Key facts
Cost: $450 + GST per person
Duration: 3 weeks
Delivery mode: Online
Time commitment: The course consists of three interactive one-hour Zoom sessions, held at 8.30 am on three consecutive Tuesdays. Two hours of additional learning exercises need to be taken independently during the course.
Overview
Sustainable consumption and production, the circular economy and carbon accounting … these topics are increasingly on the agenda for decision-makers. They all utilise a life cycle perspective to reconsider economic activities through a “cradle to grave” lens, meaning from the extraction of raw materials through manufacture, distribution, use and on to final end-of-life management. The quantitative analytical tool that supports this type of environmental management is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA methodology also forms the basis of related approaches such as carbon and water footprinting.
By the end of this course, you will be able to confidently commission an LCA study designed to meet the needs of a specific decision situation and be able to interpret its results to support decision-making.
Who this course is for
This course is for environmental managers, product designers, engineers, policymakers and other professionals interested in learning more about the role of LCA in guiding decision-making but without any prior training in LCA.
Course content and structure
Session 1: Introduction to Life Cycle Thinking (LCT)
This session will cover:
- the role of LCT relative to other environmental management tools
- the principles underlying LCT and LCA
- an introduction to the functional unit and system boundaries.
Session 2: Life Cycle Assessment, a tool in the environmental management toolkit
This session will cover:
- aligning the LCA with the goal of the study
- the attributional and consequential modelling approaches
- LCA methodology: the four phases of LCA.
Session 3: Use of LCA to support decision-making
This session will cover:
- a critical review of LCA studies
- making the most of your LCA study, Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and certification schemes.
Meet your facilitator
Professor Sarah McLaren is the Director of the New Zealand Life Cycle Management Centre (NZLCM Centre) and Professor in Life Cycle Management at Massey University, New Zealand (NZ). Her research focuses on the development and application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and related approaches such as planetary boundaries, industrial ecology and the circular economy.
Sarah has promoted the uptake of Life Cycle Management in New Zealand as a founding committee member of the Life Cycle Association of New Zealand (LCANZ) and a member of the Technical Advisory Group of the Australasian Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) programme.
She has served on the Office of the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor’s Rethinking Plastics Panel, Ministry for the Environment’s Planetary Boundaries NZ Advisory Board, and represented NZ on the ISO Water Footprint Working Group. She works with organisations such as the Building Research Association of New Zealand (BRANZ), BEACON Bioeconomy Research Centre Ireland, and the NZ Food Awards to translate Life Cycle Management into practical action.
Professor Sarah McLaren
Registrations
To register your interest, please email Fiona Bardell at F.M.Bardell@massey.ac.nz.
Contact information
Other short courses you might like
Intermediate Sustainable Nutrient Management in New Zealand Agriculture
This course will cover nutrient cycling, water movement, sustainable farm practices and nutrient budgeting.
Advanced Sustainable Nutrient Management in New Zealand Agriculture
This course will cover nutrient management, recent research and nutrient budgeting issues. You'll develop nutrient management plans that meet production goals for actual farm enterprises.
Farm Dairy Effluent: System Design & Management
This course focuses on the design, management and auditing of farm dairy effluent (FDE) systems.
Introduction to New Zealand's Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emissions & Management
This course focuses on understanding greenhouse gas emissions from pastoral production systems and includes how to reduce and mitigate emissions.
Intermediate Freshwater Farm Planning
This course is designed for industry professionals interested in upskilling in the concepts and components important for the development of freshwater Farm Environment Plans.
Advanced Freshwater Farm Planning
This advanced course will provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to produce New Zealand industry-standard, farm-scale, freshwater Farm Environment Plans for dairy, beef and sheep and arable farms.
Analysis of New Zealand Agricultural Systems
This course will introduce participants to the scale and operation of agriculture and its importance within New Zealand.
Understanding Herbicides
This course will give participants a good grounding in the principles of using herbicides to control weeds.