A collaboration platform for academia, research institutes, industry and government agencies advancing and applying the life cycle field

About Swedish Life Cycle Center

History

The center has a history of more than 25 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

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 25 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. Curious in the development of life cycle assessment throughout these years, see  the video lecture: Thirty years of life cycles.

A stronger platform to engage actors to implement life cycle thinking

Swedish Energy Agency finances the project Innovation cluster for the life cycle perspective which is run by Swedish Life Cycle Center. Through this 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 nine 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 Center of Excellence and 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 Emerita 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. The increased application of the life cycle perspective leads to increasedresource efficiency that enhances sustainable production and consumption patterns, new innovations, and a sustainable circular economy. The life cycle perspective opens possibilities of working towards our 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 Swedish Life Cycle Center

Short facts about us:

Swedish Life Cycle Center is a center of excellence and collaboration platform for academia, research institutes, industry and government agencies. It fosters competence-building and knowledge exchange in advancing and applying the life cycle field.

Read more about Swedish Life Cycle Center
15 partners
26 years of collaboration
9 research projects & groups
520 life cycle professionals
8 government agencies

The partnership

The Swedish Life Cycle Center plays an important role for all its actors within the Center to build networks, competence and influence future development. How the partnership is used is up to the partner. Some partners value the direct contact to the network and research. Others are engaged in expert groups that go in line with their organization’s agenda. And for some organizations, Swedish Life Cycle Center has been and is a key to their continuous work with life cycle related improvements.

 

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

The life cycle perspective as driving force for continued partnership

– It is incredibly important to have a holistic view when working with sustainability. The life cycle perspective is therefore crucial for achieving our sustainability goals as a society, organization or company, says Lars Mårtensson, Chairman of the Swedish Life Cycle Center Board and Director environment and innovation at Volvo Trucks.

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 training.
  4. Follow our news on LinkedIn and in public newsletters.

This is a value-adding partnership

• Obtain tools and inspiration for new strategies andworking processes to implement in your operations. 

• Set the research agenda for joint efforts. 

• Collaborate in joint research projects with academia, research institutes and partners in industry and authorities involved. 

• Capacity building through close contact with other experts within the life cycle field. 

• Obtain access to high quality decision support and a network of almost 500 life cycle professionals. 

• Find new ways to manage long-term sustainability. 

• Make a larger impact through joint efforts to influence national and international initiatives. 

• Benchmark the partners within the center. 

• Be highlighted as a frontrunner in sustainability. Your good examples, research and other initiatives are communicated by Swedish Life Cycle Center. 

• Access to web forum for close contact with partners and regular updates. 

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 of Swedish Life Cycle Center self-assessment report stage 9, 2019-2021

Annual report 2021

Annual report 2020

Annual report 2019