Life Cycle Talks: Understanding absolute environmental sustainability assessment
Join us for the next Life Cycle Talks with Andrea Paulillo, Lecturer in Sustainable Chemical Engineering at University College London, Department of Chemical Engineering, and Anders Bjørn, Assistant professor in sustainability assessment at the Technical University of Denmark, Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering.
In their upcoming talk, Andrea and Anders will introduce the concept of absolute environmental sustainability assessment and also talk about a new guidance document for performing absolute environmental sustainability assessment and further work towards standardization of the approach.
In anticipation of the talk, we asked Andrea and Anders about their work and what they will share in their talk.
Can you describe your work?
“We have developed a guidance document for carrying out absolute environmental sustainability assessment with step-by-step recommendations, along with three cross-cutting case studies. The guidance document is currently in a beta stage and the community can submit their feedback in an online survey. This will help us develop the final version of the guidance document”.
What motivated you to pursue research related to the life cycle perspective?
“Previously, absolute environmental sustainability assessment methods, and related research, were mainly presented in academic papers scattered across different journals. This created a barrier for practitioners looking for easily accessible guidance on how to apply these methods in practice”.
What impact do you hope your work will have?
“Higher uptake of absolute environmental sustainability assessment for decision-support within and outside academia”.
Why is the life cycle perspective important in research, in your view?
“Absolute environmental sustainability assessment builds on LCA and two of its key characteristics: taking a life cycle perspective and of covering all relevant environmental impact categories”.
Life Cycle Talks with Andrea Paulillo and Anders Bjørn
The talk takes place on 7 October 2025, 10:00-10:30 CEST, online via Zoom.
Title: How low should you go? Towards standardized absolute environmental sustainability assessment
About Life Cycle Talks
Life Cycle Talks is a series of talks presenting the research front to keep you up to date with the science and application of the life cycle perspective.
