Welcome to the DBFZ LCA Blog!

We invite you to explore the world of applied sustainability research with us. On this blog, we share what our research group is working on and offer a behind-the-scenes look at life cycle assessment (LCA). We cover key topics, national and international developments, and highlight interesting findings from our research projects.

How large is the ecological footprint of bio-based chemicals, plastics, fuels, and energy carriers? What does this mean for a product, and perhaps more importantly, are all relevant aspects truly taken into account?

Our everyday lives always leave an environmental impact. That’s why our research aims to improve the sustainability of various products and processes. A central focus of our group is the sustainability assessment of different energetic biomass utilisation options — including greenhouse gas emissions, land use changes, water and soil organic matter balances.

To do this, we carry out life cycle analyses and collect extensive environmental data along entire value chains — for example, on energy and material consumption as well as social impacts. We use LCA software such as Umberto and openLCA, along with databases like Ecoinvent, Gemis, and USLCI.

Another key aspect of our work is method development and standardisation in sustainability assessment — for example, in the context of life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle costing (LCC), and social life cycle assessment (SLCA). This enables us to develop tailored indicators and evaluation methods for sustainability monitoring in the bioeconomy or to ensure product sustainability through certifications.

We are Stefan Majer, Kathleen Meisel, Katja Oehmichen, Lena Seidel, and Nora Lange — researchers and team members of the Applied Sustainability Assessment group at DBFZ.

We look forward to you visiting regularly and joining the discussion — directly via the comment section!