SETAC LCA advisory groups silver jubilee: get involved and contribute to the next stage of LCA

The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) has been the cradle of life cycle assessment (LCA). This year marks an important anniversary for the LCA community: the 25th jubilee of SETAC LCA thematic groups of Europe and North America. In 1991, the North American Advisory Group (NA AG) was formally recognized as a group within the SETAC. In August 1991, a SETAC Pellston Workshop® in Smuggler’s Notch, USA, formalized the structure of a product LCA. LCA was born. The same year the first meeting of a regional LCA thematic group in Europe took place, the ‘SETAC Europe Task Group on Life Cycle Analysis’. This European group, in those early days overlapping with the Steering Committee (EU SC), organized a first SETAC Europe LCA workshop in Leiden (the Netherlands) on 2nd and 3rd December 1991 (Jensen and Postlethwaite 2008). Today, LCA is a mature and multidisciplinary tool and the LCA community has become much wider and more diverse compared to those early days. Therefore, not all LCA practitioners may know about the SETAC LCA AGs, their contribution to the development of LCA and the opportunities to get involved. The objective of this editorial is therefore twofold. First, in occasion of their silver jubilee, it intends to credit the work of the SETAC LCA groups and acknowledge their major achievements. Secondly, it intends to give forwardmomentum to the European Advisory Group (EU AG) activities, illustrating their functions and opportunities for participations. In particular, in conjunction with the upcoming 22nd SETAC Europe LCA Case Study Symposium in Montpellier, France, 20–22 September, the SETAC Europe SC would like to increase the engagement of the broader LCA community in the EU AG.