Life Cycle Assessment: Product Transparency 101 - Update
Course Author
Laurel McEwen, BS, MBA. Ms McEwen is a dynamic sustainability strategist with over 7 years of experience training and consulting on LCA with Fortune 500 companies. During her tenure at EarthShift, Laurel developed the world’s largest LCA on-line training program and launched the world's first LCA training certificate program partnering with ACLCA for professional certification testing. A successful educator and communicator of complex environmental information she can unravel for any audience complex LCA information into simple actionable components. Currently she consults with corporations on LCA studies and develops e-learning content to translate LCA studies into creative, credible communications to support sustainability projects.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for building products are critical when selecting the most sustainable product. This course will describe critical components that help assure transparent and fair comparisons when conducting an LCA. We will explain the benefits of creating a LCA and the purpose for creating an EPD. The course will discuss how LEED v4 will utilize EPDs in the Materials & Resources category.
- Explain the difference between Impact Assessment and Life Cycle Inventory and list examples of impacts that may affect the environment
- Discuss the benefits for conducting an LCA and define what a PCR is and explain its purpose for creating an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)
- Name the 4 steps for conducting an LCA per ISO 14040
- List the 7 critical components that help assure transparent and fair comparisons when conducting an LCA
