Russ Balzer, LCACP, Technical Director, WorldAutoSteel
WorldAutoSteel Technical Director Russ Balzer was recognized with the 2018 Rising Star Award from the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment (ACLCA). Balzer accepted the accolade at the ACLCA conference LCA XVIII in Fort Collins, Colorado USA on 26 Sept., attended by international Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) professionals and academics. Balzer leads engineering and environmental studies for WorldAutoSteel.
“I am extremely honoured to receive such an important award as the ACLCA Rising Star,” said Balzer. “I feel that this is more of a testament to the 22 member companies of WorldAutoSteel and their real commitment to LCA than it is to me. And, it is a direct result of the ACLCA’s organization and leadership as well as the global LCA community’s inclusiveness in knowledge sharing.”
ACLCA’s Annual Awards honour individuals and organizations who have made significant contributions to the advancement and application of life cycle assessment and life cycle thinking.
Balzer is an active member of the World Steel Association’s LCA Expert Group, which sets procedure and processes for the global steel industry. He also leads WorldAutoSteel efforts for the conversion of global automotive emissions regulations from tailpipe measurement to regulations that embrace Life Cycle thinking as the avenue to more comprehensive transport emissions mitigation. He has conducted many comparative analyses of automotive components and vehicles to fully assess comprehensive vehicle environmental performance.
Balzer has presented at numerous technical conferences and has met with regulatory bodies in the U.S., and across the globe to educate and create awareness of the need to include life cycle thinking in vehicle emissions regulations. In his work on behalf of WorldAutoSteel, Balzer has collaborated with academic ambassadors from the University of California Davis; University of California Santa Barbara; University of Michigan; China’s CATARAC, and Tongji and Tsinghua Universities; and Technical University of Berlin (TUB). Recently Balzer successfully achieved ACLCA’s LCACP certification.
The ACLCA is a non-profit membership organization providing education, awareness, advocacy and communications to build capacity and knowledge of environmental LCA, and its membership consists of industry, academia, government, consulting, and non-government organizations (NGOs).