Sustainability Assessment and Management tools

Course goals

• have insight in the most important (research) methods and  tools to assess and manage the sustainability impact of products, production processes and services;
• know strong and weak points of each tool and understand the level of uncertainty in using them;
• can critically interpret studies that are carried out using these tools and are able to carry out basic calculations themselves.

Content

The course will focus on the sustainability of projects and products and the production processes of firms. In order to (re-)design and manage sustainability impact, you first need to understand and be able to assess what the main impacts are and where they occur over the entire life cycle. About two-thirds of the course will therefore focus on tools to assess the environmental (and to a limited extent social and economic) impact of projects, products, and production processes with the main focus on quantitative life cycle assessment (LCA) tools. These include:

• Environmental area: attributional LCA, consequential LCA, carbon footprinting
• Economic area: life cycle costing (LCC)
• Social area: Social-LCA and social hotspot analysis
• Integrated assessment: Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA), Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA)

In 3-4 lectures, a general introduction and explanation of concepts in LCA such as functional unit, different ways of allocation and the difference between attributional & consequential LCA will be provided. For students who have followed the bachelor course 'Life Cycle Assessment', there will be overlap with the theory and concepts covered on LCA in this course. Also, one or two concrete case studies on how LCAs are carried out, interpreted, and used by firms will be presented. Two tutorials will provide hands-on experience with calculations in LCA and carbon footprint, a third tutorial will provide experience with quantifying the life cycle cost and environmental impact of a circular economy product strategy. Also, two half-day LCA computer practicals will be held to introduce the students to the LCA software SimaPro. Next to LCA in the environmental area, LCA methodologies in the economic area (Life Cycle Costing: LCC) and social area (Social LCA: S-LCA) will be introduced. Integrated Assessment approaches covered to evaluate the (potential) impact of location and time-specific projects or policies during lectures will include an introduction to Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA), and Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA).

In the remaining third of the course, the students will gain knowledge on concepts of how products and production processes can be managed and improved. This will include an introduction to concepts such as a circular economy (CE), cradle-to-cradle (C2C), and cleaner production. The course mainly aims to provide an overview of the state of the art of current tools in use. A secondary aim is to highlight ongoing trends in academia and the further development and expansion of existing concepts, such as the development of social and socio-economic LCA. 

Academic skills:

• Comprehending (and to a limited extent applying) the scientific concepts and tools taught in the course
• Understanding and critically reviewing scientific articles, including a review of an existing LCA study and writing a concise review paper
• Making a factsheet
• Developing and presenting a critical evaluation of a green(washing) claim