The AWARE working group
With the update of AWARE to AWARE2.0, a process to form an updated AWARE working group was started. The group consists of the main contributors to original AWARE and AWARE2.0 and is chaired by Anne-Marie Boulay and Montserrat Núñez. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) forms the group’s basis, detailing the group structure and common responsibilities in maintaining methodological consistency and transparency around AWARE. With its annexes, the MoU defines core concepts of AWARE that were part of the initial consensus by WULCA and outlines the processes to follow for future updates of AWARE.
Main concern of the working group was a proliferation of AWARE-related methods and characterization factor (CF) datasets often differing from the recommended CFs in their approaches. Since AWARE is the outcome of a consensus process initiated to harmonize the impact assessment of water consumption in LCA, the group interpreted the many available CF datasets as risking conceptually and methodologically inconsistent impact assessment in LCA. The main goals of the AWARE working group are therefore to maintain clear recommendations on which CF datasets to use, how to apply them in alignment with the AWARE consensus, and to ensure the scientific quality of future updates.
Current members of the AWARE working group:
AWARE team: Markus Berger, Anne-Marie Boulay, Masaharu Motoshita, Montse Núñez, Taikan Oki, Amandine Pastor, Stephan Pfister, Bradley Ridoutt, Georg Seitfudem
Extended AWARE Community: Alessandro Manzardo, Michael Lathuillière, Manuele Margni, Lorenzo Benini
The Memorandum of Understanding can be downloaded here:
More information on the streamlined update process can be found at Updates of AWARE.