Swedish Life Cycle Center marks 30 years

On 29 February 1996, the center was founded as CPM, Center for environmental assessment of product and material systems, through a joint effort between Nutek, later Vinnova, Chalmers University of Technology and several international companies. Thirty years later, Swedish Life Cycle Center remains a platform for collaboration between academia, industry, research institutes and public actors.

Since the start, the center has concluded ten stages with different focus areas and partner constellations. While the Center has evolved over time, applied life cycle thinking has remained the foundation.

Early development and methods

In the first years, the Center focused on developing database structures, terminology and quality requirements for life cycle data. A national life cycle database was established, and common formats for Environmental Product Declarations, EDP, were developed.

As the field progressed, the scope expanded to include areas such as life cycle costing (LCC) and environmental risk assessment. Greater emphasis was placed on the practical applications of LCA results, and on communicating life cycle thinking across value chains.

Growing national and international engagement

In 2012, the Center adopted the name Swedish Life Cycle Center to reflect a broader life cycle perspective. This period also included the organization of the 6th International Conference on Life Cycle Management, LCM 2013, held in Gothenburg.

In later stages, the projects Swedish Platform for the life cycle perspective and Innovation cluster for the life cycle perspective opened up possibilities for leveraging communication efforts, building a stronger network and increasing collaboration with national and international initiatives. The Center constituted a Swedish platform to coordinate experts in the development of the Environmental Footprint initiative. Webinars and training courses have supported knowledge exchange in Sweden and internationally. Recent focus areas include modelling of recycling in LCA, circularity and business model perspectives. In 2024, the Center co-organized the SETAC Europe 26th LCA Symposium, at Chalmers in Gothenburg.

30-year anniversary conference in November

The 30-year anniversary will be marked with a conference on 18 November 2026. We welcome input from current and former partners, researchers and practitioners. If you have a memory, milestone or perspective that you think should be highlighted during the anniversary conference, please let us know!

30th Anniversary and Network Conference 2026