Dr. Greg Thoma and Kevin Dooley traveled to Japan in January to introduce The Sustainability Consortium (TSC) to companies and government officials, and were able to present in front of over 600 people during the week-long trip. The trip was coordinated with the help of Dr. Atsushi Inaba of Kogakuin University, Asia’s leading expert in life cycle assessment.
Dr. Thoma and Dooley first visited Tokyo University to meet faculty and learn about LCA initiatives in Japan. TSC then co-sponsored a workshop with TCO2, a local LCA consulting firm, and Dr. Norihiro Itsubo, who is creator of Japan’s LCIA method, LIME and LIME2. It was useful to see how LIME2 has used market analysis to create a single index for environmental impacts. TSC co-hosted a second workshop with the Society of Nontraditional Technology and were joined by TSC members Charlene Wall of BASF, Jeff Rice of Walmart, and Pete He of Henkel.
TSC was also invited, along with the EU Commission, to present to the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), the Ministry of the Environment, and other Japanese government officials and trade organization leaders. The hearings regarded the use of carbon footprinting for trade and ecolabels.
Finally, TSC participated in a workshop sponsored by the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Iniative entitled “International Symposium on the Shonan Guidance Principles and Asian-Pacific Database for Carbon Footprint of Products”. The Shonan Principles will help ensure harmonization of the multiple national and commercial life cycle data initiatives in existence now.