That was the question that LCANZ asked in November, when it held its 10th Anniversary Summit in Auckland. thinkstep-anz’s Barbara Nebel was a keynote speaker and reflected on 50 years of LCA globally and her 10 years as President of LCANZ. During this time, she initiated the Australasian EPD Programme which has played a role in making LCA more accessible in Australasia, with over 60 EPDs across New Zealand and Australia combined.
Here, Barbara shares some of the highlights from the anniversary event.
“The #rethinkLCA event celebrated ten years of LCANZ and its many achievements. There has been a significant upward shift for LCA from being virtually unknown in New Zealand fifteen years ago, to now playing a key role across many sectors in Australasia. LCA is now well understood across industry, government and education.
“LCA is a part of the work program for the Office of the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor as mentioned by Rachel Chiaroni-Clarke while in the education sector. New Zealand has produced more than 100 university graduates trained in LCA, as noted by Professor Sarah McLaren.
“From Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and NZ Steel to fast moving consumer goods like Asaleo Care’s napkins, through to tech start-ups like Avertana, a wide range of companies shared their LCA journey during the Summit. Winstone Wallboard Ltd’s Kevin Goulding sharing lessons learnt from a decade of working with LCA would have been particularly helpful for those less experienced.
“The need for LCA to reduce embodied emissions in the building sector was discussed by Sam Archer from the New Zealand Green Building Council.
“A definite highlight was Jim Fava, the father of LCA, talking about 30 years of modern LCA. His main focus was on ways that we can bridge the gap that exists between the life cycle community and end users of LCA, without changing the robust methodology of LCA.
“He invited the audience to think about how to best achieve this and issued a challenge to rebrand LCA.”