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Co-ordination Action for Innovation in Life-Cycle Analysis for Sustainability (CALCAS)

Principal Investigator:
[Projektleitung verlinken]


Research Team:

Henrik Vagt

Funding:
European Commission – DG Research
Term:
Sep 01, 2006 — Feb 28, 2009
Contact Person:
Dr. Klaus Jacob
Email:
Homepage:

Project partners:

Ente Nazionale per le Nuove Tecnologie, l’Energia e l’Ambiente (ENEA);
Institute of environmental sciences, Leiden University (CML);
Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL);
Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy (WI);
Division of Technology, Industry and Economics - United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP);
Institute for Environment and Sustainability (JRC IES);
School of Chemical Engineering Analytical Science – University of Manchester (UNIMAN);
ARMINES;
Instituto Superior Tecnico, Technical University of Lisbon (IST);
European Science Foundation (ESF);
CRYSTAL FARADAY (CRYSTAL);
Institut für ökologische Wirtschaftsforschung gGmbH, (IÖW)

Project description:

One important analytical tool among different Life-Cycle Approaches is Life Cycle Assessment as described and standardised by ISO. ISO has been the main driver for LCA diffusion, but it has limitations regarding empirical mechanisms, spatial/temporal aspects and economic/social parameters. To increase the efficacy of sustainability decision making, LCA has to take into account broader externalities, broader interrelations and different application/user needs. These often have conflicting requirements, like richer dynamic models, integration of environmental, economic, and social aspects, against simplicity, accessibility and user friendliness, etc.

CALCAS stands for Co-ordination Action for Innovation in Life-Cycle Analysis for Sustainability, it is funded within the 6th Research Programme of the European Union and aims to develop (ISO-) LCA by

  • “deepening” the present models and tools to improve their applicability in different contexts while increasing their reliability and usability

  • “broadening” the LCA scope by better incorporating sustainability aspects and linking to neighbouring models, to improve their significance

  • “leaping forward” by a revision/enrichment of foundations, through the crossing with other disciplines for sustainability evaluation.