Edgar Hertwich

My research interests cover life cycle assessment, sustainable consumption and production, trade and environment, risk analysis, and climate mitigation. I am interested in understanding how activities in our society require resources and produce environmental pressures. I would like to better understand the dynamics in our development that affect these driving forces and their resulting environmental pressures, and alternative courses of action that can reduce these pressures. What is the connection between human activities on the one hand and emissions and resource use on the other hand? What are the implications of our current development path? What do we need to change, both in terms of individual actions and policy frameworks, to achieve a more sustainable development.

For my PhD in Energy & Resources from the University of California, Berkeley, I developed the Human Toxicity Potential, a impact assessment indicator that was widely used in North America, e.g., for ranking emissions in Scorecard and  TRACI. Today, I also serve as a member of the International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management and as a Lead Investigator in the Global Energy Assessment.

Journal of Industrial Ecology - Special Issue on Consumption (Free) 

Publications: See full list here (in FRIDA)

Blog Posts from this author