As part of the Social Value of Materials (SOVAMAT) initiative (www.sovamat.org), SAM conferences address the issues of
sustainability assessment of processes and products in order to foster interaction of soft and hard sciences, by bringing together an interdisciplinary research community to discuss new metrics developments extending beyond common LCA and strategies of
sustainable development.

We encourage the participation of social scientists, process and material engineers, industrial ecologists, LCA (life-cycle
assessment), MFA (material flow analysis) and SA (sustainability analysis) practitioners, political scientists and economists interested in communicating and disseminating innovative ideas on these topics. Previous SAM conference programs, articles, and presentations are available on the SOVAMAT web site.

Main Conference Themes are:

• New developments in Life Cycle Assessment
• Material Flow Analysis and Methodologies beyond LCA
• Social, economic and sustainability indicators
• Internalisation of societal and environmental externalities in economics
• Circular economy

• Infrastructure and mobility for sustainable cities
• Biodiversity & ecosystem services
• Resources, biomass & land use
• Sustainability and eco-design of processes, products and services
• Climate change and materials