Dr. Stewart Ledgard receives PINZ award
Dr. Stewart Ledgard, Principal Scientist at AgResearch, who received the Lifetime Achievement award from Science New Zealand in November 2020, was once again honoured at the fourth annual Primary Industries New Zealand Awards this month for his outstanding contribution to primary industries research in New Zealand. The award acknowledged his 40-plus years of science and leadership in soil fertility and environmental management, with a particular focus on helping grassland farmers reduce nitrogen leaching and developing the Overseer tool. Dr. Ledgard’s research (242 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings) have been integrated into farmer practice.
Dr. Ledgard, an internationally recognised LCA expert and an Adjunct Professor of the Life Cycle Management Centre at Massey University, says LCA is a tool that analyses resource use and environmental emissions associated with a product or system – but it’s also more than that. In a recent AgResearch article, Dr. Ledgard says, “LCA accounts for the impacts from extraction of all raw material used and production of all of the inputs used, many of which may be from offshore. It often also covers the full life cycle of a product, including processing, transport, retail, consumer and waste stages. Results are expressed per kilogram of a product and so it is often used to help make decisions in choice of food, goods or systems to minimise our impacts on the environment.”
As one of the founding members of LCANZ, we are delighted that Dr. Ledgard’s contribution has been recognised and extend the congratulations of the whole LCANZ community.
For more information on the PINZ awards, click here.