What Is the Best Way to Learn LCA? Learn by Doing!
The best way to learn how to conduct a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is to combine theoretical education with practical experience. Start by understanding the LCA methodology, then apply what you've learned by conducting a real LCA project, ideally with guidance from experienced practitioners.
At Environmental Impacts Academy, we believe that learning by doing is the most effective way to develop the skills needed to conduct LCAs independently.
Should you learn LCA by reading, taking classes, or doing it yourself?
Should you read a book, attend lectures, take an online course, or simply get started and figure things out along the way?
Dr. Gregory Norris, who created our Hands-on LCA Training program, has a clear answer:
The best way to learn LCA is by doing it.
And he knows what he's talking about. Dr. Norris has taught LCA at Harvard and MIT, has decades of experience in the field, and is one of the world's leading LCA scientists.
Think about how we learn most practical skills. You don't learn to drive a car just by reading the traffic rules. And you don't become a good cook simply by watching cooking shows. You need to practice.
Learning to conduct an LCA is no different.
But there's a catch. Diving head-first into an LCA project without understanding the methodology isn't a particularly good idea either. You'll quickly encounter questions you don't know how to answer, and you may end up making mistakes without even realizing it.
So, what's the best approach?
At Environmental Impacts Academy, we recommend combining three things:
Build a solid theoretical foundation. Understand the LCA methodology, its key concepts, and the relevant ISO standards.
Apply your knowledge in a real LCA project. Work with a real product, real data, and real people.
Get expert support along the way. Do the work yourself, but don't try to figure out everything alone.
Let's look at how this works in practice.
Step 1: What should you learn before conducting your first LCA?
Before conducting your first LCA, you need to understand the four phases of an LCA study, the relevant ISO standards, and the methodological decisions that influence the results. This theoretical foundation helps you make informed choices when you start working on a real product.
Life Cycle Assessment is a scientific methodology described in the international standards ISO 14040 and ISO 14044.
It consists of four interconnected phases:
Goal and scope definition: Define why the LCA is being conducted, what it will assess, and how the study will be structured.
Life Cycle Inventory (LCI): Collect and model data on the material and processes associated with the product system.
Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA): Evaluate the potential environmental impacts associated with those.
Interpretation: Evaluate the results, their limitations, and the conclusions that can be drawn.
But knowing the names of these phases is nowhere near enough.
You also need to understand concepts such as functional units, system boundaries, allocation, data quality, and uncertainty. And much more importantly, you need to understand why things are done in a particular way.
Why do we define a functional unit? Why does the choice of system boundaries matter? Why can two apparently similar LCAs produce very different results? Once you understand the reasoning behind the methodology, making the right decisions during an actual LCA becomes much easier.
What is the best way to learn LCA theory?
A good way to learn LCA theory is to combine reading, lectures, exercises, and discussions with experienced practitioners. Each approach helps develop a different part of your understanding.
We all learn differently. Some people prefer reading, others learn best by listening to lectures or discussing ideas with other people. Most of us benefit from combining several approaches.
That's why the theoretical part of our Hands-on LCA Training includes four complementary learning methods:
Reading: Carefully selected textbook, scientific articles, and other materials help participants understand the methodology and the reasoning behind the ISO standards.
Lectures: Our pre-recorded lectures, mostly delivered by Dr. Gregory Norris, explain complex concepts in an understandable and practical way.
Exercises: Participants gradually apply their knowledge through spreadsheet calculations, written assignments, and modeling exercises using the Earthster LCA software.
Live Q&A sessions: Regular online conversations with our teachers allow participants to ask questions, discuss challenges, and learn from each other's perspectives.
Rather than focusing on which buttons to click in the software, we emphasize understanding the logic of LCA modeling, selecting appropriate data, and making sound methodological decisions. After all, knowing how to use LCA software doesn't automatically mean you know how to conduct an LCA.
Software is a tool. Understanding the methodology is what makes you an LCA practitioner.
With a solid theoretical foundation in place, you're ready for the next step.
And that's where the real learning begins. It is both fun and challenging:
Step 2: Why is conducting a real LCA project essential for learning?
Conducting a real LCA project helps you turn theoretical knowledge into practical skills. You learn how to collect data, build a product system model, make methodological decisions, solve problems, and interpret results under real-world conditions.
There's a big difference between understanding how an LCA should be conducted and actually being able to do it yourself.
When you start working on a real project, you'll quickly discover that things aren't always as straightforward as they appear in textbooks, because real life is messy.
The data you need may not exist. Your supplier might not respond to your questions. You may struggle to find a suitable dataset, or discover that your original assumptions don't make sense.
Welcome to the real world of LCA!
These challenges aren't exceptions. They're a normal part of conducting LCA, and learning how to deal with them is precisely why practical experience is so valuable.
Why should you conduct your first LCA on a real product?
Working with a real product allows you to experience the practical challenges of LCA, including understanding manufacturing processes, collecting supplier data, and making decisions when information is incomplete.
Ideally, your first LCA project should involve a real product from a real company.
Why?
Because you'll experience much more than simply creating a model in LCA software.
You'll need to understand how the product is manufactured, identify relevant processes and materials, collect information from people who may know very little about LCA, and make decisions when the available data isn't perfect.
These are exactly the skills you'll need when conducting LCAs professionally, and they are difficult to develop through theoretical exercises alone.
How should you approach your first LCA project?
Your first LCA should follow a structured process based on ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, from defining the goal and scope through data collection, impact assessment, and interpretation. The important thing is to understand and apply each step yourself.
Learning by doing doesn't mean jumping head-first into an LCA project and hoping for the best.
Quite the opposite.
Start by defining your goal and scope.
Why are you conducting the study? What decisions will the results support? What is your functional unit? Where should you draw your system boundaries?
Then map your product system. And yes, we recommend starting with pen and paper. Very old school, but it works! Drawing a diagram of your product system before opening any software forces you to think about how the different processes fit together.
Once you've done that, you can start building your model and collecting the necessary data.
When your calculations are complete, you're still not finished. You need to check your results, assess data quality, examine mass balances where appropriate, and evaluate how assumptions influence your conclusions through sensitivity analyses… just to name a few topics.
These quality checks are essential. An LCA result is only useful if you understand how reliable it is. Going through the complete process yourself gives you a much deeper understanding of LCA than simply studying how someone else has done it.
Step 3: Why is expert guidance important when learning LCA?
Expert guidance helps beginning LCA practitioners overcome practical challenges, avoid methodological mistakes, and understand why particular modelling decisions are appropriate. The goal isn't to have someone else conduct your LCA, but to develop the judgment needed to work independently.
Here's something we've learned from helping people become LCA practitioners:
Working independently is essential for learning. But having expert support can make the difference between successfully completing your first LCA and getting stuck halfway through.
And there are plenty of opportunities to get stuck!
For example:
How should you handle allocation when a process produces several products?
Which background dataset should you choose when none perfectly matches your material?
What should you do when a supplier doesn't respond to your data request?
How can you tell whether your functional unit is appropriate?
What should you do when your results seem unrealistic?
These aren't necessarily questions with one simple, universally correct answer. They require judgment, experience, and an understanding of the methodology. Of course, you could spend days or weeks searching the internet, reading scientific papers, and experimenting with different solutions. Sometimes that's a useful learning experience, but it can also be frustrating and inefficient, especially when you don't yet have the experience to evaluate whether the answers you find are appropriate.
Having access to someone who has dealt with similar challenges many times before can save you a tremendous amount of time. More importantly, a good mentor helps you understand why a particular solution makes sense.
That way, you're not just solving the immediate problem. You're developing the judgment you'll need for future LCA projects.
Can you learn LCA from other beginners?
In a way, yes. Learning alongside other LCA students exposes you to different products, industries, data challenges, and methodological decisions beyond those encountered in your own project.
An advantage of conducting your first LCA as part of a training group is that you get to learn from other people's experiences. You may be working on a building product while another participant is studying a food product or an industrial component. The methodological principles are the same, but the practical challenges can be quite different.
By discussing those challenges together, you get exposure to situations you might not encounter in your own project. In a way, you're gaining experience from several LCA projects instead of just one. And you get to learn from other people's mistakes without having to make all of them yourself!
How does Environmental Impacts Academy teach practical LCA skills?
Environmental Impacts Academy's Hands-on LCA Training combines approximately 60 hours of theoretical education with an eight-week practical project in which participants conduct an LCA for a real product, supported by experienced LCA professionals.
Our program is built around a learning-by-doing philosophy
The theoretical part combines reading materials, lectures, practical exercises, and live discussions with experienced LCA professionals.
During the project phase, participants work independently on their own LCA studies while receiving guidance from our experts.
They also learn from the questions, challenges, and experiences of other participants.
The objective is not simply to teach people what LCA is. It is to help them develop the knowledge, practical skills, and confidence to conduct LCAs independently.
Of course, completing one LCA does not make you an expert. Experience develops over time, and every new project teaches you something, but successfully completing your first real LCA is a major step toward becoming a competent practitioner.
Conclusion: What is the best way to become an LCA practitioner?
The best way to learn LCA is to combine theoretical knowledge, practical experience, and expert guidance. Understanding the methodology gives you the foundation, conducting a real LCA develops your skills, and learning from experienced practitioners helps you overcome challenges and make better decisions.
So, should you read a book, take a course, or just start conducting an LCA?
Our recommendation is to combine the best of all three.
Start by building a solid theoretical foundation through reading, lectures, exercises, and discussions.
Then put that knowledge to work by conducting a real LCA project.
Do the work yourself, because that's how you develop the skills and confidence to become an independent practitioner, but make sure you have access to experienced people who can help you when you encounter challenges.
The best way to learn LCA is not just to study how it's done. It is to actually do it.
Want to learn how to conduct LCAs yourself?
Our Hands-on LCA Training combines theoretical education, practical exercises, and a real LCA project with guidance from experienced LCA professionals.
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