Tutorial BI01/ET14/NM04—Life Cycle Analysis from an Industrial Perspective

Environmental issues keep steadily increasing, thus there is a strong urge to discuss how materials scientists could more rapidly respond to the worldwide concerns. This joint tutorial effort would be organized by the three symposia together. To ensure the success of such synergistic efforts it is also urged a close dialogue with society so to establish guidelines for policymakers, thus this tutorial will incorporate both the societal and the engineering aspects of life cycle analysis (LCA) would be covered. The main objective of this tutorial is to explore communications pathways between companies and materials researchers that further elevate the profile and challenges of sustainability that represents a societal necessity and a viable and critical topic for research.

1:30 pm
Societal Aspect of LCA
Jean-Pierre Birat

Materials are not simply the product of an engineering discipline, Materials Science, but also "social constructs" that have entertained a close relationship with society all through the historical timeline and remain a core element of our modern world, what is called a Key Enabling Technology.  How this can be analyzed by parallel approaches of hard and soft sciences will be explained in the class as well as the tryptic of economic, environmental and social values of materials. Examples reported in the 13 past SAM conferences will be used as examples.

2:45 pm BREAK

3:15 pm
Engineering Aspect of LCA
Alan Rae

The instructor will provide an overview on all the aspects considered in a life cycle analysis aimed to the engineering design of an industrial process. A part of the tutorial will involve the interaction with the audience in order to apply some of the concepts described in the first part of the tutorials to common objects.

4:15 pm
Sustainability Challenge
Alan Rae

The symposium organizers will divide the participants into groups and a sustainability challenge will integrate the concepts presented by the instructors so to review and facilitate networking among participants and instructors.

4:45 pm
Final Remarks

Instructors

• Jean-Pierre Birat, IF STEELMAN / IRT-M2P
• Alan Rae, IncubatorWorks