An Introduction to Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) eLearning Course

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Developed by leading carbon and sustainability specialists, ensuring current, industry relevant training

Learn at Your Own Pace
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Earn a Digital Certificate
Receive a training certificate upon completion to share on LinkedIn to showcase your expertise

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About eLearning Course: An Introduction to Life Cycle Assessments (LCA)

Duration
1 day

Modules/Topics
16 Video Topics
4 Quizzes
1 Final Test

Time to Complete
12 months access

Learning Format
Online, self-paced

Level
Foundation (Beginner, Introductory)

Certificate
Digital proof of completion

This introductory level course is designed to give a practical and accessible overview of life cycle assessment (LCA) for professionals across all sectors. With over 4 hours of expert led visual learning content, it’s ideal for those new to LCA or looking to strengthen their foundational knowledge.

The Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) eLearning course comprises 16 online access video modules, covering key topics including:

  • Background of life cycle assessment
  • An introduction to LCA methods and standards
  • The LCA framework: Life cycle assessment involves a 4 stage process. Involving goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation
  • An overview of the up to 20 different environmental indicators, such as global warming potential (carbon footprint), toxicity, eutrophication, acidification, water depletion, metal depletion, etc. We will provide an overview of what each of the main indicators means, how they happen and what types of impacts and damage they could cause
  • An overview of the main data sources and software packages
  • An introduction to data collection and primary and secondary data
  • An introduction to fate modelling
  • An introduction to midpoint and endpoint modelling: This is essential to understand when identifying the key environmental issues and interpreting results
  • Interpreting results: There are several ways of presenting LCA results. We will provide some examples of LCA results to show how you need to take care in how results are presented and interpreted
  • Case study results: We will use a case study to explore LCA results and the key points from this training course

Video Modules: See our list of the 16 video modules for this LCA eLearning course.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

  • Understand the purpose, principles, and key stages of life cycle assessment
  • Know how to interpret LCA results and environmental indicators effectively
  • Gain awareness of data sources, software tools, and typical challenges in LCA studies
  • Build the confidence and foundation to progress to more intermediate LCA training

Who is this Course For?

This course is suitable for:

  • Sustainability professionals looking to deepen their understanding
  • Beginners or those transitioning into carbon and environmental roles
  • Designers, engineers, architects, and procurement professionals
  • Students and researchers seeking a foundation in LCA
  • Organisations aiming to integrate environmental assessment into product design or strategy

What Level is this Course?

Foundation (Beginner, Introductory)

No prior knowledge of life cycle assessment is required. Ideal for those just starting out or seeking to reinforce basic LCA understanding.

LCA eLearning Question: What is this? What causes it?

What’s happening in this picture?

Notice how green the water is here? You’re looking at a prominent environmental issue. But what exactly is it? What causes it? And why does it matter?

This is one of the many real world examples we explore in this course. Learn how LCA helps uncover the root causes of environmental impacts like this one, and how they can be measured, managed, and mitigated.

The Learning Process

Sign up for an eLearning course

Pick from a selection of sustainability courses

Learn at Your Own Pace

Utilising the array of real world examples, calculations, and videos, learn in your own time

Final Tests

Each course has an end of course test designed to test your knowledge and understanding of the modules

Earn a Certificate

Upon passing the final test, you will be eligible for a digital proof of training certificate

Plant a Tree

Share your certificate on LinkedIn and tag us, and we will plant a tree in your name

What Learners Have to Say About Our eLearning Courses:

“Many thanks for the efforts which went into courses. I was particularly impressed with the ease of which new, detailed content was explained and use of real world examples.”

Joe

“The course has been very worth while and I appreciate the opportunity to download the slides so I can study and use after the course!”

Jake

“I am currently enrolled in your training course on embodied carbon and have found the material highly informative and engaging.”

“Thank you for your assistance and for providing such a valuable course.”

Dilba

“a great course with a good mix of theory & practice which will be very useful to my role.”

Jared

“Very informative.”

Ben

“Thank you for putting your time and creating such an informative LCA course. I would look forward to more courses like this and any updates.”

“I am glad that I have passed. It is going straight on my LinkedIn 😉. “

Umendra

“I want to thank you for such good online training. I watched and listened to it several times as I found it really helpful and interesting.”

Veronika

“Thank you very much again for the course. It was very rewarding for me.”

Marta

“Very useful intro – helped us realise that LCA offers some insights for us, but that actually we need to, for our purposes, learn how to model impacts around individual needs/behaviours and not only around one object’s impacts.”

J. Gunter

“I would like to say that I enjoyed the courses and picked up some valuable information that I can apply to my role in undertaking WLCA's.”

Jacqueline

Our courses have helped learners from 80+ organisations and academic institutions:

Pricing, Contact, and FAQs

Prices: This course is part of the Circular Ecology eLearning Hub, which gives access to all our video training content. We offer discounted rates to non-profits and charities - please contact us for more info.

View our pricing structure and FAQ page for more information.

If you would like more information about our eLearning courses, please contact us at training@circularecology.com.

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