A new education series to begin next week aims to increase industry’s understanding and implementation of life cycle assessment (LCA).
The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) has partnered with Edge Environment to provide specialised training on LCA, and the first of the series will commence next Thursday, September 25, 2014.
Announcing details of the series, GBCA chief executive, Romilly Madew, said the industry has come a long way in a decade.
"We have more than 750 Green Star rated projects around Australia to prove it. The next step is for us to assess the environmental impacts of our buildings – and the materials within them – throughout their entire life cycles," she said.
“Leading manufacturers in our industry are beginning to think beyond the ‘take, make and dispose’ linear model and are embracing ‘cradle-to-cradle’ approaches.
“According to McKinsey, the world is wasting the equivalent of up to $US4 billion in materials every day. Life cycle assessment is not a fad, and will increasingly be understood as a smart business decision within a sustainable business model."
LCA has recently been integrated into Green Star rating tools with the introduction of the ‘Materials Life Cycle Impact’ Innovation Challenge and two LCA-based draft credits.
Delivered over a four-part series, the LCA training will cover how to conduct an LCA and how LCA is treated within Green Star, and provide insights into material life cycle impacts, product transparency, and sustainable procurement and strategy.
“As the circular economy expands, our industry will need to understand how to work with LCA, and the council is committed to providing the skills training and support needed to drive the next evolution of sustainability,” Madew said.
