Greetings!

 

We hope summer is treating you well, and that you have escaped the power outages, extreme heat, forest fires and storms that have characterized the season for many. We have a variety of things to share with you this month so please read on.  

  

Recently we asked one of our new global manufacturing clients why they chose SimaPro, and while they requested to remain anonymous we still found their insights worth sharing.  

 

For all our SimaPro customers, please look for a  database update this month that will include normalization factors for TRACI.    

 

In our efforts to offer you the best and most comprehensive LCA training program available, we are pleased to announce two advanced special topic courses on Consequential LCA and Water Footprinting led by two world experts Bo Weidema and Stephan Pfister. Join us in Seattle, WA September 21 & 22 and in Portsmouth, NH Oct 30 & 31 for these once a year opportunities! 

 

If you are new to LCA please read our white paper 7 1/2 Steps to Designing a Successful LCA Training Program to start planning your educational curriculum and getting your company on the pathway to sustainability.  You can also join our Introduction to LCA course July 19th. If you are an educational institution please contact us for access to our new integrated solution for professors. 

 

Thinking about embarking on an LCA project? There is a lot more to running a successful LCA project than meets the eye. Would you like to avoid common pitfalls while maximizing the potential for a useful and meaningful LCA project? Start reading our new weekly blog content series How to Complete a Successful LCA Project.

 

Join us at several fall conferences and read Jim's overview of the Sustainable Brands Conference he attended in June.  

 

An Environmental Engineer at a large multinational manufacturing company (who has asked to remain anonymous), has long regarded Life Cycle Assessment as an important tool in her environmental engineering toolkit. "LCA helps you make longer-term decisions. It adds another dimension to decision-making," she says. "Product decisions are traditionally made based on payback time, quality, function, and aesthetics. When environmental impact is considered as well, the final decision may not change, but at least all the facts will be in hand."

 

At the client's company the goal isn't to use LCA for Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) or other marketing claims. In fact, the client told EarthShift that her interest in LCA stems partially from its ability to help its practitioners look beyond appearances. "We are wary of green-washing," she says. "It has harmed the image of environmental engineers. The primary reason my company is interested in LCA is to learn the truth about our processes."

 

Visit the EarthShift blog to learn more about why she chose SimaPro LCA Software 

 

Attention SimaPro users! Watch for a July update to the SimaPro database which will include:

• New ILCD midpoint method
• ReCiPe method two errors corrected for fossil depletion and for marine ecotoxicity.
• TRACI now includes normalization based on the U.S. reference year 2008. Climate change category was expanded to match the GHG emissions included in the IPCC 2007 report.

  

EarthShift is honored to welcome Dr. Bo Weidema, a world leader on the subject of Consequential LCA, to lead a two-day course in Seattle, WA on September 20-21. Consequential modeling considers market reactions, technological developments, capacity constraints and regulations thus going beyond the limitations of traditional Attributional LCA.   

 

For more information on Consequential LCA, click here.

 

Water Footprinting has become one of the main issues addressed by environmentally leading companies. We are especially pleased to announce that Dr. Stephan Pfister, will teach EarthShift's two-day Water Footprint and Water Use Assessment in LCA course October 30 and 31 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Dr Pfister is responsible for providing one of the main regionalized inventory datasets and framing the water footprint methodology.   

 

For more information on Water Footprinting, click here.

If so, click here to let us know. We're always adding courses when there is increased demand. 

 

 By Jim Lochran 

 

Last month, I had the pleasure of attending the Sustainable Brands 2012 (SB12) event in San Diego for the first time. Overall, it was a great event with an extremely diverse group of attendees, from big media like CNN to Dutch start up OAT shoes and everything in between. The event had a record 1300 attendees from over 150 companies from around the world. 

 

Check out the videos of the main sessions here. Don't miss the "A Revolution in Product Design" presentation from the founder of OAT Shoes - very entertaining!

 

We hope to see you next year at SB13!

 

EarthShift also plans to send representatives to two more conferences this September:

 

2012 Sustainable Packaging Forum will be held September 10-11 in Pittsburgh, PA

"Essentials of Sustainable Packaging"

Click here for more information.

 

The LCA XII Conference will be held on September 25-27 in Tacoma, WA

"Life Cycle Thinking; Life Cycle Living." 

Click here for more information.

 

 

EarthShift is excited to present a series of new programs geared at Educational institutions. The programs consist of a combination of software and training needed to incorporate EarthShift's web-based software solutions into a curriculum. Programs are available at the classroom and individual researcher level. Click here to request more information. 

 

There are a number of great sustainability-related conferences around the world that we attend - to network, stay engaged, and learn about the latest developments in the world of LCA, technology, and environmental management.

 

Here are some of the conferences we recommend:

• The American Center for Life Cycle Assessment - September 25-27, 2012 
• Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry - North America - November 11-15, 2012
• International Conference of Life Cycle Assessment - March 24-27, 2013 
• Conference on Life Cycle Management - August 25-28, 2013
• Sustainable Packaging Forum - September 11-13, 2012
• Sustainability in (Bio) Pharmaceuticals - November 11-14, 2012
• Ecobalance - November 20-23, 2012
• American Institute of Chemical Engineers - October 28-September 2, 2012

*indicates on-site class (all others are online)

Applied LCA in SimaPro - July 12-13

This is a two part, six hour online providing hands-on experience learning the SimaPro software and reviewing the basics of life cycle assessment (covered in our Introduction to LCA course). 

Interpretation - July 17-19
To explain the methodological details required to interpret an LCA study, so as to steer the study and provide robust conclusions/recommendations.  

Introduction to LCA - July 19

To introduce students to the concept of life cycle thinking, and the ISO standard methodology for conducting a LCA.  

Impact Assessment Methods - July 19

To give students hands-on experience building a custom impact assessment method in SimaPro.

Customizing Impact Assessment Methods - July 19

To give students hands-on experience building a custom impact assessment method in SimaPro.

 *Introduction to LCA in SimaPro - July 24 & 25, Portsmouth, NH

To introduce students to SimaPro and teach the methodological details as standardized in the ISO 14040/14044 LCA methodology.  

Ecoinvent 3 - Unleashing the Power - July 26  

Environmental Mechanisms and Impact Assessment Methods - August 22

To give students hands-on experience building a custom impact assessment method in SimaPro.

Practical LCA in PackageSmart - August 23

This is a three hour online course providing hands-on experience learning the PackageSmart software and reviewing the basics of life cycle assessment

Introduction to LCA - September 4

To introduce students to the concept of life cycle thinking, and the ISO standard methodology for conducting a LCA. 

End of Life Advanced - September 5

ake this in-depth course to learn the how to represent the end of life of products in your LCA. This course will give you hands on experience in SimaPro by building a Life Cycle of an ink jet cartridge and using this example to model end of life scenarios. 

Environmental Mechanisms and Impact Assessment Methods - September 6

To explain the methodology for how environmental impacts are evaluated in a life cycle assessment (LCA) and to provide the basic knowledge required for interpreting LCA results.  

Communicating LCA Results - September 11

3-hour course to prepare students to critique their internal LCA reports

Parameters - September 12

To give students hands-on experience developing and using parameters in the SimaPro LCA software.  

Modeling Recycling in LCA - September 17-18

To give students an understanding of the procedures/methods being used to best allocate for different recycling scenarios. 

Ecoinvent 3 - Unleashing the Power - September 18

*Environmental Mechanisms and Impact Assessment Methods - September 19

To explain the methodology for how environmental impacts are evaluated in a life cycle assessment (LCA) and to provide the basic knowledge required for interpreting LCA results.   

Consequential LCA - September 20-21, Seattle, WA  

To provide participants with the tools needed to conduct a Consequential LCA study  

 

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