Lecture title：carbon neutrality and life cycle thought

Time: 3:00-5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Reporter: Professor Xu Ming, University of Michigan

Place: 6th floor of the main building (offline), online Tencent conference: 845-470-619

Brief introduction of the reporter:

Xu Ming received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in environmental science and engineering from Tsinghua University in 2003 and 2006 respectively, and a doctor's degree in civil and environmental engineering from Arizona State University in 2009. Currently, he is a professor of the School of Environment and Sustainable Development of the University of Michigan and a professor of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His research field involves environmental system engineering and industrial ecology. In 2016, he won the CAREER Award, the highest award for young teachers awarded by the National Science Foundation of the United States. In 2021, he won the highest award of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) for scientists in the middle of their career, Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize. Served as the editor in chief of Resources, Conservation&Recycling (impact factor 10.204 in 2020, the first district of the Chinese Academy of Sciences). Due to his outstanding contributions in the field of industrial ecology, he was awarded the International Society for Industrial Ecology Young Scientist Award (Louise Award) in 2015, elected the chairman of the Gordon Research Conference on Industrial Ecology in 2024, and elected the chairman of the International Industrial Ecology Society (term of office: 2023-2024).

Content summary:

The realization of carbon neutrality requires simultaneous emission reduction from both the production and consumption ends of the industrial chain. The life cycle idea is a main idea for emission reduction from the consumption end. Life cycle thinking is the concrete embodiment of system thinking in the time dimension. It considers the product or technology as a whole system and makes a comprehensive evaluation of the environmental impact of the product or technology from the aspects of raw material mining, processing and manufacturing, and use. Faced with the adjustment of carbon neutrality, the life cycle idea can 1) identify the links in the product life cycle that cause greater environmental impact; 2) Evaluate the real environmental impact of the product; 3) Guide consumers to make environmentally friendly purchasing decisions. At the same time, life cycle analysis also faces great data challenges, and data science methods have certain potential in solving these challenges.

(Undertaken by: Energy and Environmental Policy Research Center, Scientific Research and Academic Exchange Center)