Pioneering work at Chalmers paved the way for life cycle research in the world

This is a story about academic entrepreneurship, rare opportunities, a strategic method-building and the rollercoaster ride of developing a completely new subject from scratch. But it is also a story about the struggle to get a place, and recognition, in academia.

"It's been an incredible journey. A group of pioneers here at Chalmers were involved in designing the field, and Chalmers is the Swedish university that over the years has worked the most, and most cohesively, with the life cycle perspective. We have built up a unique methodology and our research has had a major impact on society, but it took time before the subject gained a clear legitimacy. And the work is not finished! At our department, we are currently working to define and refine our life cycle research even more," says Magdalena Svanström, Head of the Environmental Systems Analysis Division at Chalmers.

Three decades of life cycle research

Having a life cycle perspective on a product's environmental impact means looking at all parts of the product's life cycle – from cradle to grave. A life cycle assessment, or LCA, thus describes and assesses the environmental impacts of a product, all the way from raw material extraction through production and use to waste management.

Today, life cycle assessments are a natural part of the environmental work in most large companies, but until the 1980s, the concept was relatively unknown in both industry and research. In Europe, the field of research gained momentum in the early 1990s, especially after the first scientific conference in Leiden, the Netherlands, which brought together the world's pioneering researchers in the field. 

Just over three decades later, in a glassed-in meeting room at Chalmers, some of the researchers who began their involvement in life cycle research at that time converge. Next to Magdalena Svanström, who did her first life cycle assessment in 1991, sits Tomas Rydberg, today a senior researcher at the Swedish Environmental Research Institute IVL. He has worked with the life cycle perspective since the late 1980s and was one of the first in Sweden to write a thesis using LCA as a method. In 1994, he became Chalmers' first environmental doctor.

"In the beginning, industry drove development more than academia, because companies wanted to have a basis for decision-making and knowledge about the environmental impact of different products. I did LCAs for the business community before the life cycle perspective had clearly been formed as a subject," he says.

A government inquiry puts focus on LCA

On the other side of the table are two research colleagues who also played important roles in the development of life cycle research. Henrikke Baumann, Professor of Industrial and Household Ecologies at Chalmers, has been a driving force in the development of the life cycle area since the early 1990s. So has Anne-Marie Tillman, professor emerita at Chalmers, who in 2000 became Sweden's first Professor of Environmental Systems Analysis.

On the table in front of them are some of the research articles, governmental official reports, international reports and books that the group has contributed to over the years. One of the reports, the so-called Packaging study from 1991, was particularly decisive. It was an extensive assignment from the Ministry of the Environment, which introduced life cycle research to the political arena and highlighted the benefits of LCAs to the Swedish parliament.

The inquiry examined the environmental impacts of packaging and was intended to pave the way for better management of packaging waste. Tomas Rydberg, Henrikke Baumann and Anne-Marie Tillman were involved in the investigation in various ways. 

"I did the feasibility study and came to the conclusion that the focus of the investigation needed to shift from focusing solely on the packaging to looking more comprehensively at the production systems and the waste," says Anne-Marie Tillman.

World-leading LCA group in Sweden

The Packaging study received a lot of attention and laid the foundation for today's requirements for source separation of waste. The fact that the study was largely based on life cycle assessments also meant that it resonated among international LCA researchers. Shortly after the report was released, the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, convened the first of several conferences that would be crucial for the continued development of life cycle research. Tomas Rydberg, Henrikke Baumann and Anne-Marie Tillman were among the invited researchers.

"There were about sixty people in that conference room, the world's collected LCA expertise at the time. The goal was to systematize the methodology since many different concepts were used and there was a lack of uniformity in the analyses. I remember thinking: 'It really feels like something new is emerging in academia now', says Henrikke Baumann.

Anne-Marie Tillman emphasises that the Swedish researchers had a unique position, thanks to their unique collaborations.

"In Sweden, we were early to explore life cycle research, and had built up general experience through case studies. In this way, we were groundbreaking: when others concocted theoretical matrices, we already had concrete, practical experience through our collaborations with authorities, decision-makers and industry," she says and continues, “it was crucial for the work of developing the methodology for different kinds of applications, anything from eco-labelling to strategic technology choices in product or technology development”.

Chalmers hub in growing LCA network

After the Leiden conference, the work of building up the research field at Chalmers continued. Over the next decade, the Swedish researchers contributed to the global development of the field through a number of articles, investigations and work on international LCA standards. Chalmers had many driven LCA researchers, but by now they were not alone in the field.

"During the 1990s, a strong environment within the life cycle field was established in Gothenburg. Chalmers was an important hub and collaborated with a growing network involving the industry's LCA departments and many research institutes," says Tomas Rydberg.

Life cycle assessments represented a new way of working with environmental problems, and society's interest in the emerging area was great. Instead of tackling one emission, one pollutant at a time in one place at a time, companies could take a holistic approach to all emissions in a production system. This enabled a more strategic way of working with environmental issues.

"With the life cycle perspective comes a possibility to move from a reactive to a proactive approach. Instead of trying to solve things afterwards, for example by regulating different emissions, it is possible to work more preventively in the choice of materials and products," says Henrikke Baumann.

The fight for a new subject paid off

Even though there was great public interest, it was far from easy to find a place – and recognition for the new subject – in Chalmers' organisation. Building a new academic subject from scratch presented many challenges, and the feeling of having to fight for the subject's legitimacy was clear.

"There was definitely no clear path for us, and a certain amount of 'civil disobedience' was required to establish a platform for the area. But we knew that we had a unique chance to build something very good", says Henrikke Baumann.

The Chalmers researchers also ensured that the university became a pioneer in the field of education, by incorporating the life cycle perspective into teaching at an early stage. As early as 1989, before the LCA concept was fully established, elements of LCA appeared in a course called Chemical Engineering and the Environment that Tomas Rydberg was responsible for, at the then School of Chemical Engineering.

"The method was called resource and environmental profile analysis at the time, and the terms life cycle perspective and life cycle assessment appeared more often over the next few years. In 1992, some of the student projects had the word 'life cycle assessment' in their title, and by then the term was definitely established," says Tomas Rydberg.

In 1993, Anne-Marie Tillman and Henrikke Baumann (then at the Division of Technical Environmental Planning at the School of Civil Engineering) started an appreciated summer course in life cycle assessment for European engineering students at the invitation of the Chalmers student union. Three years later, they were able to convert the course into a regular, elective course at Chalmers that became hugely popular.

"Suddenly, people got in touch from all sorts of places, even from outside of Chalmers, and wanted to take the course. We received calls from universities, research institutes, international students and many who wanted to do a doctorate in the field," says Anne-Marie Tillman.

Building a national LCA community

A few years later, the Chalmers researchers took the next big step for life cycle research and application. In 1996, the Centre for Environmental Assessment of Product and Material Systems (CPM) was established with Chalmers as host. It was a ten-year, Vinnova-funded initiative that brought together those active in the life cycle area from both academia and society, and the board included about ten of Sweden's largest industrial companies.

"I believe that nearly two-thirds of value on the Swedish stock exchange at the time was represented on CPM's board! says Anne-Marie Tillman.

The centre gave researchers the opportunity to build long-term knowledge and at the same time respond to important societal needs.

"The industry's driving force was to understand how best to work with environmental issues. We researchers had the academic task of developing knowledge about how environmental impact can be compared and calculated in the best way. Now there was an arena for all actors to gather and discuss these issues together", says Tomas Rydberg.

The arena is still there today, as CPM laid the foundation for the Swedish Life Cycle Center – which is a Chalmers-based collaboration platform and a strong catalyst for developing the life cycle area both in Sweden and internationally.

"Sweden tops the list of countries in the world with most companies that work with LCA. I would like to think it is because the Swedish Life Cycle Center has long been an indispensable meeting place for everyone who works with LCA. I also think it has mattered that we, the LCA developers in academia, have consistently focused on research relevant for the companies and their environmental transition," says Henrikke Baumann.

The Chalmers environmental initiative — a milestone

In 2000, after an international evaluation had found that Chalmers' environmental research was world-class, Chalmers invested SEK 100 million in the Chalmers Environmental Initiative. This became yet another milestone for life cycle research. The idea behind the initiative was to bring environmental science perspectives into research and education throughout Chalmers. Seven professors in the environmental field were appointed, and Anne-Marie Tillman was one of them. At the same time, Environmental Systems Analysis was formed, which in Chalmers' organization at the time was a department within the School of Civil Engineering.

"We finally got academic recognition and a clear sense of belonging in the organisation," says Anne-Marie Tillman.

The life cycle perspective spreads around Chalmers

In 2005, Chalmers was reorganized, and Environmental Systems Analysis became part of the new Department of Energy and Environment. There was an opportunity to create a research school that incorporated the life cycle field. In 2010, Chalmers began forming its Areas of Advance, which bring together cutting-edge expertise across the departments to meet complex societal challenges. Life cycle researchers were given an important role in several of the Areas of Advance, mainly Energy, Transport and Production.

"This means close collaboration with other researchers at Chalmers, where we have the opportunity to put a life cycle perspective on new and emerging technology in the early stages of technology development", says Anne-Marie Tillman.

Today, Environmental Systems Analysis is a division within the Department of Technology Management and Economics and has a strong collaboration with other parts of Chalmers. The life cycle perspective is also not only used by the researchers at Environmental Systems Analysis, but has been part of the research at several of Chalmers' departments for many years.

"Life cycle research is interdisciplinary and ties together so much: the production side, the consumption side, transport, materials science, food science and the impact on our ecosystems: in short, a multitude of perspectives and disciplines", says Henrikke Baumann. 

Unique and much needed methodology

Today, life cycle research is needed more than ever, the researchers point out.
"There is a far-reaching, global transition towards circularity and a fossil-free future that affects us all: society and industry, consumers and producers. This makes the life cycle perspective more relevant and urgent than ever, and the need for Chalmers' strong research environment in the field is becoming increasingly apparent", says Henrikke Baumann.

The special approach to LCA methodology that Environmental Systems Analysis at Chalmers has developed is unique in many ways, which also contributes to the importance of the research environment, the researchers point out. It is a form of situational and application-specific life cycle assessment, which are useful in decision processes and address the environmental challenges of the industry or technology developer.

"There is a tendency in the field to push towards ever more standardization of the methodology, for the sake of comparability. But then you lose the rich way of relating to LCA that we stand for: meaningful, situation-adapted life cycle assessments that clearly consider the actor's perspective," says Magdalena Svanström.

What also distinguishes life cycle research at Environmental Systems Analysis is a focus on life cycle practice in industry.  For many years, the researchers have examined what LCA work looks like in industry, and how companies use life cycle assessments in business and product development.

"We need to understand LCA in its context, so that we can contribute to real change. We are very alone in this, there is no other LCA group in the world that has studied life cycle work in practice as systematically as we have", says Henrikke Baumann.

Great need for continued LCA research

The researchers are convinced that life cycle research from Chalmers and its network has had a comprehensive and concrete impact on everything from government decisions to the industry's choices.

"At Chalmers, we talk a lot about utilisation, how research has an impact on society. Chalmers' life cycle research has brought an incredible amount of benefit, based on groundbreaking and world-leading research", says Anne-Marie Tillman.

Henrikke Baumann emphasizes that Chalmers has played a major part in the spreading of knowledge about life cycle issues and continues to have a major impact on society.

"Think of how many of our former students who have taken our LCA course are today working all over in the large companies. This, I think, has had huge importance for strategic sustainability initiatives, such as Volvo's commitment to electrification," says Henrikke Baumann, and continues:

"The LCA methodology was revolutionary when it was introduced. We were an important part of its global growth, through strategic work here at Chalmers. That's pretty amazing really! Even so, the research is far from "done". There is so much vital and urgent research left to do, such as improving LCA methods for measuring impacts on biodiversity, developing prospective methodologies for technology development and dynamic methodologies for the circular economy, and how to use LCA for business analysis. And Chalmers life cycle researchers have enormous experience and capacity to do the job, if we are provided the space for it.