LCIS 2026 – 1st Indian Conference on Life Cycle Insights for Sustainability

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Technology Use in LCA

Technology has always played a key role in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) through the use of advanced software tools that enable practitioners to model complex supply chains, access life cycle inventory databases, and perform impact assessments with standardized methodologies. Of late, issues such as digitalisation, interoperability, AI applications, automated data capture, and automated QA/QC have gained traction among LCA practitioners. These technological advancements are shifting LCA from a static reporting tool to a strategic instrument for sustainable design, policy-making, and circular economy implementation. Research at the intersection of technology and LCA is expanding rapidly, and it's not just about better software anymore—it's about fundamentally rethinking how LCA is done.

LCA Education and Literacy

Education in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is evolving from a niche, specialist subject into a core component of sustainability learning across engineering, management, and policy disciplines. Universities and training programs increasingly combine theoretical foundations—such as goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation—with hands-on experience using software tools. Digital learning platforms, open databases, and case-based teaching are making LCA education more accessible and practice-oriented, while industry collaborations and professional certifications are bridging the gap between academia and practice. As sustainability reporting and regulations expand globally, LCA education is becoming essential for developing the skills needed to support evidence-based environmental decision-making. In a highly diverse country like India, professionals interested in LCA range from beginners to expert practitioners and it has always been a challenge to hold the interest of the community across this spectrum and navigate from LCA literacy to higher education in LCA. Topics for literacy and education will range from LCA demystification, "getting started" tips, knowledge and data sources, hands-on LCA studies, and the centrality of LCA to sustainability initiatives in policy and practice. Equally important is the method to transfer learning in a professional setting, whether through focused technical sessions, interactive workshops, or storytelling communication, and adaptation of content to suit developing countries. The LCA education challenge is not just teaching how to run an LCA model, but also how to use LCA meaningfully in real-world sustainability decisions.

LCA Methodology Development

LCA methodologies are evolving in the general direction of making the framework more robust, relevant, and decision-useful in a rapidly changing sustainability landscape. Key efforts include refining indicators for climate change, biodiversity, and water use; better handling of data gaps and regional variability; expanding LCA boundaries to include social and economic dimensions; and developing dynamic and prospective LCA methods to account for time-dependent changes and emerging technologies. While handling methodological challenges such as allocation, system boundaries, uncertainty analysis, integration with circular economy concepts, and closing the "interpretation gap," the main aim is increasingly seen as enhancing scientific credibility, comparability, policy relevance, and support for informed sustainability decisions.

Indian Roadmap for Scaling Up LCT/LCM/LCA

Scaling up LCT/LCM/LCA essentially points towards mainstreaming life cycle approaches as a key pathway to India's sustainable development, and accelerating the upgradation from isolated studies to building a national sustainability infrastructure that supports policy, industry, and global trade. This in turn circles back to at least five aspects: policy & regulation; literacy, education & skilling; data infrastructure; industry adoption; and methodology adaptations to suit the Indian context. Developing a roadmap for this kind of upgradation will need deliberations at the national and state levels to develop broad consensus on prioritized actions (e.g. setting up data infrastructure, sensitization & capability building, introducing regulations & standards) and sectors (e.g. agriculture & food management, waste management & circular economy models, electric vehicles & battery life cycles). This needs to be followed up by designating agencies responsible for those actions, and mobilizing human & financial resources for successful delivery.

Moving Beyond Product LCAs

In addition to traditional product-level assessments, LCA is expanding toward evaluating entire systems, value chains, policy interventions, and even business models for a better understanding of wider impacts. This includes approaches such as organizational & portfolio LCAs, city or economy-wide assessments, nature & biodiversity impacts, and balancing social handprint with environmental considerations. Rather than focusing only on a single product, practitioners are now applying LCA to compare, for example, mobility systems instead of individual vehicles, or food systems instead of single food items. This helps capture interactions, trade-offs, and rebound effects. This evolution also aligns well with the application of life cycle approaches to policy design, circular economy strategies, and corporate sustainability management, making it a more holistic and forward-looking tool. Ultimately, this can enable more meaningful insights for large-scale transitions and help ensure that sustainability decisions are not optimized in isolation but across entire systems.

In addition to the above, we are also open to receiving abstracts on topics of your interest aligned to the Indian context, including but not limited to:

• Market pull for LCA in India (e.g. carbon markets & MRV, carbon transparency, greenwashing guardrails, circularity & waste management LCAs)
• Sector-specific spotlights (e.g. building & construction, plastics & packaging, energy & hydrogen, clean transportation, hard-to-decarbonize heavy industry sectors)

Suggested Workshop Topics

Workshops may address any topic connected to life cycle innovation, for example:

• Methodological advances (LCA, LCC, social LCA)
• Sector-specific challenges
• Circularity, net zero strategies, sustainable design
• Data quality, digitalization, automation
• Policy, standards, and market transformation
• Open-source initiatives or collaborative projects

We welcome both emerging topics and deep dives into established ones.

1. Presentation Types

Authors may choose between:
• 12-minute oral presentation (onsite or virtual)
• Poster presentation

The scientific committee will consider your preference, but as presentation slots are limited, we may allocate a different format to ensure a balanced program.

2. Content Requirements

Abstracts fall within the themes outlined above and should be concise, informative, and complete. They should clearly describe:
• Title
• Authors and affiliations
• Background and relevance to life cycle innovation
• Objective or research question
• Approach and methods
• Key findings or expected results
• Novelty or significance of the work
• Preferred presentation format (poster / oral onsite / oral virtual)

Abstracts should not exceed 400 words and must avoid commercial messaging.

3. What We Are Looking For

We especially encourage submissions that:
• Advance state-of-the-art life cycle methods
• Present innovative research or tools (non-commercial)
• Share case studies from industry or policy practice
• Address practical challenges or cross-sectoral implementation
• Showcase open-source initiatives, community projects, or collaborative efforts
• Offer fresh insights into communication, stakeholder engagement, or LCM-driven decision-making