LCA is an assessment tool used to evaluate the environmental and human health impacts of products and services from a cradle-to-grave perspective, taking into account each stage of raw material extraction and processing, manufacturing, transportation, use and final disposal. LCA has evolved over four decades, and has been used to guide product design, purchase preferences, and investment decisions. Increasingly, LCA is considered the new paradigm for transparency in environmental labeling, and is being widely adopted for use.

This overview course is suitable to all levels and provides an introduction to LCA principles, a review of the international LCA framework and environmental product declaration standards (ISO 14040, 14044, and 14025), and a summary of the key provisions in a new draft national LCA standard (LEO-SCS-002) being developed under the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) process.

The new standard provides a detailed framework for conducting comprehensive life cycle impact assessment that is sufficiently robust to support public declarations, claims and comparisons. It builds upon and complements the basic international LCA framework, providing guidance to support the calculation of results that are complete, accurate, and will stand up to stakeholder scrutiny.

SCS has been a global leader in life cycle assessment, third-party environmental and sustainability certification, auditing, testing and standards development for nearly thirty years. It was an early adopter of LCA, serving as U.S. expert in the ISO-14000 environmental management standards setting process and conducting LCA studies for a wide range of industries and products since 1991. SCS has been providing customized LCA training for years and started to offer regular LCA trainings in 2012.   

SCS programs span a wide cross-section of sectors, recognizing exemplary performance in natural resource management, green building, product manufacturing, food and agriculture, retailing and more. SCS is a Certified B Corporation, reflecting its commitment to socially and environmentally responsible business practice.