LCA Training
Tailored to Your Needs, Led by Experienced Analysts
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Sustainability Training Programs
For Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Sustainable Return on Investment (S-ROI)
Our Mission is to Empower Our Clients. That’s Why Our Training is Focused on You and Led by Our Experienced Analysts.
We’ve helped sustainability professionals at hundreds of organizations in a variety of industries build and perfect their skills and are ready to help you, too. Learn how to conduct and manage life-cycle assessments with confidence. Give managers and teammates on-point findings and recommendations. Bring new perspectives to strategic discussions.
Use the registration links provided to register for a course. Questions on the course(s) or which course(s) to take? Call +1 (207) 608-6228 or Contact Us.
Training Offered
Instructor: Amalia Sojo, Director of Software Support & Training
Date: November 4 and November 11, 12:00 – 2:00 PM, EST each day
Duration: 4 hours, 2 days
Cost: $850
Student Discount: Students receive a 50% discount on all EarthShift Global classes (provided minimum attendance requirements are met).
Description: Life Cycle Assessment analyzes the environmental impacts of a product or service from raw material extraction through disposal and provides interpretation of results to identify improvement opportunities. This scientifically robust method is used to compare alternatives and identify high-impact areas for intervention.
Topics: Life Cycle Thinking, Why LCA?, Goal and Scope, Functional Unit, System Boundaries, Life Cycle Inventory, Impact Assessment, PCRs, EPDs, Interpretation, Screening vs. Full LCA, ISO 14044, Software Tools, New Developments, and Staying Informed.
Target audience: Sustainability professionals and LCA practitioners seeking a deeper understanding of LCA methods and impact assessment.
Objectives: (1) Understand core principles of LCA, (2) Define goal & scope, functional unit, and system boundaries, (3) Conduct inventory and impact assessment, (4) Evaluate allocation choices, (5) Distinguish screening vs full ISO-conformant LCA, and (6) Interpret results responsibly.
Instructor: Lise Laurin, CEO & Founder
Date: Tuesday, November 3 | 10:00 – 12:00 PM ET
Duration: 2 hours
Cost: $450
Student Discount: Students receive a 50% discount on all EarthShift Global classes (provided minimum attendance requirements are met).
Description: In this course, you will learn what ISO 14044 means by “avoiding allocation” as well as the most common ways of apportioning impacts between products coming out of the same process or system. You’ll learn which systems are used by different life cycle inventory databases (e.g., ecoinvent or Sphera LCA) and when you should consider multiple models. There will be several exercises to ensure good understanding.
Topics: Avoiding allocation (Dividing the process, expanding system boundaries with substitution, and expanding the system boundaries to include multiple functional units) and allocation (physical and economic).
Target audience: New LCA practitioners and managers or executives looking to better understand LCA results.
Objectives: After this course you will have the basic skills to model and assess a process or system with multiple outputs or coproducts (does not include training in a specific tool unless arranged in advance).
Instructor: Mariana Ortega Ramirez, Senior Sustainability Analyst
Date: Thursday, December 10 | 10:00 – 12:00 PM ET
Duration: 2 hours
Cost: $450
Student Discount: Students receive a 50% discount on all EarthShift Global classes (provided minimum attendance requirements are met).
Description: The objective of this class is to provide students with expert guidance on carrying out the interpretation phase of an LCA, including instruction on the conceptual background and needs for interpretation, review of ISO guidelines and requirements for interpretation, practical methods and tools for interpretation, and helpful hints and strategies. Delivery of the course material will be facilitated by practical LCA examples which the instructor will use to illustrate key points. The Interpretation phase of an LCA serves two purposes: (1) To gain insight so you can efficiently guide and refine the selected methodology and inventory model and (2) To derive robust conclusions and well-founded recommendations, as appropriate.
Topics: This course presents the details of how to conduct an ISO-compliant interpretation that meets all the required completeness, sensitivity, and consistency checks. You will learn how to use contribution, scenario, uncertainty, and sensitivity analyses to conduct a fully detailed interpretation that will ensure your study results are robust and well-founded.
Target audience: LCA practitioners, new and not so new.
Objectives: With this course, students will (1) Gain perspective into critical aspects of the interpretation phase in an LCA and (2) Learn how to do an efficient, broad, and deep analysis of LCA results.
Prerequisites:
- Impact Assessment Methods, online training
- Familiarity with ISO 14040 and 14044 (2006) Standards
- Completion of an LCA (internal screening level LCA is fine)
Instructors: Sarah Donovan, Sustainability Analyst and Mariana Ortega Ramirez, Senior Sustainability Analyst
Date: December 17, 11:00AM – 2:00PM, EST
Duration: 3 hours
Cost: $650
Student Discount: Students receive a 50% discount on all EarthShift Global classes (provided minimum attendance requirements are met).
Description: Organizational LCA (O-LCA) expands on the methods used in traditional LCA to assess the impacts of an entire organization including the impacts of its products from cradle to grave. With increased pressure on companies to include Scope 3 impacts in their greenhouse gas accounting, O-LCA provides a structured methodology under the ISO standards to perform a robust assessment that can be refined over time. This course will serve as an introduction to the basics of O-LCA including what should be included in a study, how it relates to Scope 1, 2 and 3 of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and what types of output can be expected. We will explain the O-LCA approach and the types of situations when it can best be applied, and share our experience using O-LCA to create benchmarks, develop goals, and create roadmaps to net zero.
Topics: What is an Organizational LCA; Organizational LCA boundaries; Reporting unit and scope; Consolidation; Limitations; Data needs; Recommendation for data collection and modeling; How can an Organizational LCA be used for Corporate Sustainability Plans; and Case Studies.
Target audience: Any level of sustainability professional or any level of LCA practitioner looking to learn more about O-LCA.
Objectives: This course is designed to provide a high-level introduction to Organizational Life Cycle Assessment. Participants will learn what an O-LCA is useful for and how it differs from the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. Participants will have the opportunity to see how O-LCA can be used to create benchmarks, develop goals and create roadmaps.
Instructor: Amalia Sojo, Director of Software Support & Training
Date: January 13 and January 20, 12:00-2:00 PM, EST
Duration: 4 hours, in 2 days
Cost: $850
Student Discount: Students receive a 50% discount on all EarthShift Global classes (provided minimum attendance requirements are met).
Description: Life Cycle Costing (LCC) based on ISO 15686 provides a structured approach for evaluating the total cost of an asset throughout its entire life span. This course introduces the principles, methodology, and practical application of LCC to support better planning, budgeting, and decision-making. The training is designed as a hands-on experience using a pre-built LCC Excel tool developed by EarthShift Global. This tool provides the foundation for creating basic LCC projects; students will need to adapt it to different case studies.
Target audience: Professionals interested in understanding the financial dimension of sustainability decisions, especially those without formal training in economics or finance.
Topics: ISO 15686 framework, Setting baseline and alternatives, Cost categories: Initial, operational, maintenance, End of life, Data requirements, Discount rate and inflation, Case studies, Modeling in an Excel file, Sensitivity analysis, Externalities, Creating a tool for data visualization.
Objectives: This course aims to prepare participants with practical skills to apply Life Cycle Costing in real-life situations. Learners will evaluate LCC by using a pre-built Excel tool for planning, sensitivity analysis, and comparison.
Instructor: Lise Laurin, CEO & Founder
Date: TBD
Duration: 2 days (6 hours total)
Cost: $1250
Student Discount: Students receive a 50% discount on all EarthShift Global classes (provided minimum attendance requirements are met).
Description: This online interactive course will introduce students to methodologies used to assess societal and economic impacts from a sustainability point of view. Various methodologies will be presented including: Social Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Sustainability LCA, Life Cycle Costing, Ecosystem services valuation, Full Cost Accounting, Total Cost Accounting, Social Return on Investment and Sustainability Return on Investment. As a group, we will explore the various methodologies, their strengths and weaknesses, and learn how each is best used. Additionally we will expose the gaps in analysis techniques and show you how those gaps might be filled. At the end of the course, you will have a basic understanding of the different methodologies and how to apply them accordingly.
Target audience: Any level of sustainability professional or any level of LCA practitioner looking to learn more about S-ROI.
Topics: Social LCA, Life Cycle Costing, Full cost accounting/valuing ecosystem services, Social/Sustainability ROI, and Working session – Gap analysis
Objectives: Attendees will be introduced to several different methods to assess social and environmental impacts and learn benefits and drawbacks of each.
Instructor: Amalia Sojo, Director of Software Support & Training
Date: Tuesday, October 27 and Thursday, October 29 10am – 12 pm EST each day
Duration: 4 hours, 2 days
Cost: $850
Student Discount: Students receive a 50% discount on all EarthShift Global classes (provided minimum attendance requirements are met).
Description: Life Cycle Assessment analyzes the environmental impacts of a product or service from raw material extraction through disposal and provides interpretation of results to identify improvement opportunities. This scientifically robust method is used to compare alternatives and identify high-impact areas for intervention. This course introduces the foundational principles of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and immediately applies them within matterPD, a user-friendly LCA software designed for product design and early-stage sustainability decision-making.
Topics: Life Cycle Thinking, Why LCA?, Goal and Scope, Functional Unit, System Boundaries, Life Cycle Inventory, Impact Assessment, PCRs, EPDs, Interpretation, Screening vs. Full LCA, ISO 14044, Software Tools, New Developments, and Staying Informed.
Target audience: Sustainability professionals, product designers, engineers, and LCA practitioners seeking a practical, design-oriented introduction to LCA using matterPD.
Objectives: (1) Understand core principles of LCA, (2) Define goal & scope, functional unit, and system boundaries, (3) Build and run screening-level LCA models in matterPD, (4) Apply ES+, Monte Carlo, and underspecification to evaluate uncertainty, (5) Interpret results for early-stage product and design decisions, and (6) Translate findings into short-term sustainability actions.
Instructor: Lise Laurin, CEO & Founder
Date: Tuesday, December 1 | 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM ET
Duration: 3 hours
Cost: $650/person
Student Discount: Students receive a 50% discount on all EarthShift Global classes (provided minimum attendance requirements are met).
Description: If you’re ready to dig deeper into the planning and execution of S-ROI analyses, this class is for you – three hours of practical insights from one of the world’s most experienced S-ROI practitioners. You’ll learn how Sustainable Return on Investment relates to Social Return on Investment and how the two can be used to enhance the study. You’ll gain insight into how to identify stakeholders and ensure that their views are represented, ways to make the information-gathering process as efficient as possible, and how to integrate S-ROI findings into your organization’s decision-making process for maximum effectiveness. Also includes a short hands-on introduction to using EarthShift Global's 3Pillars, the only general-purpose S-ROI software package on the market.
Target Audience: Any level of sustainability professional or any level of LCA practitioner looking to learn more about social and economic impacts.
Objective: Students will have a basic understanding of S-ROI and how it can be applied.
Instructor: Lise Laurin, CEO & Founder
Date: Thursday November 12 | 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM ET
Duration: 3 hours
Cost: $650
Student Discount: Students receive a 50% discount on all EarthShift Global classes (provided minimum attendance requirements are met).
Description: Anticipatory LCA is an advanced LCA approach designed to improve decision-making in the early stages of the design process. LCA researchers have developed several Anticipatory LCA techniques which enable the application of LCA early in the research and development phases where uncertainty, but also potential for improvement, is greatest. Anticipatory LCA can be applied as a design tool to explore the environmental variability of alternative technology configurations and applications. This is especially beneficial in the design phases when data is uncertain and fast-changing and limits a full traditional LCA. This course will provide an introduction to the concepts of Anticipatory LCA, and an exploration of the applications of the concepts through industry case studies. In this interactive online course, participants will also have the opportunity to apply Anticipatory LCA concepts to their own case study.
Topics: Anticipatory LCA – definition and concepts; Use of Anticipatory LCA in product development; Case Study examples and application
Target audience: While this course is designed to help product designers and practitioners assessing products and processes in the early stages of development, some knowledge of LCA is recommended prior to taking this course.
Objectives: At the end of this course, students will have options for modeling when there is still significant uncertainty in the product or process under consideration. They will have guidance on what to do if the process includes emissions that have not yet been included in any impact assessment methods and how to handle trade-offs scientifically.
Pre-requisites: Basic knowledge of LCA and experience with LCA type projects as manager or analyst is sufficient.
Instructor: Lise Laurin, CEO & Founder
Date: Thursday, November 5 | 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM ET?
Duration: 3 hours
Cost: $650
Student Discount: Students receive a 50% discount on all EarthShift Global classes (provided minimum attendance requirements are met).
Description: Have you ever thought about the life cycle of a product that is made from recycled material? What about the life cycle of a product that is partially recycled at its end of life? The objective of this course is to give students an understanding of the procedures/methods being used to best allocate for different recycling scenarios. This course will look at the allocation issues involved in building life cycle models that have recycled material coming into the product/process as well as recycled material leaving the product/process. It will familiarize you with both open and closed-loop recycling procedures established by ISO guidelines as well as other commonly used methods. Your instructor will be an experienced LCA professional.
Topics: Overview of the Recycling Debate, Framework for Models, Issue of Consistency, ISO 14044 (2006) Guidelines, Recycling Models (Closed Loop, Open Loop, Economic, Number of Uses, Cut off, Consequential), Sensitivity, Sector Guidance, GHG Protocol, Product Carbon Standard, Risk Perceptions, and Driving Behavior
Target audience: Practitioners with at least a basic understanding of LCA.
Prerequisite: Allocation of and handling multi-output product systems or a solid understanding of allocation and how to handle multi-output processes.
Objective: Students will leave the course understanding the common ways of handling multioutput processes and how to model them (no specific tool modeling will be shared unless arranged in advance).
Instructor: Mariana Ortega Ramirez, Senior Sustainability Analyst
Date: Thursday, December 3 | 11 am- 1 pm ET
Duration: 2 hours
Cost: $450
Student Discount: Students receive a 50% discount on all EarthShift Global classes (provided minimum attendance requirements are met).
Description: Our Impact Assessment Methods course delves into the science behind the evaluation of the effect of emissions on the environment. We will demystify how impact assessment methods are modeled and calculations made. This interactive online training course provides an overview of commonly used and accepted impact assessment methods, including background on how these methods model the fate, transport, and exposure pathways (causality chain) of emissions, allowing you to understand each impact category and why your results change when you use different impact assessment methods. The class will point out the strengths and weaknesses of the major internationally accepted impact assessment methods, allowing you to choose the best approach for your life cycle assessment (LCA) study. Using slides, your instructor will visually show you the structure of impact assessment and how various impact categories are assessed.
Topics: Structure of impact assessment methods, including: Midpoint, Endpoint, Characterization, Normalization, Weighting, Single score; Fate, transport and exposure pathways; and Comparison of impact assessment methods (Strengths and weaknesses, Similarities and differences).
Target audience: Any level of sustainability professional or any level of LCA practitioner looking to learn more about how environmental impact is measured.
Objectives: Students will understand causality chains in defined impact categories and be able to explain to a certain extent the science behind them, learn the difference between midpont and endpoint indicators, be able differentiate when it is best to use characterization, normalization, or weighting, and know the strengths and weaknesses within the different types of impact assessment methods available in order to choose the most useful one for their LCA study.
Instructor: Amalia Sojo, Director of Software Support & Training
Date: Wednesday, December 2nd & 9th, 12:00 – 2:00PM EST each day
Duration: 4 hours
Cost: $950
Student Discount: Students receive a 50% discount on all EarthShift Global classes (provided minimum attendance requirements are met).
Description: The Circular Footprint Formula (CFF), created as part of the EU’s Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) framework, is used to calculate the environmental impacts and avoided burdens of a product. In this hands-on training course, we will break down every piece of the formula to understand the relevance of each component and parameter. Along with the explanation, you will create a guided exercise using the software matterPD.
Topics: Origins of the Circular Footprint Formula (EU Recommendation 2021/2279); Purpose and Allocation Logic of the CFF Approach; Material, Energy, and End-of-Life Components; Physical Parameters (Virgin & Recycled Inputs, Recycling, Energy Recovery, Disposal Flows); Material Quality and Energy Recovery Efficiency; Avoided Burdens; Market Parameters and Allocation Factors (A and B); Allocated vs. Avoided Burden Datasets; Understanding and Applying the CFF Formula; Integrating CFF into matterPD; Modeling, Interpretation, and Result Analysis; Sensitivity Scenario Development.
Target audience: LCA practitioners who need to understand and use the Circular Footprint Formula (CFF).
Objectives: At the end of the course, students will understand the rationale for the formula, and be able to obtain results using matterPD.
Prerequisites: Intro to LCA course, or similar; MatterPD (Demo version or license)