A collaboration platform for academia, industry, research institutes & government agencies

About Swedish Life Cycle Center

History

The center has a history of more than 20 years and has become a well known platform for life cycle professionals.

Organization

The center has a board and a technical secretariat for the maintenance and coordination.

More to read or print

Information folders and reports are available for you to read online or print.

Career

Sometimes we are growing and need an extra hand. Have a look here.

Contact

Get in touch with the technical secretariat if you have any questions or ideas.

Partners

Swedish Energy Protection Agency
Nouryon logo
Sweco

In collaboration with

Visual interpretation: Logotype Swedish energy agency
Forum for Sustainability through Life Cycle Innovation
Logo: Life Cycle Initiative

Long lasting commitment

The center has a history of more than 20 years and has become a credible, well known platform for life cycle professionals in Sweden. It was founded as Competence Centre for Environmental Assessment of Product and Material Systems, CPM, in 1996 as a joint effort between Nutek (later VINNOVA), Chalmers University of Technology and a range of international companies.

A stronger platform to engage actors to implement life cycle thinking

Swedish Energy Agency finances the project Swedish platform for the life cycle perspective which is run by Swedish Life Cycle Center. Thanks to the project we can realize a lot of activities like webinars, conferences, working group meetings and much more.

Our history

Over the years the center has concluded seven stages with different focus areas and partner constellations but the focus on applied life cycle thinking has remained as its base.

Read our history

A greater impact together

The multidisciplinary and transparent way of working have large impact. The affect is a mutual learning process among partners; A joint effort that can make an impact globally. On top of that our partners get in touch with front runners in the life cycle field among government agencies, research and industry and get credibility as an organization with commitments for sustainability .

Download information sheet

Chalmers University of Technology is host

Swedish Life Cycle Center has since the start in 1996 been a competence center and national arena hosted by Chalmers University of Technology. Host department is Technology Management and Economics (TME) and the host area of advance is Production.

“Swedish Life Cycle Center has been instrumental for the development and
adoption of the life cycle perspective in Swedish companies and
has made important contributions to international standardization
in the life cycle field.”

 

Professor Anne-Marie Tillman, one of the founders of the center

Our mission

Our mission is to work for the integration of the life cycle perspective into processes and decision making in industry, government policy and other parts of society, developing products and services with increased resource efficiency that enhances sustainable consumption and production patterns. This should open up possibilities of working towards a more circular economy and meet common sustainability challenges and sustainable development goals.

How we work

No matter what activities we perform the foundation is:

 

  • Relevant & scientifically based methods, practices & tools
  • Support the competence & knowledge building
  • Influence national & international initiatives

Credible and applied life cycle thinking for decision making

“The foundation for the center is mutual learning, our activities have a scientific base combined with the users’ and practitioners’ perspective on implementation and decision making.“

 

Sara Palander, Director of Swedish Life Cycle Center

Short facts about us:

Swedish Life Cycle Center is a center of excellence for competence building and knowledge exchange to drive the life cycle field forward. We co-create an arena for universities, research institutes, industrial players and authorities to collaborate in. 

Read more about Swedish Life Cycle Center
15 partners
25 years of collaboration
80 meetings 2018
473 life cycle professionals
9 government agencies
9 research projects & groups

The partnership

What you do with the partnership is up to you. Some partners value the direct contact to the network and newsletters. Other are engaged in expert groups that go in line with their organization’s agenda. And for a few organizations Swedish Life Cycle Center has been a key to their continuous work with life cycle related improvements.

More inspiring examples by partners

 

The Life Cycle Perspective – The art of making good, long-term and sustainable decisions

The films give insight into the different uses of the life cycle perspective and life cycle assessment in partner organisations, and how collaboration is the key when moving forward.

Inspiring examples

In this completed research project good examples from the entire value chain were gathered. Read about how Volvo Cars, Oatley, Trafikverket and 5 other organizations work with the value chain for a sustainable development.

Read the publication

Explore our ongoing projects

Our projects are invaluable cross roads for interaction between researchers and practitioners. Our so called projects can be expert groups, working groups, research projects and our specific collaboration groups for academia and government agencies.

See all projects

IVL helps you to calculate your footprint

IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute has been a partners since more than a decade and been involved in several research projects within the center. IVL helps several organisations each year with different environmental assessments.

Join the network

There are different ways of interaction:

  1. Become a partner and get access to all results, activities and discussions.
  2. Arrange a conference, seminar or workshop together with us.
  3. Attend a life cycle education.
  4. Follow our news on LinkedIn, Twitter and in public newsletters.

This is a value-adding partnership

  • Obtain tools and inspiration for new strategies and working processes to implement in your operations.
  • Benchmark the partners within the center.
  • Collaborate in joint research projects with academia, research institutes and partners in industry and authorities involved.
  • Increase your knowledge through close contact with other experts within the life cycle field.
  • Be highlighted as a frontrunner in sustainability. Your good examples, research or initiatives are communicated in the channels of Swedish Life Cycle Center.
  • Obtain access to high quality decision support and a network of over 400 life cycle professionals.
  • Get involved in strategic development through your seat on the center Board. 
  • Find new ways to manage long-term sustainability.
  • Use the web forum for close contact with partners. 
  • Make a larger impact through joint efforts to influence national and international initiatives.
  • Access to workshops, seminars, webinars, newsletters, research results.

Read more about the center's achievements

 

The activities of Swedish Life Cycle Center are summarized continuously and gathered in Annual reports and Stage summaries. Read some of them here.

Summary stage 8 (2016-2018)

Annual report 2018

Annual report 2017

Annual report 2016

 

Annual report 2015

Summary stage 7 (2012-2015)

Annual report 2014

Summary stage 6 (2009-2012)

CPM Evaluation report

Inspiration by partners

Research project behind the meat guide

The meat guide is a tool developed by WWF for consumers to make wise choices that contribute to a more sustainable meat consumption. The research behind the meat guide was performed at SLU and the method is described in the scientific article "Communicating LCA results to the interested consumer - the development of a criteria-based meat guide".

Circular furniture flows by RISE

How new business models can contribute to sustainable development within public furniture. Read this interesting report that our partner made within life cycle thinking and circular economy.

Read more

SKF uses integrated reporting

Sustainability has been a core issue for SKF since many years and included sustainability in their Annual Report of 2016.

 Read more

Volvo Cars are focusing on the right spots

Volvo Car Group has been a partner since 2014 and is active in several working groups. In the past, the main focus for Volvo Cars was on the user phase, but with the help from the life-cycle perspective, new areas have been identified in the value chain.