Webinar‑based course: Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment

Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) = Life Cycle Costing (LCC) + Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in its most comprehensive form, including economic, social, and ecosystem impacts.

The course

Subject (lectures and exercises on):

The course introduces the basic concepts of internal and external costs and benefits, marginal utility, different types of LCC, and how to consistently combine LCC and LCA covering economic, social, and ecosystem impacts.

Exercises will include inflation adjustment, currency conversion, purchasing power adjustments, equity-weighting and discounting (measuring wellbeing across population groups and time).

External costs will be discussed in the context of weak and strong sustainability, sustainable develop­ment, and wellbeing. Quality-Adjusted Life-Years will be introduced as a measure for wellbeing in the context of effective implementation of LCA results.

Life Cycle Impact Assessment is covered by an introduction to the Areas of Protection, instrumental and intrinsic safeguard subjects, how to avoid double-counting with LCC, methods for quantitative assessment of economic and social impacts and the relative importance of impact categories, and how link impacts to economic, social, and ecosystem pressures from human activities, using cause-effect pathways.

In separate sessions, the course participants will investigate the dominating role of inequality and missing governance, and compare data sources and databases.

The course participants will perform a full LCSA case study, as a combination of LCC and LCA, including all procedures from defining the functional unit, modelling specific unit processes in the foreground, calculating life cycle costs and impacts on sustainable wellbeing, and performing contribution analysis of the results.

The course will end with an interpretation session on what is necessary and what is sufficient for making conclusions and a discussion of the current limitations of the LCSA approaches.

The course will NOT cover the following topics:

  • Basic introduction to LCC and LCA data and software calculations, including consequential LCI modelling (assumed pre-requisite knowledge)
  • Prospective LCA and scenarios
  • Relevant ISO standards on LCC and LCA
  • Uncertainty in data and methods
  • The SDGs as policy areas and framework for impact pathways
  • Topics related to ecosystem impact categories (related to material resource use and emissions) and interpretation of these results
  • Examination

Form and academic recognition:

Form: 16 hours of webinar lectures (2 hours every second week), and 6 homework exercises estimated at approximately 3 hours each, plus 6 hours Exercise Q&A sessions.
Academic recognition: 3.5 ECTS-point including 52 hours mandatory pre-course reading from a literature list provided.

Learning outcomes:

Understanding how to perform quantitative LCSA (Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment) as a combination of LCC and LCA, using pre-defined impact categories and available data. Ability to critically assess the validity and limitations of the methodology. Knowledge of impact pathway modelling and the relation of LCSA to traditional biophysical and social LCA.

The practicalities

WHEN AND WHERE?:

Webinars: Every 2 weeks on Wednesday effective 4 Feb 2026 until 13 May 2026 from 12:00 to 14:00 (Central Europe Time).
Exercises: Schedule 3 hours for your homework in the week following each webinar.
Exercise Q&A: Every 2 weeks on Wednesday effective 25 Feb 2026 until 6 May 2026 from 13:00 to 14:00 (Central Europe Time).

PARTICIPANT PREREQUISITES:

The course focusses on the impact assessment part of LCA and does not cover general aspects of Life Cycle Inventory Analysis and modelling. This means that at least a theoretical understanding of LCA is a prerequisite. See also above, under what the course does not cover.

TEACHING STAFF:

Bo Weidema, Professor in LCA and Sustainability
Denise Almeida, Ph.D. in Economics
Iris Weidema, Master of Science

PRICE AND COURSE CONDITIONS:

3900 Euro for professionals / 1950 Euro for university staff / 975 Euro for students. 

CONTACT PERSON AND REGISTRATION:

For registration or if you require any further information or clarification, please contact us by email at info@ilca.es.

Registration deadline:

4th December 2025