Second Annual Conference-Workshop

Integrative Thinking About Life Cycle Analysis:
Promises & Limitations

The Hub, Cira Centre, Philadelphia - March 27 & 28, 2009

General description: This series of conference-workshops has been designed to address leading environmental issues facing business from academic, practical, and policy-oriented perspectives. Scheduled formal presentations will be strictly limited to a “Davos rule” of a 15-minute, 5-slide maximum for each contribution. The distinctive format of this series of conference-workshops is to employ “workshop-style” interactions to promote rigorous in-depth discussion and engagement on issues among different stakeholders, including representatives of non-governmental organizations and government as well as business and academia. Participation in the conference has been be by invitation only (though we will grant requests for participation from interested and qualified people, including students). The aim of the conference-workshop has been to promote a neutral and intellectually rigorous environment for learning and mutual education on major selected issues. Identification of topics and problems deserving continued research or revisiting at future conferences will also be another goal of the deliberations.

The conference focused on current practices of life cycle analysis and challenges of addressing a resurgence of interest and use of this methodology for the evaluation and improvement of business practices, processes, and products across various media (e.g., energy, materials use and disposal, water, and greenhouse gases.)