Life Cycle Assessment

About the course

To familiarise the student with the environmental assessment tool known as Life Cycle Assessment, some of its diverse uses, the ISO norms, the science behind some of its key impact categories (beyond carbon and water), its use to support decision-making in product systems, process systems or in policymaking. Further to allow the student to develop skills and insights in the important steps of goal and scope definition, inventory modelling, data quality assessment, choice of impact assessment categories, interpretation and uncertainty propagation, partly by working with LCA software and databases.

Course Content

• LCA history and uses.
• The ISO norms • Goal and scope definition
• Inventory modelling, data quality assessment.
• The science behind some key impact categories
• Carbon footprints
• Water footprints
• LCA to support decision-making in product systems, process systems or in policy-making
• Interpretation and uncertainty propagation
• LCA software and databases

Course Outcomes

• Explain functional units used in specific LCAs.
• Discuss the relevance of impact categories to particular LCAs and select the appropriate impact assessment models.
• Interpret LCA results, paying appropriate care to uncertainty.
• Discuss the usefulness of life cycle thinking, single-impact (e.g. carbon footprint) vs multi-impact approaches in different decision-making contexts.

Registration

Register online

• Registration covers attendance of all sessions of the course and course material.
• Registrations close one week before the start of the course. Confirmation of acceptance will be sent on receipt of a registration form.
• Cancellations must be received one week before the start of a course, or the full course fee will be charged.

For more information on application and registration procedures, please visit our website.

More Information

Read more: Life Cycle Assessment
Email: ebe-cpd@uct.ac.za
Phone: +27 (0)21 650 5793