Brown Bag Webinars

EarthShift Global is pleased to announce a series of free sustainability 'Brown Bag' webinars. These webinars covering a wide range of topics and are delivered by leaders in their respective fields. Each webinar is held from 1-2 PM Eastern time with a presentation followed by a Q&A Session.

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Access recordings of prior webinars on the EarthShift Global Official YouTube channel.

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Upcoming Webinars:  

Understanding Biogenic Carbon: 

The Science and Application of Biogenic Carbon in Life Cycle Assessment

Date: February 23, 2023

Time: 1:00pm - 2:00pm ET

Presenters: Nathan Ayer, Caroline Taylor

Description: 

Biogenic carbon is carbon that is derived from organic matter, absorbed and released to the atmosphere through biologically-mediated processes in current-era timescales. Current assumptions about the benefits of leveraging the biogenic carbon cycle and biogenic carbon storage have contributed to the global momentum to shift towards a bioeconomy, with bioeconomy concepts underpinning over half of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), as well as being an important element underpinning carbon offsets and credits. The management and modeling of biogenic carbon flows are increasingly at the center of policy, technology, and product development aimed at reducing flows of carbon to the atmosphere and mitigating climate change.

Approaches used to account for biogenic carbon in tools such as life cycle assessment (LCA) are currently lacking in consistency and transparency, and at times are not consistent with the science on biogenic carbon flows. As such, it is increasingly important to understand the science and application of biogenic carbon modeling to avoid misleading results, poorly-targeted policies and innovation, and unintended consequences.

This is the first of a two-part series on the science and application of biogenic carbon in LCA. This first session will explore the basic LCA-relevant scientific background on biogenic carbon and how to understand biogenic carbon flows between the environment and human systems and touch on emerging science. The second part of this series (to be offered in March) will provide an overview of common approaches, misconceptions, examples, and practical implications of modeling biogenic carbon in LCAs of products and systems.

Presenter Bios:

Dr. Nathan Ayer is a Senior Sustainability Advisor at EarthShift Global and has been working in LCA for over 16 years. Nathan is also an Instructor at Dalhousie University where he teaches courses in Sustainability and Ecological Economics. Nathan is a Certified LCA Practitioner (LCACP) under the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment (ACLCA) and has published several papers relating to the modeling of biogenic carbon in forestry and forest bioenergy systems.

Dr. Caroline Taylor is currently serving as Assessment and Policy Research Fellow with the Centre for Sustainable & Circular Technologies at the University of Bath, is a member of the ACLCA’s Policy Committee, and has a long affiliation with EarthShift Global. Caroline has more than 20 years of experience in modeling and analysis, much of it in sustainability and LCA. As an early-career scientist she studied behavior in interfacial fluid and plant systems, and since moving fully into sustainability has worked extensively on crop systems and bioenergy/bioproducts in LCA.

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