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Sustainable Systems FORUM #2: U.S. Consumption & Asian Pollution? Revealing the Connection through LCA and Environmental Modeling

Event Type
Seminar
Speaker
Olivier Jolliet
Sponsor
Center for Sustainable Systems
Details
February 3, 20122:00pm - 3:00pm
 - 
1040 Dana Building

U.S. Consumption & Asian Pollution?

Revealing the Connection through LCA and Environmental Modeling

- Why does half of the water use impacts of corn production in US takes place in the only state of Nebraska?

- What fraction of the particulate impacts in China are due to consumption of products consumed in US?

- How much of a cosmetic get taken up by its user?  How relevant is our direct exposure as consumers during product use?

 

While addressing these practical questions, this presentation will illustrate cutting-edge developments in Life Cycle Impact Assessment and environmental modeling applying the KICS (Keep It Cleverly Simple) approach and including:

 - USEtox, the UNEP (United Nation Environmental Programme)-SETAC Toxicity model for chemical screening, with the assessment of direct exposure to consumer products and to pesticides residues in crops,

- IMPACT World+, the first Life Cycle Impact Assessment method to provide factors for all continents.

- PANGEA, a flexible multi-scale modeling framework to study the local and global spatial impacts of pollutants.