Education and training in LCA and life-cycle thinking experience and needs

Michael Søgaard Jørgensen, Niki Bey, Michael Zwicky Hauschild

Research output: Contribution to book/anthology/report/conference proceedingArticle in proceedingResearchpeer-review

Abstract

This paper discusses experience and needs for education and training in LCA and life-cycle thinking based on project carried out for the Environmental Protection Agency in Denmark. An approach was chosen where both quantitative and qualitative facts and records were collected. The quantitative data was gathered by means of a survey among providers and users of education and training in this field, while the qualitative data was established in the course of a dialogue meeting to which particular interested individuals, selected among those who had returned the questionnaire, were invited. The questionnaire for providers was returned by 20 institutions, describing 47 educational offers and the questionnaire for users of education was filled by 41 companies and 16 consultancies. Most of the companies and consultancies that participated in the survey have experience with LCA and/or life cycle thinking. The target group for the educational offers are students of both short and long term higher education, primarily engineering students of various disciplines. However, teaching within LCA and life cycle thinking also takes place in curricula for designers, architects and production technicians. The target group for the training are in most cases companies, and participants are in mostly employees from the environmental department, but there are also offers for governmental authorities and unemployed. Both education and further training mainly convey qualifications on a "knowing about"-level in the form of basic principles of LCA and the applications of LCA. The competence regarding LCA and life cycle thinking is predominantly built-up by individuals who work in the environmental field. This applies to both companies and consultancies. The preferred means to strengthen competence in the future is to send employees on external courses, while internal courses lead by own employees also are attractive, especially for manufacturing companies with a certain degree of experience in applying LCA.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCIRP Life Cycle Engineering Seminar proceedings, Copenhagen, 2003
EditorsHauschild, M., Alting, L., Molin, C., Poll, C.
Publication date2003
ISBN (Print)87-91035-01-5
Publication statusPublished - 2003
Externally publishedYes

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