UCT student scoops top environmental award

Chemical engineering PhD student Kevin Harding has received the prestigious Environmental Life Cycle Award from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Harding received the accolade at the Life Cycle Management 2007 conference of UNEP and the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) in Zurich recently, for his research to measure the environmental impact of sugar production in South Africa.

UNEP initiated the award with SETAC to support relevant life-cycle research and associated activities in developing and emerging economies.

It recognises work from academics and private companies who have started visionary and innovative projects based on the "cradle to cradle" or "life cycle approach".

The life cycle approach concerns the impacts on the environment of a product's production, use and disposal.

Achim Steiner, UNEP's executive director, said the growing attention to life cycle issues is a natural outcome of their work on cleaner production and eco-efficient industrial systems.

The Department of Chemical Engineering at UCT will host the Life Cycle Management conference in 2009.