Anna Björklund

Environmental Strategic Studies involves, among other things, analyzing environmental impact in different areas of industry and society from a life cycle perspective, commonly known as “cradle to the grave”. The research area involves for example comparing and evaluating environmental impacts of different strategies for recycling or preventing waste, new materials, and infrastructure.

With the help of life cycle assessment, we can identify ways to reduce environmental impact and avoid new environmental problems when developing new products and processes, or systems such as waste management. The earlier a life cycle assessment is carried out in a decision process, the easier it is to influence decisions in a more sustainable direction. Therefore, analyses are often combined with different methods for future scenarios. In these scenarios, many uncertainties about the future can be managed to improve decision-making to reduce environmental impacts.

Anna Björklund’s research focus is environmental life cycle assessment for policy and planning purposes for assessing the environmental impact of new technologies, often in combination with future scenario modeling. The analyses include, for example, local and national waste planning, waste utilization and resource recycling, circular economy, and transport systems.