keynote speakers
Plenary 1 : Life cycle management at scale and at pace: latest development and applications from industry, policy makers and experts.
Wednesday 6th September, 11am – 12.30pm
Speakers:
Description:
This session brings together policy makers, experts, advocates and industry to share latest developments and discuss next steps in bringing LCM to the masses.
Michele Galatola and Archana Datta will provide updates on the work of the European Commission and the UN Environment Programme’s Life Cycle Initiative including:
- the current political context at EU level when it comes to sustainability of products, with particular focus on the new Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR)
- the role of life cycle assessment in voluntary and mandatory European product policies, the including potential deployment of the future Digital Product Passport (DPP)
- strengthened work on global networks to develop capacity for effective use of Life Cycle Knowledge in high impact sectors and regions.
Michele and Archana will then be joined on stage with industry executives covering major impact industries across steel (Arcelor Mittal), concrete and aggregates (EQIOM), food and retail (Colruyt Group) and one of the worlds leading providers of life cycle software, tools and services (PRé Sustainability) for a discussion on how life cycle management is supporting the race to net zero – at scale. Roberto, Nicola, Astrid and Eric will share how LCA is moving from a static assessment used by few, to dynamic tools used in real time by professionals across many disciplines to explore our biggest sustainability challenges.
Jodie Bricout
Principal Circular Economy, Aurecon
Formerly based in Lille, Jodie is returning for LCM 2023 to share her global experience in using life cycle management to drive economic transformation at scale. After developing Northern France’s life cycle platform [avniR] and managing the region’s circular economy strategy when at cd2e, Jodie has been working for change in Australia for the past seven years.
She has engaged with hundreds of professionals to adapt European best practice to the unique needs of her homeland; trained more than 500 professionals in life cycle and circular economy approaches; advised local, state and federal governments and helped develop evidence bases for policy and strategy to improve environmental outcomes across infrastructure, retail, electronics and more. As well as leading global engineering and advisory consultancy Aurecon’s circular economy offering, Jodie is Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the University of Adelaide and Board Member of Circular Australia.
Archana Datta
Associate Programme Management Officer, Life Cycle Initiative, Industry and Economy Division, United Nations Environment Programme
Archana brings over 14 years of diversified experience on capacity building and advocacy in mainstreaming Circular Economy, SCP, Life Cycle Thinking in the Asian region. She has previously worked with UNEP India Country Office, Asian Institute of Technology and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
She holds Masters in Environment Management and has undergone the executive education course in Climate Change Economics and Governance at London School of Economics. She is also a certified trainer on GHG Protocol Product standard on Life Cycle Assessment and certified lead auditor on ISO 14001, Environment Management System standard.
Michele Galatola
DG Grow, European Commission
Michele has a degree in Environmental Sciences and a Doctorate in Life Cycle Assessment. Since 2005 he works for the European Commission, first in the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD), then in DG Environment and since 2019 in DG for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW). After having lead at European level the EU Ecolabel, in the period 2010-2019 Michele initiated and led the development of the Environmental Footprint life cycle assessment methods.
Since 2019, Michele has been leading the Commission work towards integration of sustainability approaches into European industrial policies and strategies, including the recently adopted new legislation on the ecodesign of sustainable products. In this context, Michele has led for the Commission the conceptual development first and now the full scale deployment of the Digital Product Passport (DPP).
Nicola Davidson
Vice President – Sustainable Development and Corporate Communications, Arcelor Mittal
Between 2003 and 2006, Nicola led the communications strategy for several acquisitions and mergers that led to the formation of ArcelorMittal, after which she was appointed vice president, corporate communications, with responsibility for all aspects of the group’s internal and external communications, and brand strategies. In 2013, she assumed additional responsibility for the group’s corporate responsibility function, playing a pivotal role in establishing and embedding the group’s 10 Sustainable Development Outcomes company wide.
More recently, Nicola has led on many aspects of Arcelor Mittal’s Climate Action activities, leading engagement with a wide range of external stakeholders. She established and chairs Arcelor Mittal’s Climate Change Committee, is a member of their Sustainable Development Council and was appointed to their Management Committee in February 2021.
Roberto Huet
CEO, EQIOM and Stradal, a CRH Company
Roberto joined EQIOM in 1991 and has been the company’s Managing Director since 2016. He is an experienced executive with extensive international exposure in the building materials industry and broad knowledge in sustainability related matters.
As a member of the CRH Group, one of the world’s leading construction materials companies, EQIOM is a leader in materials for building and public works industry in France and Luxembourg with 1,500 employees across 180 sites. EQIOM uses life cycle management to achieve its ambition to be a leader of eco-responsible solutions by 2025.
Astrid Van Parys
Head of Sustainability, Colruyt Group
As the head of the sustainability team at Colruyt Group, Astrid steers and governs corporate strategy. Colruyt Group operates in the food and non-food distribution sector in Belgium, France and Luxembourg with more than 600 own stores and over 580 affiliated stores.
After more than 12 years at Colruyt Astrid has deep specialisations in sustainability intelligence and sustainable consumer behaviourism. She is also in the Board of Directors of CIFAL Flanders, a UNITAR-affiliated centre of expertise on the Sustainable Development Goals offering training, project development and coaching.
Eric Mieras
Managing Director, PRé Sustainability
Eric Mieras is the Managing Director of PRé Sustainability, a global leader in life cycle assessment software, life cycle information tools and consultancy services. His ambition is to make footprints as normal as a price tag.
It’s his belief that this can be achieved through combining state of the art technology and the best available science based knowledge. He is dedicated to bringing together partners, clients and other actors in the PRé ecosystem to make fact-based sustainability mainstream.
Plenary 2 : Getting to carbon neutral through life cycle management
Thursday 7th September, 9am – 10pm
Speakers:
Description:
This session brings together three leading corporates striving to achieve carbon neutrality, with a key data provider enabling the shift to be evidence-based.
Many LCM participants rely on ecoinvent data everyday for their work – they use the database either directly, via the traditional LCA softwares (SimaPro, Open LCA, Brightway, Point, GaBi), or as enabler of new kind of tools, like One Click LCA from One Click LCA, Product Lifecycle Intelligence software from Makersite, Mobius from ecochain, Ecodesign studio from Altermaker, or Terrascope from Terrascope. Users also benefit from ecoinvent as the database enables industry specific databases such as Agribalyse, Agrifootprint, Carbon Minds orTOTEM, by providing the background they need to calculate their supply chains. Ecoinvent’s CTO Emilia will share their latest developments and discuss how your feedback helps them improve to further support the transition to carbon neutrality.
Emilia is joined by three corporate heavyweights to discuss how data meets practice. Virya Energy, Siemens and SABIC are at the front line of industrial transformation to achieve the greatest challenge of our time: getting to net zero. Paul, Florian and Frank will share their long progress with using life cycle databases, tools and methods to support impactful actions to cut carbon emissions across the globe, and how the drivers are (finally) in place for change at scale. Covering clean energy (Virya), digital transformation (Siemens) and low carbon building materials (SABIC), this discussion will include glimpses at technological breakthroughs that are jumping out of the lab, the challenges of robust carbon reporting at scale, circular economy innovations and more.
We’ll also challenge our panel to discuss not only the scale, but the pace of change. Will all their initiatives be enough?
Paul Tummers
CEO, Virya Energy
Based in Brussels, Paul is CEO of the energy holding company Virya Energy, part of the Colruyt Group. From humble beginnings, Virya Energy has grown into the largest green energy company in Belgium. Its green energy empire is now worth more than 2 billion euro, stretching from Norway to India.
Previously, Paul spent almost 20 years at natural gas infrastructure company Fluxys, in positions including Director Strategy and Regulatory Affairs, and Chief Financial Officer. He studied civil and mechanical engineering at the Louvain Catholic University and has an MBA from KU Leuven.
Dr Emilia Moreno Ruiz
Chief Technical Officer, Ecoinvent
Emilia leads the technical and IT team of Zurich-based not-for-profit ecoinvent, dedicated to the availability of high-quality data for sustainability assessments worldwide database. Emilia’s team develops and maintains the ecoinvent database – which currently contains more than 18,000 life cycle inventory datasets. She also coordinates technical aspects of business development, and oversees the Research and Development efforts of the association. Emilia has been with ecoinvent since 2010, with previously roles including interim director and deputy director.
Emilia has a PhD from the University of Sevilla in bacterial bioremediation and had a 10-year career in biological research in Spain and France before her interests shifted to focus on environmental performance and LCA.
Florian Ansgar Jaeger
Carbon and Sustainability Assessment Expert, Siemens
Florian has held various research and development positions since 2011 at Siemens, and is currently senior key expert carbon assessment SiGREEN and senior key expers for “sustainability of energy systems and urban infrastructure”. As an expert in LCA methodology, he focuses on developing methods, software and systems for sharing primary data-based product footprints along the value chain.
Beyond his roles at Siemens, Florian drives standardization of methods and data models in the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s (WBCSD) Catena-X Automotive Network and Together for Sustainability (TfS) working groups. He also leades the standards and norms compatibility working group at ESTAINIUM the first open, global network aiming to develop international standards for industry to reduce its carbon footprint and mitigate negative impacts.
Florian studied environmental engineering and environmental science at TU Berlin and UNEP Institute, Tongji University, Shanghai.
Frank Kuijpers
General Manager Corporate Sustainability, SABIC
Frank has four decades international business experience, having worked several countries including the Netherlands, United States of America, Belgium, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He has held senior executive positions since 2000 in research and development, strategy, large capital project management, licensing and business transformation.
Before the acquisition by SABIC in 2002, Frank worked for Royal DSM NV for 15 years. He took up the current position of General Manager Corporate Sustainability in March 2017 and is based in SABIC’s Netherland offices.
Frank has a Masters of Chemical Engineering from the University of Eindhoven.