LU-CML has around 20 tenured staff, 40 PhD students and post docs. It is a major
player in methods development for sustainability analysis, with a key role in LCA (Life
Cycle Assessment); LCSA (Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis); MFA (Material Flow
Accounting); dynamic SFA (Substance Flow Analysis); EE-IOA (Environmentally
Extended Input-Output Analysis) and combinations of these methods and tools, like
Hybrid analysis, combining specific technologies in a macro-economic framework.
Goals of application involve both policy support, especially at a European level, and
decision support broader in society, as in industry. Broad domains of application relate
to product analysis; biobased economy; climate and energy analysis; waste and recycling
issues, and materials restrictions on innovations introduction. The interface between the
physical and the social domains is the core interest of the group, essential for building
relevant climate policy, top down, and supporting relevant technology and behaviour
development, bottom up. This transdisciplinary knowledge is a key to efficient and
effective climate policy. LU-CML plays an active role in the International Society for
Industrial Ecology; in the G8 Low Carbon Research Network; and in the UNEP
International Resource Panel