The SETAC (Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry) Europe 33rd annual meeting, which took place in Dublin, Ireland from April 30 – May 4th 2023, was attended by two CESAREF doctoral candidates, Sarah Badioli and Md Jubayed. 

The conference addressed the overarching theme of “Data-driven environmental decision-making” for the protection and restoration of the environment covering many emerging topics in the domain of environmental chemistry and toxicology such as sustainability, breaching planetary boundaries, the intersection of pollution, biodiversity and climate change. The central concept of the conference was the need of integration and improvement of datasets for enhancing environmental understanding and protection. 

More specifically, the doctoral candidates took part to the session dedicated to Life Cycle Assessment and foot-printing. Environmental policies, resource efficiency, circular economy, etc., are increasingly requesting integrated assessment methodologies and frameworks to support the decision-making process both in business and policy contexts. The complex interactions between environmental, economic and social issues related to sustainability require holistic evaluations. By adopting life cycle thinking and life cycle assessment (LCA), the appraisal of products, systems and technologies is conducted, avoiding the shifting of burdens from one impact to the other and from one life cycle stage to another.  

Sarah and Md presented posters on the « Prospective LCA on the Design of New Refractories for a Greener Steelmaking Process » and « The Choice of Refractories for Steel Ladle Lining: a Life Cycle Perspective » respectively.