Wednesday, 12 October | 13:05 – 13:35 CEST
Session: Resource Efficiency in Production

The need for standardized climate assessments of material efficiency measures

Mario Schmidt (Hochschule Pforzheim)

Prof. Dr. Mario Schmidt has been Professor of Environmental Management at Pforzheim University since 1999, where he also directs the Resource Efficiency Management Bachelor program and leads the Master’s program in Life Cycle & Sustainability since 2015. His teaching domains include Resource Efficiency, Life Cycle Assessment, Sustainability and Operations Research. He is member in several ISO, DIN and VDI committees, in the Resources Commission at the German Environment Agency and Co-Chairperson of the Environmental Label Jury (Blue Engel).

Prof. Schmidt is founder and director of the Institute for Industrial Ecology (INEC). The focus of research of Prof. Schmidt is on the material metabolism of industrial society. Methodically, he draws on quantitative energy and material flow analysis and life cycle assessment. He examines carbon footprints and material flow cost accounting (MFCA) and develops interconnections to mathematical optimization of operations research, to economic input-output analysis and to consumer research. His institute contains of up to 30 members of staff supported by external funding, including several doctoral students.

Prof. Schmidt studied physics and astronomy at the Universities of Freiburg and Heidelberg. He earned a doctoral degree in environmental material flow analysis at Leuphana University in Lueneburg. During his time in the position as head of division of Hamburg’s environmental protection agency and as a manager of IFEU Institute Heidelberg, he worked in the areas of radiation protection, pollution control, climate protection, environmental management and life cycle assessment.

Thursday, 13 October | 09:15 – 09:45 CEST
Session: Circular economy and challenges in LCA

Circular economy and challenges in LCA

Michele de Rosa (SETAC Europe LCA Interest Group)

Dr. Michele De Rosa is an industrial ecologist with a focus on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of biotic systems and bio-based products. He works as a Senior Manager – LCA Specialist at the LEGO Group, where he supports the group in setting and meeting ambitious sustainability targets by providing decision support based on science-based LCA models of the company’s operations, logistics and procurement. Dr. De Rosa also works as an external lecturer at the Danish Center for Environmental Assessment (DCEA), engaging in a number of in-kind activities to promote and support the LCA community worldwide. Additionally, he is co-chair of the SETAC Europe LCA steering committee, and vice chair of BONSAI, an NGO dedicated to create and maintain a truly global Open Source Database for product foot-printing.

He obtained his MSc in environmental management and engineering (Aalborg University, Denmark, and Technical University of Hamburg, Germany) with a thesis on methodological improvements of Land-Use Change modelling in Life Cycle Assessment. He completed his PhD in Agroecology and Sustainable Agriculture at Aarhus University, where he focused on environmental issues related to the use of land and Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) database development. From 2016 until 2022 he worked as an LCA-analyst and as a Project Manager at 2.-0 LCA consultants.

Thursday, 13 October | 13:05 – 13:35 CEST
Session: Bioeconomy

How can LCA support the transition towards a circular bioeconomy?

Vanessa Zeller (TU Darmstadt)

Dr. Sc. Vanessa Zeller is a post-doctorate researcher and head of the Sustainability Assessment research group at the Chair of Material Flow Management and Resource Economics at the Technical University of Darmstadt since 2020. Her teaching areas include “Advanced life cycle analysis” and “Sustainable Waste Management and LCA application”.

Her research focus is the evaluation of environmental impacts at the meso/macro scale through a combination of different life cycle assessment (LCA) methods and tools (input-output LCA, process LCA, prospective LCA). She is currently working on research projects concerning the environmental assessment of innovative technologies using CO₂, biobased by-products and waste. Her research questions include whether and how bioeconomic and recycling technologies can be used in a climate-friendly way and how circularity can be assessed. From 2012 until 2020, Dr. Zeller worked as a research associate and senior research associate at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, where she obtained her doctorate with the dissertation subject: “Evaluating Environmental Impacts from Production and Consumption at Regional Level with Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment”.

Friday, 14 October | 09:15 – 09:45 CEST
Session: Transition Pathways

Transition pathways towards a climate neutral and resource light circular economy – insights and challenges from a life cycle perspective

Henning Wilts (Wuppertal Institut)

Dr. Henning Wilts, Director Division Circular Economy at the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy. Economist by training, holds a PhD in waste infrastructure planning. Main research interests: Transformations towards circular economy and economics of waste prevention.