Overview of LCA in Indonesia: An Interview by 2B Italy
Pré SimaPro Global Network Partner Meeting, Amersfoort, Netherlands (September 2017)
Our founder, Dr. Jessica Hanafi was interviewed by 2B Italy who is also a member of Pré SimaPro Global Partner Network during the Pré Global Partner meeting last September 2017 in Amersfoort, Netherlands. Dr. Jessica Hanafi has shared her experience and gave the overview of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) development in Indonesia.
For full article go to:
http://www.ciclodivita.it/2017/09/meeting-del-simapro-partner-network-e-intervista-alla-fondatrice-di-life-cycle-indonesia/
See the interview below, cited from the original article.
Can you tell us something about your experience with LCA and what drove your passion for this methodology?
When I was teaching in the University, my aim was to introduce LCA to the students and my colleagues through classroom teaching and research. I think the passion is more on how it is a great methodology that opens our perspective on things in life, not merely for product development. You see that you are a tiny dot in this entire universe and what you do is not always the most important thing in the world. Many other people are more important than you. As industry, we tend to concentrate more on what we do, trying to “perfect” what we do but then missed out because it turns out the impact is not within the manufacturing phase, but in another phase.
I always see a Life Cycle Assessment analogously to a medical check-up for products and services. After the check-up you see which areas in your body are in the red zone and you need to change your lifestyle and improve it. Similarly goes with LCA.
Can you give us an overview of the LCA world in Indonesia and the major sustainability trends at the moment?
LCA is still growing in Indonesia. The “practitioners” are mostly still from the academics. We have the Indonesian Life Cycle Assessment Network (ILCAN) that consists of academics and other people who are interested in LCA. However, very few businesses are going this way. Sustainability is something they are trying to grasp. Even with many Sustainability Reporters in Indonesia, some may still miss the real concept of sustainable development.
You are very active in the agricultural sector; what are the major challenges and goals of the agricultural holdings you work with?
I am actually quite new in agricultural sector. My background is more on system process engineering (chemical engineering) and manufacturing system. However, since in Indonesia people are mostly interested on doing LCA in agricultural sector, I am exposed to many of the experts in this area and learn more each day.
I suppose the major challenges is a classic LCA challenge: DATA availability. Especially in the agricultural sectors, many cross boundaries between environment and technosphere are difficult to measure precisely. Another one is of course having proper practice in sustainability and for some who have done a proper practice is to make sure that they can stay transparent and traceable.
You are a member of the Board of the Indonesian Life Cycle Assessment Network (ILCAN), please tell us more about the projects initiated by the Network and your role within the organization.
The main mission of the network is to provide capacity building, share knowledge and promote LCA in Indonesia. We also aim to establish network within and outside the country in relation to LCA, specifically, and sustainability, in general. We work closely with the National Centre of Environment and Forestry Standardization in the Ministry of Environment and Forestry. We also worked on some topics related to Sustainable Consumption and Production.
ILCAN has 4 main activities:
Biennial conferences (ILCAN Conference Series on Life Cycle Assessment/ICSoLCA). The next one will be around November 2018 in Jakarta (We will circulate the updates soon).
Trainings on LCA (ILCAN Training Series on Life Cycle Assessment/ ITSoLCA). We will be having our 4th Batch in upcoming October. Currently the training is still on Introduction to LCA and Tool. The tool that we practice in the training is SimaPro and we have the 1-day hands-on tutorial of the tool. Life Cycle Indonesia is actually the organizing partner for the trainings.
Journal (Indonesian Journal on Life Cycle Assessment and Sustainability / IJoLCAS) is our bi-annual journal. You are also welcome to submit your articles to our journal. It is not limited only on the case of Indonesia. The journal is open access and is published in English.
We also have Bi-annual Newsletter published every January and July, reporting news around Indonesia and the world related to LCA.
My title role is External Affairs. So, my main job is to introduce ILCAN to as many people as possible, spread our wings, be updated to the LCA news in the world and to get to know you more as well. I also organize the trainings and I am responsible for the newsletter.
What are your future projects?
Our future project is the Indonesian Life Cycle Inventory Database. We have been working on the concept and everything for a while now but unfortunately up until now we are still looking for people and department to do it. When it is voluntary, it is difficult to get the ball roll. This has become my personal challenge as well.
For more information about ILCAN: www.ilcan.or.id