304. Driving Sustainability Through Smarter Life Cycle Assessments

From pinpointing greenhouse gas (GHG) hot spots to modeling decarbonization scenarios, life cycle assessments (LCAs) can be a powerful tool for sustainability. However, a lack of standardized methodologies across the automotive industry makes progress difficult.   That’s where the SAE J3341 Task Force comes in. It’s a cross-industry initiative uniting automakers, government, and academia to establish a more flexible yet transparent framework on carbon footprint reporting methodologies for passenger vehicles through smarter LCAs.   To learn more, we sat down with Laurel Nelson, Chair of the SAE J3341 Task Force and Staff Engineer of Sustainability Science at Rivian Automotive. She discusses how the task force is implementing a “disclosure addendum” approach that encourages OEMs to clearly communicate their assumptions and data for more accurate and meaningful carbon reporting.   If you are interested in taking part in the SAE J3341 Task Force, please reach out to Laurel directly at [email protected]  or Dante Rahdar at [email protected].   We’d love to hear from you. Share your comments, questions and ideas for future topics and guests to [email protected]. Don’t forget to take a moment to follow SAE Tomorrow Today — a podcast where we discuss emerging technology and trends in mobility with the leaders, innovators and strategists making it all happen—and give us a review on your preferred podcasting platform.