The Role of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Development and Application

Abstract

Although there was a demand for environmental health data on chemicals, there was no global scientific organization able to talk about the science behind the regulations being developed. The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) was founded in 1979. SETAC has three strengths: its global scale, its tripartite membership and governance, and its scientific base. Because SETAC was developed on an international scale, it has been able to address global environmental issues.

The SETAC North American LCA Advisory Group is a formally recognized group within SETAC that has been in existence since June 1991. Similarly, SETAC Europe established an LCA Steering Committee. Both the LCA Advisory and Steering Committee are referred to as the SETAC LCA Groups.

The LCA Groups report to the Board of Directors of both SETAC and SETAC Europe. Specific activities such as workshops, conferences, or educational material development, including ‘position papers’, are approved by the Board of Directors. During the 1990s these SETAC LCA Groups were instrumental in driving the scientific progress to codify the professional practice of LCA. During this time period, several major workshops were successfully organized and over a dozen key publications produced. The SETAC LCA Groups also broadly supported the initial preparation of the ISO 14040 series of voluntary international standards as well as their subsequent revisions.

The general mission of the SETAC LCA Groups is to proactively advance the science and application of LCAs to reduce the resource consumption and environmental burdens associated with products, packaging, processes or activities.

Although life cycle assessment promised to be a valuable tool in evaluating the environmental consequences of a product, process, or activity, the concept was relatively new and required a framework for further development.

The workshop, ‘A Technical Framework for Life Cycle Assessments’, held August 18–23, 1990, at Smugglers Notch, Vermont, was organized by SETAC to develop a framework and consensus on the current state of LCA and research needs for conducting life cycle assessments. Although life cycle assessments have been used, in one form or another, before the name was coined, this workshop report is the first document which presented the name of the method.

The four SETAC LCA workshops in Smugglers Notch (1990), Leiden (1991), Sandestin (1992) and Wintergreen (1992) formed a tiered process to culminate in the Code of Practice workshop of Sesimbra, Portugal, March 31–April 3, 1993.

Developing international consensus on harmonized methods has been a goal of the SETAC LCA workshops. The ‘Code of Practice’ completed the harmonization process. Shortly after the workshop, during the autumn of 1993, the ISO standardization process was initiated.

In 1994, as a result of the SETAC LCA workshops, the LCA Advisory Group of SETAC and the LCA Steering Committee of SETAC Europe established individual work groups to address specific LCA issues.

SETAC’s working groups and workshops have advanced both the application and reputation of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) by authoring LCA publications, supporting the development of LCA standardization, partnering with United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), and advancing the use of LCA in various sectors. As SETAC grows and expands on its own and with its supporters and partners, it will continue to advance the understanding and use of LCA while ensuring that science is kept at the forefront of LCA development.

Appendix—Glossary

Global Coordinating Group (GCG)	The Global Coordinating Group (GCG) was formed in 2011 as a mechanism for communication between the regional Advisory and Steering Groups in Europe and North America and to allow the other Geographic Units to have representation in global SETAC LCA affairs
International Organization for Standardization (ISO)	After the LCA harmonization by SETAC, shortly after the workshop in Sesimbra in 1993, the LCA ISO standardization process was initiated
LCA in developing countries	SETAC’s role should be to use the LCA community to help develop LCA expertise by hosting learning sessions, webinars and developing education tools for developing countries that are advancing in using LCA
LCA in the building sector	LCA can now be used at two levels, at the level of the building as a whole and at the level of building materials or products
Pellston workshops	Pellston Workshops, named after the location of the first workshops (University of Michigan Field Station, Pellston, MI, USA). The goal of a Pellston Workshop is to promote advancement in the resolution of truly cutting-edge technical and policy issues in environmental science, while enhancing strategies of science and philosophy
SETAC LCA groups	The SETAC LCA European group is named ‘LCA Steering Committee’
	The SETAC LCA North American group is named ‘LCA Advisory Group’
Technical workshops	SETAC supports the convening of technical workshops to bring together experts to discuss and resolve timely technical, scientific or policy issues related to environmental science. SETAC’s level of support can range from simply providing an endorsement (e.g., non-exclusive license to use SETAC name or logo for promotional purposes) to providing full technical and scientific support, as long as basic principles are met
UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative	In 2002, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) and partners from governments, academia, civil society, business and industry joined forces to promote life cycle approaches worldwide. This was done to increase resource-efficiency and to accelerate a transition towards more sustainable consumption and production patterns. Sustainable development objectives and a company’s bottom line come together in the important topic of assessing and managing the life cycle of processes, materials, products and services
Work groups Life Cycle Impact Assessment	The Life Cycle Impact Assessment workgroup of the LCA Advisory Group of SETAC and that of the LCA Steering Committee of SETAC Europe prepared two individual reports on LCIA. They can be seen as complementary documents. The reports elaborate strong similarities but also a limited number of different positions
	SETAC Europe Report: Towards a Methodology for Life Cycle Impact Assessment. September 1996
	Report of the SETAC Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Impact Assessment Workgroup, SETAC LCA Advisory Group: Life Cycle Impact Assessment—The State-of-the-Art 1998
Work groups Simplified/Streamlined LCA	In 1994 the LCA Steering Committee of SETAC Europe established the Workgroup Screening and Streamlining. In the same year, the SETAC North America workgroup on Streamlining LCA was initiated. Both groups concluded their multi-year efforts on the issue of Simplifying/Streamlining by a report in each case. The approaches of the reports are different
	SETAC Europe Report: Simplifying LCA: Just a Cut? Final report from the SETAC Europe LCA Screening and Streamlining Working Group. Editor: Kim Christiansen. May 1997
	The report of SETAC Europe discusses the methods for producing simplified procedures, commonly described as screening LCA studies, streamlined LCA studies and simplified LCA studies
	Streamlined Life Cycle Assessment: A Final Report from the SETAC North America Streamlined LCA Workgroup. Edited by: Joel Ann Todd and Mary Ann Curran. July 1999
	The report of SETAC North America is more a description of carefully planning and stating an LCA’s goal than it is about Streamlined LCA methodology
Workshop Leiden	‘Life-Cycle Assessment—Inventory, Classification, Valuation, Data Bases’. December 2–3, 1991, Leiden, The Netherlands
	It was concluded that the term LCA can best be interpreted as ‘life cycle assessment’ instead of ‘life cycle analysis’
Workshop Sandestin	‘A conceptual framework for life cycle impact assessment’. February 1–7, 1992, Sandestin, Florida
	The aim of this workshop was to develop a consensus on the state of the practice and research needs for conducting life cycle impact assessments. The workshop reaffirmed the value of the three-component model for LCAs developed at the Smugglers Notch workshop in 1990. Also, building on the results of the Leiden workshop in 1991, a goal definition and scoping component was incorporated as an additional step
Workshop Sesimbra	‘Code of Practice’. Sesimbra, Portugal, March 31 to April 3, 1993
	The European and North American organizations of SETAC planned and conducted the LCA ‘Code of Practice’ Workshop
	The ‘Code of Practice’ was intended as guidance for all individuals who commission, carry-out, review, or use the results of an LCA, and should be used to enhance the quality, transparency, and credibility of such studies
	Shortly after this workshop, the LCA ISO standardization process was initiated
Workshop Smugglers Notch	‘A technical framework for life cycle assessment’. August 18–23, 1990, Smugglers Notch, Vermont
	The workshop was to develop a framework and consensus on the current state of LCA and research needs for conducting life cycle assessments. Although life cycle assessments have been used, in one form or another, before the name was coined, this workshop report is the first document which presented the name of the method
Workshop Wintergreen	‘Data quality: a conceptual framework’. October 4–9, 1992, in Wintergreen, Virginia
	The workshop provided a strong statement that data quality assessment is an integral part of LCA