Isabel Schestak
Isabel from our Bangor team had the chance to attend the biannual EcoBalance conference in Fukuoka, Japan, focussing on all things Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), from 30th October to 2nd November. It was the first time EcoBalance was organised as an in-person event again since the start of the pandemic. It was a great opportunity to meet the “who is who” in LCA and for networking, as the conference invited researchers, practitioners and companies from the LCA field from around the globe.
Isabel presented her first findings of the on-going research on the environmental footprint of the transition to renewable water and space heating in the domestic sector. Further, she had the pleasure to chair the session on Sustainability Assessment together with Tomoko Mori from Kokushikan Unversity, Japan.
Apart from featuring research on the development of the LCA methodology itself or software tools for facilitating its implementation, focusses were on the application of LCA in the chemical sector, textile industry, metal mining or the newest recycling technologies for products crucial for the renewable energy transition, such as permanent magnets, amongst others.
Thanks to the Dwr Uisce funding from the European Regional Development Fund for making research and trip happening and to the organisers of the conference for a very smooth run of the conference, including the invitation of interesting key note speakers.
