Prof. Sonia Valdivia: Life Cycle Thinking to be Mainstreamed Worldwide

Lüneburg, 15 December 2016 The Leuphana University Lüneburg, Faculty of Sustainability conferred a Honorary Professorship to Dr Sonia Valdivia, who is a program manager of the World Resources Forum.

WRF President Xaver Edelmann was among the attendees of the ceremony, which was also attended by the Vice-President of the Graduate School, professor Dr Markus Reihlen, and the Dean of the Faculty of Sustainability, professor Dr Henrik von Wehrden.

Prof Dr Andreas Moeller, Member of the Institute for Environmental & Sustainability Communication (INFU) highlighted Sonia’s contribution towards a world where life cycle thinking is the foundation of policies and is embedded in codes of ethics in our daily lives.

In her introductory lecture prof. Valdivia talked about mainstreaming Life Cycle Thinking worldwide.

Xaver Edelmann congratulated prof. Valdivia and stated that “the World Resources Forum is proud about the outstanding achievement”.

In the same ceremony Dr Rodney Irwin from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) was conferred as Honorary Professor by the Center for Sustainability Management. His focus of work is on sustainable finances and reporting. Mainstream corporate reporting and stock exchange requirements in many jurisdictions require businesses to disclose those risks. Investors use this information in their investment decision. Similarly, over the past 10 years there has been a growth in the number of companies that report to a wider range of stakeholders on material issues that stem from the business impacts and dependences on the natural world and society.

About Sonia Valdivia

Sonia Valdivia is a Program Manager at the World Resources Forum since mid August 2014 on the areas of ‘sustainable recycling industries’ and ‘life cycle management’. Before she was Programme Officer at the UNEP Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, and has been coordinating the Secretariat of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative.

She has a PhD in environmental waste management and policies from the Technical University of Karlsruhe and has worked for organizations such as UNITAR (United Nations Institute for Training and Research), NACEC (North American Center for Environmental Cooperation), INE (Mexican Institute of Ecology) and as a GIZ coordinator of the Pan-American Network for Environmental Waste Management.

Sonia Valdivia is co-author of the UNEP/SETAC “Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment”, “UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Management – How business uses it to decrease footprint, create opportunities and make value chains more sustainable” and the UNEP publication “Towards Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment.”