Fundamentals of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

A concise ontological introduction to LCA principles and framework for sustainable product design and development

Every product leaves a footprint. Life Cycle Assessment is how you measure it, understand it and do something about it.

Sustainability is no longer a peripheral concern for product teams — it's a core design requirement. Life Cycle Assessment, or LCA, is the internationally standardised methodology that allows organisations to systematically analyse the environmental burden accumulated across a product's entire life cycle, from raw material extraction through to end of life, with the explicit goal of driving meaningful improvement. If you work anywhere near product development, manufacturing or sustainable design, LCA is a discipline you need to understand.

What makes this course distinctive is its approach. Rather than working through the LCA framework as a dry sequence of definitions, all the fundamental concepts are taught through a carefully constructed visual knowledge model — a structured, downloadable asset that maps the key concepts of LCA and their relationships in a way that makes the subject genuinely intuitive to grasp and easy to revisit. It's a learning tool you'll keep coming back to long after the course is done.

The curriculum takes you through the complete LCA methodology in a logical sequence: goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and life cycle interpretation. The course also covers approaches that actively promote improved environmental performance — including eco-design — giving you not just an understanding of how to assess impact, but a sense of how to act on those findings.

What you will be able to do after this course:

• Explain the principles, phases and framework of Life Cycle Assessment with confidence

• Navigate and apply the LCA methodology — from goal and scope definition through to life cycle interpretation

• Use the downloadable visual knowledge model as an ongoing reference for LCA concepts and their relationships

• Articulate the environmental benefits of LCA and connect them to product improvement programmes

• Recognise opportunities for applying eco-design principles within product development contexts

Who this course is for:

This course is designed for a broad audience united by a common interest in sustainability and responsible product development. It will suit aspiring and practising product engineers, manufacturing engineers and industrial designers, as well as professionals in product-oriented functions such as supply chain, buying and merchandising. Project managers, programme managers and change champions looking to build their LCA literacy will find it equally accessible. No prior knowledge of LCA is required, and no deep technical background is assumed — if you care about sustainability and want to understand one of its most important analytical tools properly, this course was built for you.