On the use of prospective LCA to support sustainability transitions

Prospective LCA is a method to assess the impacts of technologies or systems at a future point in time relative to the time at which the LCA is conducted. The DF89 will start by setting the scene about prospective LCA and its use for agricultural systems highlighting its potential and limitations in the context of scenario modelling for supporting sustainability transitions. Methods and tools used to evaluate (innovative) technologies as well as future (societal) trajectories will be presented. A second block of presentations will then showcase how prospective LCA has been used to estimate the future environmental impacts of agricultural systems such as agrivoltaic installations or vertical farms. A third block of presentations will focus on the use of prospective LCA in modelling the future environmental impacts of the entire agricultural sectors, such as the environmental impacts of future diet shifts of a given population. Finally, current challenges in prospective LCA of agri-food systems and ways to solve them will be identified and discussed in a panel session.

Program

08:30   Registration

09:00   Welcome, setting the scene

09:15   Setting the scene for prospective LCA of agriculture systems

10:35   Coffee break

11:00   LCA of future agricultural systems and technologies

12:20   Lunch

13:20   Short presentations

14:00   Prospective agricultural sectoral environmental evaluations

15:20   Coffee break

15:45   Panel discussion - Current challenges in prospective LCA of agri-food systems and ways to solve them

16:35   Synthesis, conclusions of the day

16:40   End