2.-0 LCA Consultants | SimaPro partner in Denmark

SIMAPRO PARTNER STORY | A global vision and a demand for high quality life-cycle information led to the creation of Danish sustainability firm, 2.-0 LCA Consultants

More than a decade of high-quality LCAs

LCA pioneer Bo Weidema created the company to “provide high-quality decision support on sustainability issues.” Twelve years later the company has six employees and two offices, one in Aalborg and the other in Barcelona, in order to better serve the whole of Europe. Clients include the EU Commission, DuPont, and Arla Foods.

In particular, what 2.-0 LCA Consultants bring to clients is a “specialized, high-quality LCA study,” said Schmidt. “We are highly skilled in consequential modeling,” an approach based on ISO 14044, which ensures as accurate results as possible. 2.-0 LCA Consultants also provide clients with specialized products, like the modeling of land use changes through their iLUC Club. The Indirect Land Use Change Club is comprised of, “most of our larger clients as well as several universities and research institutions,” said Schmidt. “New members pay a minor fee and we convert that to research hours,” which are being used to develop a model quantifying the effect of land-use changes on greenhouse gas emissions. Members can access reports describing the model and datasets, and all future updates as well. The firm’s groundbreaking work in the area of land use and overall high-quality LCAs will only continue to grow in the coming years.

SimaPro: A Transparent Common Language Among Clients

The partnership between 2.-0 LCA Consultants and PRé began in 2001 soon after the company’s inception. Schmidt said, “Our founder, Bo Weidema, has quite a significant network within the LCA community, and so, of course, he has known Mark Goedkoop, PRé’s founder, since the early 1990s. “In 2001 there were no dedicated LCA consultancies in Denmark, so it was an obvious choice for us to become the SimaPro partner,” Schmidt explained. “There were other software programs available, but SimaPro was superior overall. It was an obvious choice to collaborate.” Over the years the partnership has been very successful. “We have an increase in new licenses nearly every year,” said Schmidt. “Even though Denmark has not grown, the market for LCAs and SimaPro has.”

Schmidt believes the two businesses complement each other nicely. “We get a lot of feedback from our clients on SimaPro, and we provide our own thoughts as well,” he said. “We are also database providers for SimaPro.” In addition, Schmidt said, “We use SimaPro as our in-house LCA tool, as do almost all of our clients. The fact that we have a common LCA software is important because we can provide data and have direct access into their databases.” In particular, SimaPro’s multiuser feature allows for total transparency among users, a real asset when working with clients. Schmidt said, “SimaPro provides a common language with our clients.”

Through education and consistency comes success

Throughout the sustainability field, 2.-0 LCA Consultants are known for their work in “developing the methodology of consequential modeling. We have also contributed to developments in the field of input-output modeling, where we have created a link between input-output modeling, mass-flow analysis, and database development.” Schmidt said. “It’s quite a significant achievement.” In particular, Schmidt points out that this work contributed to defining some of the features of the new Ecoinvent v3, the world’s leading database of Life Cycle inventory data. Founder of 2.-0 LCA Consultants, Weidema is now chief scientist for Ecoinvent. “We believe in modeling in a consistent and transparent way,” Schmidt said. “Our objective is to improve LCAs in general, all over the world. We want to continue to expand high-quality LCA studies and we want to educate people about good LCA modeling.” Education is especially an issue right now. Schmidt said, “There is much inconsistency and amateurism in the LCA field,” in part because, “there is a lack of LCA education. If you look for a high-level, quality course that goes beyond the basics, it is very limited.”

But Schmidt remains ever hopeful. He believes that the way to improve the LCA field for the future is through consistency. “If you look out there, there are many databases and countries who are starting to create national databases. It’s a pity because you can’t really compare national databases because they’re based on different modeling assumptions, different boundaries, different everything.” Schmidt believes that as the sustainability field moves forward, “We have to put all this data together in a nice, consistent way. Then you can utilize it.”

2.-0 LCA Consultants will remain at the forefront of the sustainability field, developing new methodologies while capitalizing on their significant background in the LCA market, for years to come.

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