46 LCA Discussion Forum: Talk on Sustainability: Fiction or Vision?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) December 6, 2011 -- Zurich

In an opening talk at the 46 LCA Discussion Forum, Wolfram Scharnhorst presented his view on sustainability reflecting about the situation in two different industry sectors: the (mobile) telecommunication sector and the building and construction sector. More than 10 years of practical experience in both sectors provided the theoretical basis for this speech. In the first part, Mr. Scharnhorst gave a brief review of the past technological evolution of GSM and UMTS mobile phone technology along with a short overview about the technological development of End-of-Life (EoL) processing solutions. The presentation was further sustained by economic considerations addressing the most likely influence of the stock market on the EoL-issue. Concentrating on the situation today in particular four aspects were addressed:

+ technological aspects
+ environmental aspects
+ economic aspects
+ geopolitical aspects

The first part of the presentation was finalized by a condensed summary addressing the possibly most suitable challenge (mobile) telecommunication is facing today.

The second part of the presentation considered the (sustainable) EoL practices in the building and construction sector. Again, Mr. Scharnhorst reflected about the past developments, early visionary steps performed e.g. in the 1970ies, and tried to depict the today's situation. In particular the "broken" life cycle (broken loop) caused by the sharply divided stakeholder interests was highlighted as well as the missing pro-active pressure factors (as one can encounter today in the telecommunication industry -> here the recovery of precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum, etc.). Also this part of the presentation was finalized by a condensed summary addressing the possibly most suitable challenge the building and construction sector is facing.

Presentation download: http://swm-group.blogspot.com/2011/12/46-lca-discussion-forum-talk-on.html

46 LCA discussion forum     Building and Construction     end of life     life cycle asessment     life cycle inventory     politics     sustainability     telecommunication