Life Cycle Assessment
One-day course providing an insight into the principles of Life Cycle Assessment and how to interpret a report
We are thrilled to launch this new course focussing on design for sustainability, in partnership with Stella Job, from Grazebrook Innovation. The course will take place in Grantham on 29 November 2023.
It is said that 80% of the environmental impact of a product is determined at the design stage. Much of that impact is in materials selection and processing. Generic methodologies for considering sustainability at an early stage in the product life cycle have been developed, and are beginning to be adapted and adopted into real engineering scenarios.
This course will introduce the main principles for designing for sustainability and circularity. It will look at methodologies for introducing those principles into design, with interactive workshops. Some computational tools for sustainable design will be presented. The final session will focus on increasing understanding of end-of-life processes, material scarcity and social impacts.
The course will be delivered over 4 sessions:
Session 1
Introduction to sustainability principles
The introductory session will discuss what is meant by “sustainability” and how it is interpreted in different contexts. A brief overview of climate change will be given, why it matters and how it relates to materials and manufacturing. Delegates will be given an understanding of circular economy principles, how they are incorporated in design and the product lifecycle. An overview of life cycle assessment will be presented, with comments on emerging methodologies for social impact assessment.
Session 2
Design for sustainability – putting principles into practice
A design for sustainability (D4S) assessment methodology will be described, with some examples of diverse ways in which designs have been changed to make products more sustainable and related impact factors. Delegates will then be offered some product examples to choose from and work in small groups to identify and prioritise ways in which the design could be made more sustainable. The small groups will feed back to the rest.
Session 3
Tools for designing for sustainability
FAR-UK: Designing for variance. Stochastic modelling. Pareto front analysis
Session 4
Material circularity, scarcity and social impacts
Using images, video and description, several end-of-life and recycling processes will be described, to establish the importance of a designer knowing what might happen to materials and products at end-of-life (e.g. wind turbine blades, cars, fridges, aircraft, WEEE). The effect of economic factors, business models and regulation will be included. Material scarcity will be considered, and the social and geo-political impacts around material extraction and supply. The course will end with a discussion how delegates can influence the macro-factors to enable more sustainable product development.
This generic course is relevant to anyone with an interest in sustainability and circularity.
The course fee for this one-day programme based at The Boilerhouse in Grantham is £550 plus VAT at 20% where applicable. IOM3 members and subscribers to our Business Partner Programme are entitled to a discount of 10% on the course fee.
