*MEDIA CONTACTS * Gwen Schuler, Community Relations, gwendolyn.schuler@cityoftacoma.org, (253) 591-5160 Lorna Sutton, Community Relations, lsutton@cityoftacoma.org, (253) 573-2352 *Tacoma hosts 2012 Life Cycle Assessment Conference* ** More than 300 visitors from around the globe will take part in the 2012 American Center for Life Cycle Assessment International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment, The LCA XII conference theme is “Life Cycle Thinking; Life Cycle Living.” Tacoma was chosen as the host site for the conference because it is the first city in the nation to receive the Life Cycle City designation. The conference will take place at the Hotel Murano on Sept. 25-27.Over the course of the conference participants will engage in discussions on innovative concepts, new approaches to research and industry best practices. Attendees will be arriving from more than 15 different countries ranging from Belgium to the United Kingdom. Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea and Switzerland will also be represented. A pre-conference reception is scheduled for Monday evening, Sept. 24, at the Center for Urban Waters. Sessions open Tuesday, Sept. 25, with Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland’s welcome and a keynote address by Martin Bortzmeyer, Chief of the French Office of Sustainable Development. The conference, featuring high-level speakers discussing the latest trends in lifecycle assessment, concludes on Thursday, Sept. 27. Life cycle assessment is the science of measuring the environmental performance of products and services from cradle to grave. A complete assessment measures the environmental impacts of all phases of a product’s life and leads to Environmental Product Declarations (EDP), eco-labels that can lead to economic benefit.