Community-Driven Life Cycle Inventory
The Community-Driven Life Cycle Inventory initiative (CDLCI) is on a mission to create and distribute high-quality data for sustainability practitioners—and we need your help.
Eric Mieras
Eric Mieras is the Managing Director of PRé Sustainability, a global leader in life cycle assessment software, life cycle information tools and consultancy services. In this role, Eric makes sure the PRé team stays aware of the business challenges that clients face. He believes that understanding what’s happening in the market is essential for delivering sustainability software, training and consultancy that make a difference. This also helps ensures that LCA stays connected to the latest developments. Eric empowers PRé’s people and teams to strive for continuous growth and improvement in both their personal and professional lives. He follows the motto ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going’ — a resolve that has helped Eric get things done and make ideas happen throughout his career.
Eric has worked with large corporations, start-ups, academic institutions and SMEs to successfully increase their positive impact on people, planet and profit. He has helped teams and individuals grow professionally, personally and collaboratively. Eric has extensive experience in working across different industries, scaling up start-ups and innovations with a focus on information technology, professional services and sustainability. He is uniquely positioned to take sustainability metrics mainstream. Eric understands the value of deep technical expertise for broader audiences and knows how to make this knowledge accessible and relevant.
As a linking pin bringing people from different fields together, Eric believes in the power of people, communities and networks that have a shared purpose. That is also how he leads PRé Sustainability, helping the company contribute to positive change with its profound knowledge and vast experience in Life Cycle Information.
In addition to a Master of Law degree in law and environmental studies from Utrecht University, Eric holds a Master of Science in communication studies from the University of Amsterdam and a postgraduate certificate in change management from VU Amsterdam.
Articles by Eric Mieras
SimaPro in 2030: where are we headed?
We asked our users where they thought SimaPro was headed in the next 10 years. Their ideas were excellent, with a great feel for the important themes of this decade.
30 years of fact-based sustainability: celebration and looking ahead
PRé is turning 30 – a time to reminisce about where we started, celebrate the progress and community spirit in the sustainability field and look to the future challenges that lie ahead.
Paving the impact valuation pathway
Putting a value on impact is the next step forward for sustainability. Today, PRé joins with Finch&Beak to share our vision of the approach and framework needed to make impact valuation a success.
Sustainability at the core: moving from gut feeling to facts
Now sustainability reporting has become a prerequisite at many levels of the business ecology, the field is poised to make a big leap towards fact-based analysis that can really inspire action.
Harness the power of the LCA community
Managing sustainability requires good measurements, good metrics, and good goals that are grounded in solid expertise and context. PRé helps LCA practitioners harness the power of community.
Supporting the Sustainable Development Goals with science-based metrics
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are ambitious top-down goals to help our planet and all who live upon it. A new initiative will use LCA-based knowledge to help make these goals come true.
New project: “Linking the UN Sustainable Development Goals to life cycle impact pathway frameworks”
The visionary approach of the Sustainable Development Goals is valuable, but even more so when it is linked to real-world data. Read on about a new project that will create that link.
How can we scale up LCA studies without compromising on quality?
The need for credible LCA studies is strongly growing. The question “how do we make quality LCA results available on a larger scale?” is very relevant. Eric Mieras explains how technology offers a solution to scale up quality LCA studies.
Connecting LCA experts and business people at the LCM conference
All too often, business people and LCA experts speak different languages. At the upcoming LCM2017, the focus is on connecting LCA experts with the business. Eric Mieras says: "Joining forces is the way forward"
Mitigating climate change towards disaster risk reduction
Climate change, global warming and disaster risk reduction: how sustainability practitioners can help companies take action against climate change by using LCA metrics and indicators.
Bringing two worlds together: sustainability strategy and LCA
To create value from sustainability, you need both a solid sustainability strategy and detailed LCA data. How can we bring these worlds together? The recipe for success is to embrace both inspirational ideas and hard, concrete facts.
Sustainability in 2017- are we at a tipping point to become mainstream?
Many exciting initiatives started to bear fruit in 2016, and sustainability in business seems just about ready to enter the mainstream. Let's look back on what happened this year and what still needs to be done, and look forward to 2017.
5 roads to a circular economy – Part IV: sharing
The circular economy aims to produce no waste - by reusing, repairing and recycling materials in the highest possible quality, all measurable with LCA. An excellent way to get more use out of items is to share them.
Jump-starting your circular economy program
Circular Economy is inspiring. However, making the transition from Linear to Circular thinking is challenging. In this article, Eric Mieras and Jan van der Kaaij display an approach to help you catch the right opportunities and make them work.
Stop showing the money, start sharing the values
We are caught in the old model: expressing the value of sustainability in money. And not just that: businesses often use sustainability metrics to look back instead of forward. Can we move towards a model that finds new ways of expressing this value?
The state of LCA in business
In this infographic, we share the outcomes from our recent survey about the current state of LCA and what it takes to become a champion who delivers value to the business.
How a life cycle-driven business model can accelerate sustainable value creation
The business world needs a more holistic approach to value creation. In a business model based on life cycle thinking, everyone involved can derive value from their participation in creating a value proposition. This might just be the way forward.
LCA has some storytelling to do
LCA is science-driven and robust, but showing its value is not always easy. A big step LCA practitioners can take is learning to use LCA to tell the stories of your products, your people, and your company. How can you use LCA to meet needs?
Creating shared value requires shared valuation
We measure business models through a conventional cost-benefit analysis, and we do that even in what are considered sustainable business models. Is that the way to go, and does it reflect all values that are created?
Business decision making | Materiality assessment vs. hotspot analysis
Sustainability assessments result in mountains of data. Before being able to implement a new business model or start improving your products, you need to sort through it all and set priorities. This article discusses two methods for doing so.
Life cycle-driven business models to increase sustainable impact
Choosing the right sustainable business model isn't a decision to be made lightly. Depending on your product's life cycle, choosing the wrong business model might make impacts worse. That's why life cycle thinking is essential.
New, sustainable business models and their impacts
If your company really wants to improve it environmental impacts, you need more than just sustainable product design - you need a sustainable business model. This article describes the three bottom lines such a business model needs to have.
Blending big data and sustainability business goals to improve your positive impact
Big data is heralded as the next frontier for innovation and productivity. Your company's sustainability data has the same potential to add value. How can you benefit from big data's approach to drive efficiency to sustainability in business?
SimaPro Life cycle assessment
Communicating LCA results in the colorants industry
For Holland Colours, a manufacturer of colorants and additives for the plastics industry, PRé helped communicate their life cycle assessment results to employees and other businesses in the value chain in a clear, straightforward way.
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Don’t follow the leader, choose your own path
Eric Mieras, Managing Director at PRé, shares his view on the importance of not following the crowd when it comes to achieving your company’s sustainability goals. Finding and following your own path are key to maximizing the benefit of your sustainability efforts for your company and the LCA community.