10th May 2010

Life-Cycle Assessment and Life-Cycle Design

A pre-conference practical, hands-on 1-day course for designers, manufacturers, and product managers

Course objectives

A sustainable product does not only use better materials and manufacturing methods, but has its entire life chosen with care, from material extraction to manufacturing to transport to energy and material use during the product's life, even to the end of the product's life and what comes afterwards.  How do you know what the biggest impacts of your product are over its life?  Life-cycle assessment is the best tool available.  What does it mean to improve recyclability or longevity?  Life-cycle design provides these strategies.
Students will receive a foundation in life-cycle assessment and designing for the life-cycle of a product, using several eco-design strategies such as dematerialization, design for longevity, and design for recyclability.  We will not only describe the theories but also reinforce them with both conceptual and hands-on exercises.
The workshop is aimed at designers, manufacturers, and product managers, and is delivered by an expert who both works in industry and teaches in academia.

 

Style

The course will be run in an informal manner which allows and encourages time for discussion and questions, ensuring that participants get the most out of their day.
Prior design or life-cycle assessment knowledge is neither assumed nor required.
Each of the principles described will be illustrated by examples.

 

Timings

Course begins:       10:00
Course ends:           17:00
(Timings are approximate and include lunch plus morning and afternoon refreshment breaks)

 

Your Trainer

Jeremy Faludi (LEED AP) is a sustainable design strategist and researcher.  He teaches at Stanford University, and is research lead at Project FROG.  He has worked for Rocky Mountain Institute, The Biomimicry Institute, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, among others.  He is one of the authors of Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century, and has contributed to three other books on sustainable design, as well as over 200 articles on Worldchanging.com. He has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, C|Net, Sustainable Industries Journal, and has spoken on green design and biomimicry at conferences, schools, and businesses around the world.

 

Course Content

Key aims of the day, understanding:

• the uses and limitations of life-cycle assessment
• how life-cycle assessment is used for decision-making
• how to perform life-cycle assessment
• design strategies related to the life-cycle of a product

Fundamental Principles

• kinds of ecological impacts, and methodologies for comparing them
• key assumptions for an LCA
• boundaries
• lifetime
• functional units
• material/process equivalents
• interpreting LCA results
• sensitivity analysis
• design for recycling / reuse
• design for dematerialization

Performing Life-Cycle Assessment

• basic steps of the process
• performing analysis by hand
• software tools available and recommended

Dematerialization

• reducing material use through engineering, durability, "hackability"
• life-cycle dematerialization though takebacks and product-service-systems

Design for Recyclability

• design for disassembly

Throughout: examples and models, including:

• Practical, Hands-on illustration by:
  disassembly and analysis of several common household products