Today we are happy to launch a global survey, in order to be able to better understand how we could best serve the Life Cycle Community as a whole. The more we know about our Community and thus your expectations and general interest vis-a-vis a community organization such as the FSLCI, the better we can respond to your ideas and needs.
The survey won’t take more than a few minutes to be completed, yet your response would help us a lot in tailoring our services. We would also be delighted if you could forward the survey link to your colleagues, so we get as many responses as possible. Thank you very much in advance!
Tags: community feedback lca lcm life cycle survey
The Lifecycle initiative is of global relevance to promote healthy living and work environment and protect our earth from further impact. As part of its launch for Africa in Nairobi in 2005 through a training of trainers Workshop, I have tried to sustain my research interest in the initiative. However, it has limited acceptability in Africa especially amongst academic researchers. What accounts for this is limited access to research funding in Africa. Whereas industries in the developed countries appreciate the relevance of such research in solving their production problems and so willingly fund such research(es), scarcity of industries and high cost of production and other problems limit such access in Africa. Most scientists use their personal funds to do most of their researches and basically to be able to get promotion. Only few fund their trips to register and attend Conference where they could network and learn new things. Most of such findings remain on our shelves because even the industries that could use such findings still grapple with many issues and may not be willing to buy franchise of the intellectual property.
One or two innovations this FSLCI could introduce is to encourage partnership/networking with LCI enthusiasts and/or practitioners to participate in secured researches. Softwares for LCI study should be made available at less cost than present costs to researchers as EcoInvent and Gabi4 has often done to encourage studies on real time/life models that would serve as platform to promote LCI in developing and transition economies. Provision of support of individuals to attend Workshops that will promote LCI if possible in the region where the tool will be useful will encourage adaptability of the tool(s) by the industries. It is only way to bridge the canyon between the west and the rest. The idea of a newsletter of FSLCI is very good and it will promote interest soon or later in LCI. If we really want to encourage global participation in FSLCI, I think there should be representation of each continent on its Board.