Life Cycle Thinking: assessing the footprints of products, companies and lifestyles

Description:

Although most people are aware that their actions have direct environmental, social and economic impacts, they are generally less are aware of the impacts that they cause indirectly. For example, driving a car or a lorry causes environmental impacts through carbon dioxide emissions from burning fuel, social impacts through jobs in the petrol station and economic profit for the petrol company.  However, there are also impacts all the way along the value chain, including, for example, the emissions due to oil extraction, the conditions of the workers who carry out the extraction, and the profits of the manufacturers who make the oil extraction equipment.

Life cycle thinking is a way of thinking about whole systems that takes account of impacts along value chains (ie from raw material extraction, through manufacturing,  transportation, use, recycling, to waste management). It can be applied at various scales: from  specific products, to individuals or households to assess the consequences of their lifestyles, through to companies and even countries. Typical examples of questions life cycle thinking aims to address include: Which activities are the most environmentally intensive? What proportion of a UK household’s carbon footprint is due to food or holidays? What are the sustainability impacts of certain products or services? What improvements can be made to an organisation’s sustainability impact?.

In this course we introduce students to the concept of life cycle thinking, to carbon footprinting and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which is a key technique for assessing environmental impacts along supply chains. Students will also be introduced to recent developments in which social and economic impacts are now beginning to be assessed and addressed in value chains alongside environmental impacts, in a framework called Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment.

During the course we illustrate the key concepts via applications and case studies at various levels, including households, products, companies, organisations and countries.

The duration of this introductory course is two days. Seats are limited and it is advised that you register with a minimum of two weeks in advance in order to receive all of the materials for the course. 

If you are travelling a considerable distance within the UK, reasonable travel/accommodation expenses may compensated.  However, please note that no visa or overseas travel fee expenses will be covered for this course.  

Cost:

£40

Website and registration:

http://store.surrey.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&deptid=83&catid=45&prodid=202

Region:

South East

Keywords:

Frameworks for Research and Research Designs, Quantitative Approaches (other), Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) , Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment , Environmental impact , Quantitative Approaches (general) , Circular economy , Carbon footprinting , Value chain , Systems analysis

Related publications and presentations:

Frameworks for Research and Research Designs
Quantitative Approaches (other)

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