Professional training: Sustainable consumption and production: how to measure and move forward?

Summary

To address environmental and social issues, environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been the most taught and used method in Southeast Asia. However, EIA presents several drawbacks associated with the implementation of the 17 SDGs. EIA lacks the Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) approach, i.e. going beyond the traditional focus on the production site and manufacturing processes. This method, therefore, can be used for neither comparing similar alternatives nor supporting policy making. To make LCT operational, the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) has been developed to address the potential impacts of products and services throughout their entire life cycle, from raw material acquisition to end-of-life treatment, associated with the three pillars of sustainability: environmental, economic, and social.

In the context of the VLIR projects (VLIR-IUC-Hue and SIP), we, the Sustainable Systems Engineering (STEN) research group at Ghent University, led by Prof. Jo Dewulf, organized two introductory workshops in Vietnam in 2019 on environmental sustainability assessment using life cycle assessment (LCA), an essential part of the LCSA tool. Due to time constraints, we were able to only briefly introduce LCA; however, we received positive feedback from the attendants (i.e., Vietnamese lectures and Ph.D. and VLIR-OUS international master students). On the individual level, we noticed that there was a significant gap in the trainees’ knowledge of clean technology, sustainability assessment, circular economy, and the LCSA tool in connection with the SDGs. On an organizational level, this is visible in the lack of courses within their under- or postgraduate programs on topics such as Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment.  

This ITP would contribute to filling this knowledge gap by proposing technical training for professionals from multiple stakeholders: universities, institutes, government organizations, and industrial companies. The geographical scope covers not only Vietnam but also other VLIR-UOS partner countries in Southeast Asia and South and Sub-Saharan Africa, where there are similar problems. This ITP training aims at professionals in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, who plays a significant role in transferring and strengthening the new knowledge and skills learned in the ITP. With this shared ownership, the number of people, organizations, and industrial sectors benefiting from the training will increase exponentially as well. 

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