Tania Bossi – Life Cycle Assessment of PGMs

ABSTRACT

Life cycle assessment is increasingly becoming an integral part of the environmental component of Environment, Social, and Governance reporting, and the concept of a circular economy. LCA data is being used by companies, regulators, academia, and LCA experts to assess the potential environmental impacts of products, communicate these across the value chain, and inform strategic decision making. This includes, but is not limited to, data on the carbon footprint of metals.
The presentation will give a brief introduction into the concept of LCA, retrace the PGM industry’s path from collecting global aggregated data to disclosing separate results on primary production and recycling, and explain how LCA data can be used to calculate the net benefits of PGMs in use, referring to the automotive catalytic converter as example application. Results of the last study (2017 production data) will be briefly presented, emphasizing the need to put environmental impact and quantity of metals used into perspective, andhighlighting ways for the PGM industry to reduce its footprint.
Examples on potential uses of LCA in the Circular Economy context will be given, advocating for a view on life cycle thinking that considers not only a product but also a process circularity (i.e., improvements in mining) to enable a just transition to climate neutrality that distributes benefits globally.
The presentation closes with a brief outlook on ongoing developments regarding LCA: the third IPA LCA study which has just started on 2022 production data and will cover all 5 (4 for recycling) PGMs from the start; furthermore, the IPA is compiling a Guidance Document on the calculation of the Carbon Footprint of primary produced PGMs to ensure comparability of results.

LCA data questionnaire: IPA – International Platinum Group Metals Association – LCA data questionnaire (ipa-news.de)

Slide deck: Tania_JM PGM Online conference 23-07-18

BIOGRAPHY

Senior Manager Sustainability, International Platinum Group Metals Association (IPA)
Tania holds a Master of Art degree in Political Science, Communications and Psychology from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich and was awarded a scholarship to study European Studies at the University of Westminster, London.
While still studying, she joined the Centre for Applied Policy Research (CAP), a renowned German policy think tank linked to the University of Munich, first as Research Fellow in the Bertelsmann Research Group (co-funded by the Bertelsmann Foundation), later as Senior Research Fellow at the Research Group on German Affairs.
In 2003, she was hired by Edelman, the biggest owner-led global public relations agency, as PR consultant, before joining the International Platinum Group Metals Association (IPA) in 2006 as Communications Manager. At the IPA, she helped building up the committees, communication tools, and strategic work of the association. For the past years, her focus shifted
increasingly towards sustainability topics, and she has acted as project lead on all life cycle assessments (LCAs) the PGM industry has performed since 2011.