-relevant research. Prof. Van Acker holds a PhD in Materials Science and has been working in the industry, at VITO, and as industrial valorisation manager.

Thursday, 13 October | 8:40 – 9:10 CEST

The role of LCA in Circular Economy

Liselotte Schebek

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Liselotte Schebek holds the Chair of Material Flow Management and Resource Economy at the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt. She is also Scientific Advisor at the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Materials Recycling and Resource Strategies (IWKS) since 2016. Prof. Dr. Liselotte Schebek’s research interest is on resource efficiency and sustainability with a methodological focus on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Material Flow Analysis (MFA). Her current research topics are Resource Efficiency and Industry 4.0, Renewable Energy Technologies and Critical Raw Materials, Urban Mining in the building and sector, Circular Economy, and Climate Mitigation.

Prof. Schebek leads numerous research projects on the analysis of environmental and sustainability aspects of new technologies, on the evaluation of energy and resource efficiency in various application areas, on the development of material cycles in circular economy, as well as on the derivation of indicators. She studied chemistry, received her doctorate in 1999 at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry at the University of Mainz, and held various positions in environmental research and environmental consulting. Her publications include more than 40 papers in peer-reviewed journals and more than 350 other publications. She is a member of national and international committees and networks and a reviewer in several international journals.

Friday, 14 October | 8:40 – 9:10 CEST

The Role of LCA in the Transition towards Climate Neutrality

Hans J. Garvens

Mr. Hans Jürgen Garvens started working in LCA (LCA of the Germany Dual System – Der Grüne Punkt) since 2000. He joined the German  Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt, UBA) in 2005 as an expert in fuels and greenhouse gases for the German Emission Trading Authority (Deutsche Emissionshandelsstelle, DEHSt). Since then, he has been working on diverse projects and topics promoting sustainability. He has been participating in many LCA studies commissioned by the UBA, especially the ones from the Climate Action Plan domain, such as decarbonization and renewable energy.

In 2009, Mr. Garvens became a member of the editorial board for the International Journal of LCA for the research fields of packaging and recycling. Since 2015, he has been lecturing at the chair of Material Management and LCA of the Berlin HTW University of Applied Sciences.