Life Cycle Assessment: Quantifying Environmental Impacts

The course serves as a starting point for conducting a life cycle analysis (LCA), in accordance with the methods and policies defined by the International Standardization Organization (ISO). Information surrounding the life cycle of a product, process, service, or activity is useful for making decisions about design, policy, acquisition, and corporate strategy while integrating sustainability into your organization's practices.

Life Cycle Assessment: Quantifying Environmental Impacts, with curriculum developed and taught by MIT faculty, is delivered in collaboration with Global Alumni. Contact Global Alumni for more information about this program:

• professionalprograms@mit.edu or 
• call:+1 617 870 0270 USA  +34 660 558 464 EUROPE.

Global Alumni is an ed-tech company that collaborates with institutions to manage enrollments (including all payment services and invoicing), technology, and participant support. 
 

In the Life Cycle Assessment course, you will gain knowledge in collecting data from products and processes as well as:

• Learn to define the objective and scope of a LCA
• Collect primary data from inventories and secondary data from database
• Quantify the environmental impacts of products, using various impact assessment methods
• Interpret the results of an LCA through the prism of uncertainty
• Support the decisions using an LCA

Links and Resources

News/Articles:

Why Sustainability is Key to the Future of Professional Education
With tightening environmental regulations in a number of global markets—and with people beginning to experience the impacts of climate change in their everyday lives—sustainability has become a top-of-mind concern for companies across sectors. But many business leaders lack the foundational sustainability-related knowledge needed to drive change within their organizations.

“We have people who have specialized in materials science, engineering and in economics and environment. My specific background is about trying to tie those things together, particularly engineering, economics and environmental issues.” - Jeremy Gregory, Executive Director, MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium

A wide range of professionals may benefit from this program, including: 

• Consultants of manufacturing companies who must be aware of current sustainability policies and how to enact them within an organization.
• Data Scientists and Engineers involved in conducting LCAs.
• Legislative bodies implementing policies regarding sustainable manufacturing practices.
• Companies in industries concerned with meeting or setting carbon targets, or hoping to reduce their impact on the environment.
• Accounting firms analyzing procedure and process costs of product creation and duration.