Thomas Arblaster

SSBD Basel 2024 Speakers - Thomas Arblaster

Thomas Arblaster is a PhD candidate at Leiden University’s Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML). His work explores how life cycle assessment (LCA) can inform the development of novel chemicals and materials in the safe and sustainable by design (SSbD) framework. Thomas holds MSc degrees in aerospace engineering (TU Delft) and industrial ecology (TU Delft & Leiden University).

Life Cycle Assessment

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a quantitative method, well-suited to assessing the cradle-to-gate environmental impacts of a product or service. In this presentation, Thomas Arblaster (Leiden University) will introduce the basic concepts of LCA and its application in SSbD.

While LCA can enlighten complex questions, it is a data-intensive method, building on diverse models. At the cutting edge of technological development, designers inevitably find themselves lacking the knowledge required to comprehensively evaluate sustainability. In these cases, a major strength of LCA is its support in identifying what questions to ask during R&D. Using so-called tiered LCA, the SSbD framework focusses on how LCA can bring practitioners from initial life cycle thinking (LCT) insights to increasingly comprehensive quantitative insights.