Life Cycle Assessment

Go to Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/life-cycle-assessment

Introduction

### Course Review: Life Cycle Assessment on Coursera If you're keen to understand the environmental impacts of products and systems throughout their entire life cycle, the Coursera course on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an excellent resource. This course offers a comprehensive introduction to LCA methodology, which evaluates the environmental consequences of products “from cradle to grave.” It’s designed for professionals, students, and environmental enthusiasts who are looking to adopt a systematic approach to sustainability. #### Course Overview The Life Cycle Assessment course provides a structured framework to assess and minimize the environmental impact of products. It covers the essential concepts and practical steps involved in conducting an LCA, emphasizing the critical phases of the assessment process. From defining the goals and systems to interpreting results, this course provides valuable insights at every stage. Participants will learn how LCA compares to other environmental assessment tools and gain a deeper understanding of why it is increasingly vital in today’s eco-conscious market. #### Syllabus Breakdown 1. **Product-Oriented Environmental Assessment: Introduction to LCA** - This introductory module sets the stage for understanding sustainability in products. It discusses the importance of assessing products over their life cycles and identifies various motivations for employing LCA versus other assessment tools. By the end of this week, you’ll have a clear grasp of the impact products have on the environment—right from raw material extraction to disposal. 2. **LCA Goal Definition** - This week dives deeper into defining the goals and scope of an LCA study. You will learn how to clearly articulate the function of the product being analyzed, establish the functional unit, and outline the system boundaries. This is crucial for ensuring that the assessment is focused and relevant. 3. **Life Cycle Inventory Part 1** - The first part of the Life Cycle Inventory phase teaches you how to compile data on resource use and emissions through the entire life cycle. You will explore databases such as ecoinvent and engage in hands-on exercises that help you establish energy balances for various products. 4. **Life Cycle Inventory Part 2** - The second part of this phase introduces critical topics like allocation methods for emissions between co-products and explores how input-output allocation can complement process LCA. Understanding these concepts is essential for providing a holistic view of environmental impacts in complex systems. 5. **Life Cycle Impact Assessment** - In this phase, you learn how to use inventory data to evaluate environmental impacts. A highlight of this section is the Impact World+ method, which lays out steps for classifying emissions, characterizing midpoint impacts, and providing an overview of existing LCIA methods. This robust foundation will greatly enhance your capability to analyze and compare environmental impacts effectively. 6. **LCA Interpretation** - The final module focuses on interpreting LCA results using SIMAPRO software. You will gain practical skills in implementing an LCA, checking results, and dealing with uncertainties. This section also covers sustainable design strategies, including best practices for reuse, recycling, and waste management. #### Course Experience The course is well-structured, allowing pace and flexibility in learning. It incorporates video lectures, reading materials, quizzes, and practical exercises, ensuring a rounded learning experience. The instructors are knowledgeable in the field, bringing in real-world examples that make the content relatable and engaging. Additionally, you have the chance to interact with peers in discussion forums, which enhances the learning process through shared insights and experiences. The use of SIMAPRO software provides hands-on experience, a vital component if you aim to apply LCA methodologies in real-world situations. #### Recommendation I highly recommend the Life Cycle Assessment course on Coursera for anyone interested in sustainability and environmental management. Whether you are a student, a professional in environmental sciences, or simply passionate about reducing your carbon footprint, this course equips you with the skills to make informed decisions about product sustainability. The comprehensive syllabus, practical learning experiences, and the opportunity to work with recognized software make this course an invaluable asset for your educational and professional journey. Sign up today to embark on your journey toward becoming a knowledgeable advocate for sustainable practices in your industry!

Syllabus

Product-Oriented environmental assessment : Introduction to LCA

This week we take a look at the sustainability performance of products over their entire life cycle, from cradle to cradle. After analyzing the large number of products-chemicals we are in daily contact with, we identify the need for LCA, learn about the motivations to conduct LCAs versus other environmental tools. The goals and system definition step defines the goal and scope of the study, including the product function, functional unit, and the product system and its boundaries

This week we take a look at the sustainability performance of products over their entire life cycle, from cradle to cradle. After analyzing the large number of products-chemicals we are in daily contact with, we identify the need for LCA, learn about the motivations to conduct LCAs versus other environmental tools. The goals and system definition step defines the goal and scope of the study, including the product function, functional unit, and the product system and its boundaries

The Life Cycle Inventory, the second LCA phase, quantifies the inventory of the various elementary flows of resource extractions and substance emissions crossing the system boundary. We first learn how to build the life cycle inventory and determine aggregated elementary flows from cradle to gate. We then establish the energy and CO2 balance for several products, identifying the dominant stages in the life cycle. This module then provide an overview of existing databases, describes in further detail the widespread ecoinvent database, illustrating the inventory via a simple car example.

The chapter finally introduces us to two special topics of importance: the allocation of emission between co-products and the possibilities offered by Input-output allocation to complement the process LCA approach developed in detail in this chapter.

The life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) is the third phase of an LCA. It use the inventory data to determine their environmental impacts and compare different types of impacts. The impact assessment methods are simple to apply, though their development can be relatively complex. After an introduction to LCIA and various environmental impacts, we first present the LCIA principles and framework. The module then details and illustrates using the Impact World+ method each LCIA step, i.e. a) the classification of emissions into different impact categories, b) the characterization of midpoint impacts, c) the damage (end point) characterization and the optional d) normalization and e) weighting steps. The module finishes by an overview of the existing LCIA methods and the present research efforts to arrive to a global consensus method.

This chapter aims to guide you in the interpretation of results, in the implementation of an LCA in the SIMAPRO software and in the environmental classification of products. After describing the main interpretation principles, we illustrate the interpretation steps using an example of desktop versus laptop computers. We then discuss strategies to check LCA results, and identify and discuss the main uncertainties in life cycle impact assessment results and illustrate it with the hands drying example. We then perform a SIMAPRO tutorial exercise, implementing the hand drying example in SIMAPRO. We finally discuss a simplified product classification and provide rules for sustainable design of products, also looking at reuse,recycling and (e-)waste strategies.