Study Guide

Objective

Student learning objectives:
1. Understand the principles of the LCA process.
2. Are able to clearly communicate the fundamental concepts of LCA
3. Understand the results of a LCA analysis.
4. Practice work in a multidisciplinary and multicultural team
5. Practice think in a customer-oriented way
6.Practice to act independently using external networks and resources to manage a work successfully

Content

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to assess environmental impacts of different subjects, such as products, services, processes and economic activities. They can also be used as a basis for reducing the environmental impacts, for example by highlighting the problem areas and finding alternatives for the causes.
The core idea of a LCA is to look at the complete life cycle of a subject and both identify and quantify the different sources of environmental loads. There exists many different types of LCAs, some compare different products to each other and can be more simplified while others investigate the life cycle of one product in high detail and accuracy, some describe the current situation while others focus on capturing consequences of decisions. LCAs can be constructed based on processes when there is detailed data available but they can also be based on input-output data.

Materials

Online materials in ItsLearning.

Teaching methods

Materials and activating tasks on Itslearning platform & online lectures.

Exam schedules

No exam.

The course grade is based on tasks so you don't have the possibility to raise your final grade or a grade for an individual task.

International connections

Online lectures, tasks and materials on Itslearning platform.

Completion alternatives

The only way to do the course is to do the tasks, no alternative ways to complete the course.

Student workload

The course is 5 ects so the workload is 135 hours all together.

The main task is a group assignment. Additionally there are some smaller tasks also.

Content scheduling

The English version of the course is online course.

Evaluation scale

H-5

Assessment methods and criteria

In order to pass the course all tasks must be returned within deadlines.

Group assignment 70 %
Individual tasks 30 %

Assessment criteria, fail (0)

Student has not returned tasks within deadline or doesn't contribute to the group work at all.

Assessment criteria, satisfactory (1-2)

Student poorly understands the principles of LCA process and the results of a LCA analysis. Student has shortcomings in their independent work management and use of external networks and resources. Student has difficulties to think in a customer-oriented way.

Assessment criteria, good (3-4)

Student understands the principles of LCA process and the results of a LCA analysis. Student practices to act independently using external networks and resources to manage a work successfully. Student practices to think in a customer-oriented way.

Assessment criteria, excellent (5)

Student excellently understands the principles of LCA process and the results of a LCA analysis. Student acts independently using external networks and resources to manage a work excellently. Student thinks excellently in a customer-oriented way.