INSTRUCTORS:
John Harvey, Ph.D., P.E.
Alissa Kendall, Ph.D.

Course Length:  90 minutes

View all webinars related to Life-Cycle Assessment.

Purpose and Background

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an approach for systematic and quantitative analysis, interpretation and reporting of impacts to the environment and human quality of life.  Generic international standards for LCA are adapted and standardized for application to the specifics of transportation infrastructure and operations. Policy making agencies, including transportation agencies at the federal, state and local levels as well as the Green Building Council (LEED v4), are increasingly looking at LCA as a decision support approach that provides better quantitative information for environmental sustainability assessment.

This webinar provides an overview of LCA, details of recent developments in adapting it to pavement and other transportation infrastructure and operations, current resources, current gaps and expected trends.

Primary Topics of Discussion

• Life cycle assessment overview
• Recent developments in adapting LCA to pavement infrastructure, as well as other transportation infrastructure
• Available resources
• Gaps and expected trends

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Discover what LCA is and how it works
• Determine current standards and guidelines for transportation
• Gain an understanding of gaps and future trends
• Review several case studies
• Recognize interaction of life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) and life cycle assessment (LCA)
• Identify how to begin implementing "LCA thinking" into practice with few resources

Webinar Benefits

• Understand brief history of LCA
• Know the basic principles of life cycle assessment
• Learn about international standards for LCA
• Find out about latest developments of LCA for transportation infrastructure and operations in USA
• Know gaps in LCA for transportation and how to get started with "LCA thinking" in practice as developments occur and more resources become available
• Learn expected developments in LCA over next several years (what to be looking for)
• Learn what an environmental product declaration (EPD) is and how that can be incorporated into materials and other specifications
• Learn how to use LCA and LCCA to avoid costly policy changes that aren't warranted by their environmental benefit
• Learn how to use LCA to identify negative unintended consequences of policies and decisions

Assessment of Learning Outcomes

Students' achievement of the learning outcomes will be assessed via a short post-assessment (true-false, multiple choice and fill in the blank questions).

Intended Audience

Civil engineers and other transportation professionals involved in deployment and operations of transportation infrastructure.

Webinar Outline

• Brief history:  why was LCA developed and what it is being used for
• Overview of LCA basics
• International standards
• Transportation life cycles
• Applications of LCA for transportation infrastructure projects
• Principles
• Examples
• Applications of LCA for transportation operations, management and policy
• Principles
• Examples
• Basics of Environmental Product Declarations
• Current resources and gaps
• How to get started on LCA with few resources (implementation of LCA thinking)
• Integration of LCCA and LCA in decision making
• Summary and expected future developments
• Questions and Answers