Three pioneering new research works have been recognized
by a new award from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The
research works are:
-
measuring the environmental impact of sugar production in
South Africa,
-
newsprint paper production in Zimbabwe, and
-
new approaches to assess impacts on biodiversity in
Brazil.
"UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Award" recognises work from
academics and private companies in developing and emerging economies who
have started visionary and innovative projects based on the "cradle to
cradle" or "life cycle approach".
The "life cycle approach" concerns the impacts on the
environment of a product's production, use and disposal. "The growing
attention to life cycle issues is a natural outcome of decades of UNEP
work on cleaner production and ecoefficient industrial systems," said
Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment
Programme.
"As pressure on the environment goes through mostly
unsustainable production and consumption patterns worldwide, there is an
urgent need to encourage life cycle thinking in developing and emerging
economies," said Arab Hoballah, Chief of the Sustainable Consumption and
Production Branch in UNEP's Division of Technology, Industry and
Economics.
"The new award that UNEP has initiated with the Society of
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry supports relevant life-cycle
research and associated activities in these countries" added Mr Hoballah,
who presented the awards in Zurich today.
The award ceremony was held back-to-back with the UNEP/SETAC
Life Cycle Management 2007 conference.
This year's winners of the new UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Award
include Kevin Harding and the Department of Chemical Engineering at the
University of Cape Town, for their assessment of sugar production in South
Africa, Charles Mbohwa and his team from the Mechanical Engineering
Department in the University of Zimbabwe for its earlier research on the
life-cycle of newsprint paper, and Danielle Maia de Souza and the
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina for their work on adapting
life-cycle approaches to measure the impacts of unsustainable practices on
Brazil's biodiversity.
Three other projects concerned with waste in Taiwan,
chocolate production in Ghana, and the creation of a "Brazilian Centre of
Excellence on Life Cycle Thinking" were recognized as runner-ups.
In 2006, over 30 projects on life cycle approaches from
developing economies were evaluated and 23 selected and supported with
complimentary commercial software and databases made available by Pré
Consultants (SimaPro), ifu Hamburg (Umberto), PE INTERNATIONAL (GaBi),
Ecobilan (TEAM), ecoinvent Centre (ecoinvent Database) and IVAM (IVAM
Database).
During the award ceremony, the new UNEP publication 'Life
Cycle Management: A Business Guide to Sustainability' was also launched.
(visit
UNEP
Publications to obtain this guide) "This publication is a contribution to UNEP's activities to promote more
sustainable consumption and production patterns,".said Achim Steiner. "It
is a next step in broadening the horizons of pollution prevention; a
process which has gone from a focus on production processes, to products
and then to product-systems and to sustainable innovation. It also
contributes to the 10-year framework of programmes mandated by the World
Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002.
In the new publication, companies such as Airbus, Nokia
and Ford explain how it is possible to expand their business while
minimising the environmental and social burdens along their entire product
life cycles.
For additional information on the Life Cycle award, go to
UNEP/SETAC
Life Cycle initiative
