Course overview
Full Cycle Thinking
Absolutely everything that is created goes through a series of life cycle stages, from raw material extraction to end of life. The scientific process of understanding the impacts that occur as a result of the materials that move through our economy is called Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
The life cycle approach expands perspective from one aspect of a product’s life to the full picture of what a product or service goes through. In doing so, you gain valuable insights into the environmental impacts for improvement and redesign. When using the ISO standards, you can publicly promote environmental performance.
Life cycle approaches are critical tools for thinking through and assessing the full impacts of a product, system or service during the design and development process.
In this module you will be taken through the different aspects of the ISO certified LCA process, learn how to read and research LCA’s and when to hire experts to conduct them. Gain insights into functional unit definitions and how to apply functionality to sustainability decisions.
You will also learn how to do streamlined or quick life cycle map, use online tools and discover how to consider the full life cycle of your product, services and business aspects right from the start.
Curriculum
What’s inside this course
In this module we cover the process of life cycle assessment, how to apply life cycle thinking, the development of social LCA and techniques for using life cycle approaches in sustainability decision-making.
- Learn about the scientific process of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), the streamlined approach of Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) and how to use life cycle management in decision-making
- Explore the full life cycle of a product’s or service’s impact, understanding the functional unit and then redesigning to deliver that in a lower impact way
Practice applying life cycle thinking, mapping and management - Examine detailed reviews of the ISO standards for conducting an LCA
- Think through and manage trade-offs
Circular thinking is a way of understanding relationships and connections that influence your decision-making so that you can advance more sustainable and circular solutions. It’s about seeing things as part of a bigger picture and embracing the complexity in supply chains, networks and systems.
The Disruptive Design Method enables anyone to explore an issue from a three-dimensional perspective, incorporating research, problem exploration, systems thinking, modes of interventions, ideation, and creative development.
Learn about activating positive social and environmental change is unique in its combination of systems thinking, sustainability and design. By combining these three pillars, the method enables a more cohesive three-dimensional understanding of the issues being addressed. When incorporating into business decision-making, the DDM offers efficient collaboration tools for forward momentum.
A foundational part of the CE transition is changing from a linear to a circular business model.
A CE business model is defined as:
“A circular business model aims to create, capture and retain more value from resources. This is generally achieved by slowing the flow of products and materials in the economy, reducing the demand for new products and materials, and avoiding waste generation through design.” – CEBIC
People often deflect the responsibility for considering the ecological impact to other parts of the creative process. However, since we know that around 80% of the ecological impacts of a product are locked in at the design phase, it’s a perfect opportunity to find unique and creative ways to get green goods and services out into the economy.
In this module, we will be looking at how to engage with LCAs, when to use them and how to apply life cycle thinking, which is a streamlined, non data-based approach to understanding how your products work within the linear economy. Life cycle approaches are critical to effective CE implementation and mentioned throughout the new ISO standards.
Here we use a diversity of ideation and prototyping tools to move through a design process to get to the best-fit outcome for your intervention. The key to this entire approach is iteration and ‘cycling through’ the stages to get to a refined and ‘best-fit’ outcome.
Understanding what is going on with the current product is a critical first step. Products are not just physical goods; services of all forms (apps, technology, hospitality, etc.) all intersect with material goods and rely on supply chains to exist. Thus, understanding what is going on first is vital to being able to redesign for a positive and more circular outcome.
The DDM is a scaffolding that supports people in thinking and doing differently to activate positive change. You must be able to intimately understand how it works, the foundations that hold it up, and the multiple ways it can be adapted, altered (or not), when it plays a role, and when something else should be used.
The new ISO Circular Economy 59000 series of standards is a game-changer for businesses transitioning from a linear to a circular economy. These standards provide the framework, tools and business procedures necessary to enact and measure the circular economy.
Materials
- Glossary of CE Terms
- Links & Resources
Pricing
Start Now!
What you get
- Individual and group reflection prompts
- Downloadable worksheets and additional content to support all types of learners
- All courses involve videos, audio, animated graphics and additional sources