In my previous post I listed 7 tips from a 1 week course outline which finishes today " Materials Sustainability and The Environment - A Materials for Industry Short Course.
Tip N° 3 refers to the use of life cycle assessment (LCA ) principles as a basis for environmental auditing, to calculate an “index of merit” for waste management options.
It goes without saying that these concepts and software assisted tools will be an increasingly indispensable part of any serious materials scientist and engineer. Indeed this approach is one of the themes which I planned to develop within my still very young, new, management methods and foresight blog "This-Above-All" cf. link on side bar menu. LCA is of course very much a materials management issue. It spans the whole "cradle to grave" cycle and "resuscitation-recycle" "cradle to grace?"
For those of you unable to attend the course there is an excellent, clear introduction to the subject -LCA on the European Union JRC Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability.
We shall have amply reasons to return to this topic, it's industrial partners as well as the toolboxes developed and to be developed.