At the invitation of the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for High-Quality Recycling of End-of-Life New Energy Devices, Associate Professor Alessandro Manzardo from the University of Padua, Italy—an International Distinguished Scholar under the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ International Exchange Program (PIFI)—will visit on July 20 and deliver an invited academic lecture. The details of the lecture are as follows:

Time: July 30, 2026, 9:30–11:30

Location: Conference Room 910, Biomass Energy Building

Lecture Title: Prospective LCA and Decision-Making—Designing Sustainable New Energy Systems

Abstract: This invited lecture will introduce the Prospective Life Cycle Assessment (pLCA) methodology, a comprehensive decision-support system designed to address future uncertainties and inform decisions regarding technologies and infrastructure related to the energy transition. It enables the design of sustainable energy systems under conditions of multiple uncertainties—including technological, environmental, and market-related factors. The energy transition requires decisions to be made today regarding various technologies and infrastructure that will be deployed in the uncertain environment of the future. The core challenge lies not only in evaluating existing energy systems but also in conducting targeted predictive assessments before emerging technologies are scaled up, investments are completed, and established societal development pathways are formed. Based on a full-chain perspective—from “raw materials to end markets”—this report explains how pLCA integrates future scenarios, macroeconomic evolution, uncertainty analysis, and market chain reactions to provide scientific guidance for early-stage technology screening, industrial-scale upscaling, and system-level assessment. At the same time, the report focuses on community-scale urban energy systems and further introduces the pLCA-NEST analytical framework. Relying on forward-looking life cycle inventories and multi-criteria decision analysis, it conducts comparative assessments of various future energy configuration scenarios, including heating, cooling, household appliances, and photovoltaic deployment. The report illustrates these concepts through three typical case studies—carbon capture, circular bio-based systems, and urban energy planning—demonstrating that pLCA not only identifies technical solutions with the lowest environmental impact but also enables researchers, industry professionals, and policymakers to identify and select sustainable pathways with optimal risk resilience and stability.

Speaker Profile:

Alessandro Manzardo, Associate Professor and Ph.D. advisor at the University of Padua, Italy, and Distinguished Scholar under the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ International Exchange Program (PIFI). He currently serves as Director of the Center for Quality and Environment Research at the University of Padua; Executive Secretary-General of the Italian Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Network Association; co-founder of SPINLIFE, a university-affiliated enterprise; and Associate Editor of *Environmental Impact Assessment Review*, an international journal in the fields of environmental and social sciences. He is a renowned expert in the fields of LCA and sustainable management in Europe. His research focuses on strategic environmental management, LCA, corporate green innovation, and prospective environmental impact assessments of emerging technologies, and he has published over 100 academic papers. He has led and participated in numerous EU and Italian research projects. Since 2009, he has represented Italy in the development of ISO environmental management standards, leading the GL01 and GL10 working groups of the UNI National Standards Committee. He has also long served as a technical expert on environmental footprints for organizations such as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). His research findings have had a significant impact on European environmental policy-making and the transition to sustainable industries.