INTRODUCTION 2: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Overview 

What is Lifecycle Assessment? 


Lifecycle Assessment, or LCA, is an analysis to understand the total cradle-to-grave impacts of a good or service. The impacts most commonly measured are costs, energy, and emissions. The lifecycle assessment of costs has been measured for hundreds of years. Accounting for all the costs of a good or service is necessary to determine if a product or service will be profitable and competitive. However, accounting for all the costs can be complex depending on your final product or service.

Why Does it Matter?

LCA is important because you may have a good or service that reduces costs, energy, or emissions in one area of its use, but overall the impacts are larger. For example, someone develops an amazing process to reduce the manufacturing costs, energy, and emissions of a toaster, but then during the use of the toaster it uses more electricity than it used to. Depending on how much more electricity is used it could offset the costs, energy, or emissions savings in the manufacturing of the toaster, undermining the objective to reduce the overall costs, energy, and emissions of making a piece of toast.

Put another way, lifecycle assessment lets us better understand the true impacts of any given good or service. It’s important information for scientists, consumers, and policymakers alike.

Retrieved from: https://blog.ucsusa.org/rachael-nealer/what-is-lifecycle-assessment-lca-349/ Links to an external site. 

The LCA Group Project

Throughout the course, you will have the opportunity to work with a group to complete a Lifecycle Assessment. The purpose of this module is to layout the resources and requirements of this project.

Module Objectives

In this module, the activities, content, and assignments will guide your learning process to ensure you can:

  • Describe what an LCA is and how to prepare one using the provided Excel Template
  • Articulate how the LCA project will be structured and evaluated in this course
  • Strategize how to best collaborate with teammates to form a productive and effective team

Module To-Do List

Here's everything you need to do and remember for this module:

  • Review the Resources - If you need a refresher or are new to materials and energy balance, please check out the recommended website on the Resources page
  • Watch the lecture and take notes
  • Meet with your team and draft a Team Work Agreement outlining how you plan to work together (roles, communication, schedules, etc.)
  • Post your questions and comments to the discussion board