Elevate your technical expertise at our Pre-Conference Workshop through immersive, expert-led sessions. Designed to be interactive and engaging, these workshops are available

in both 1.5 and 3-hour durations, offering comprehensive explorations into cutting-edge topics, emerging issues, and the latest advancements in technology.

This is an invaluable opportunity to expand your knowledge and skillset, positioning yourself

at the forefront of your industry. Don’t miss out on this chance to enhance your

expertise and network with fellow professionals.

SEPTEMBER 15, 2025

All-Access Pass: $975 (recordings to all workshops included with the All Access Pass!)

Individual 1.5-Hour Workshops: $275 each

Individual 3-Hour Workshop: $550

Implementing National Academies Recommendations on Life-Cycle Assessment

For the past two decades, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has been providing guidance to federal agencies, lawmakers, private sector entities, and non-governmental organizations on the application of LCA in both scientific and policy contexts, and related future research needs. This 90-minute pre-conference workshop will explore LCA-related recommendations made by the National Academies, discuss areas where these could be implemented, and convene conversations with attendees to reflect on what the implications of these recommendations would be, and what future work may be beneficial for LCA practitioners and users.

Particular areas where National Academies recommendations on LCA have been made and used include: transportation fuels policy & regulation, research in chemical engineering, research & development of negative emissions technologies and carbon dioxide utilization, and frameworks for the future of environmental engineering education. This workshop will facilitate discussions with participants on merits and critiques of the presented recommendations, how LCA methods and approaches are being applied in various disciplines and application areas, and ways an organization like the National Academies might be able to provide responsive, application-oriented guidance on LCA in the future.

Speaker: Brent Heard & Liana Vacari, National Academies of Sciences

Introduction to LCA of Critical Materials: Mining, Supply Chains, and Integrated Modeling

This short course offers an applied introduction to the life cycle assessment (LCA) of critical materials, with a focus on the upstream stages of mining, refining, and processing. Participants will explore the structure and flow of critical material supply chains, understand key characteristics of extraction and beneficiation technologies, and examine how these influence life cycle inventory (LCI) development. Using real-world case studies and interactive discussion, the course will highlight the challenges of data availability, system boundaries, and allocation choices when modeling critical minerals such as rare earths, lithium, and gallium.
The course will also introduce impact assessment methods and indicators most relevant to critical materials, particularly in quantifying impacts related to resource scarcity and supply chain resiliency. Emphasis will be placed on the value of integrated modeling approaches that link technical processes with environmental, economic, social, and strategic policy outcomes. By the end of the session, attendees will gain foundational knowledge and practical insights to conduct robust LCAs for critical materials and apply them to analysis-guided research and development.

Speaker: Sherif Khalifa, NREL

Communicating LCA Results for Decision-Makers: Five Proven Strategies for Clear, Actionable Insights

Presenting life-cycle assessment findings to non-specialists often stalls decision-making because the numbers feel abstract. Drawing on field-tested methods, this 1.5-hour workshop equips practitioners with five practical communication strategies: framing impacts with relatable analogies, tailoring messages to specific decision contexts, experimenting with alternative visual and verbal formats, conveying results as ranges to reflect uncertainty, and spotlighting only the essentials that move the audience to act.
Through interactive mini-exercises and real client examples, participants will practice converting dense impact tables into compelling stories that resonate with executives, engineers, and marketing teams alike. Attendees will leave with a takeaway template, example analogies, and quick-check questions they can apply immediately to make their next LCA deliverable more intuitive—and more influential—outside the LCA community.

Speaker: Pia Wiche, EcoEd

EEIO, LCA and Hybrid Approaches for Scope 3 Emissions

The landscape of corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting is evolving rapidly in response to growing pressures from investors, clients, and regulators. Within this context, Scope 3 emissions—particularly Category 1 (purchased goods and services)—represent a significant portion of many organizations' carbon footprints. These emissions are typically estimated using economic-environmental input-output (EEIO) approaches and, less frequently, product life cycle assessments (LCAs), following the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard.

As the Corporate Standard undergoes its first major revision in decades, there is heightened emphasis on data quality, completeness, and quantified uncertainty. This workshop equips LCA practitioners with the knowledge and tools needed for comprehensive and effective estimation of Scope 3 Category 1 emissions in corporate GHG accounting.

The workshop begins with introduction to the mathematical foundations of EEIO models. Participants will develop an enhanced understanding of these models, enabling them to unlock valuable insights into EEIO emission factors, including contribution analysis and emission source identification. These analytical methods can reveal reduction opportunities throughout the supply chain and inform strategic corporate initiatives to engage suppliers and enhance primary data collection.

The second half explores the proposed updates to the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard and demonstrates how both EEIO methods and process-based LCA methodologies can be effectively integrated to meet emerging requirements for Scope 3 accounting. The session will also cover hybrid modeling approaches and examine how artificial intelligence (AI) tools might be used effectively in GHG accounting.
Participants should come to the session with their laptops. Access to Excel, Google Sheets, and Python (e.g. via Jupyter notebooks) is recommended to be able to follow the exercises in part 1.

Speaker: Mo Li, Watershed

When good enough is perfect: Using LCA data and tools at the appropriate resolution to make sustainable building design decisions at scale.

This brief course offers a comprehensive introduction to current and emerging Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tools essential for evaluating the environmental impacts of major building system components throughout their life cycles.

This course is ideal for architects, engineers, sustainability consultants, and other professionals looking to integrate LCA into their design workflows and contribute to sustainable building practices in a market-driven industry, or for those providing the source data that powers these tools to make better and faster decisions.

Participants will understand the importance of selecting the appropriate LCA tool based on project requirements, the realistic level of detail needed, and user familiarity with LCA methodologies to augment and improve design workflows.

Speaker: John Cays, NJIT, New Jersey School of Architecture

Fueling the Future: Hands-On GREET Training for Emerging Clean Technologies

The Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies (GREET) model – a life cycle assessment tool – can be used to assess the environmental impact of fuels, technologies, products and energy systems within the transportation sector. Whether you are in local government aiming to take advantage of the increasing number of performance-based state and federal policies, in research developing future clean energy technologies, in the energy or automotive industries working to improve the energy efficiency of vehicle or fuel production processes, or simply a consumer interested in understanding the impact your transportation has on the environment, come learn how the GREET model could be a tool for you.
No GREET experience is necessary to attend!

In this training, I will provide a high-level introduction to the R&D GREET model and demonstrate a series of realistic scenarios modeling emerging clean technologies: sustainable aviation fuels, hydrogen, and electric vehicles. Together, we will review how to determine the carbon intensity (CI) score for a passenger car fueled by gasoline, adjust the model year and model location, determine the life cycle impacts of electric vehicles, and more. Once attendees have a better understanding of the basic capabilities of the model, we will dive into modeling some specific hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel pathways.

Speaker: Gabrielle Olson, Great Plains Institute

SimaPro Synergy: LCA at the Enterprise Level

How do we infuse sustainability metrics into all aspects of our business? How do we make LCA scalable across an organization? How can we truly drive change through sustainability reporting? SimaPro Synergy is a dynamic approach to meet this growing demand for sustainability metrics. We need scalable and transparent life cycle assessment (LCA) solutions. SimaPro Synergy, PRé Sustainability’s new product, offers scalable LCA calculations, data integration, and transparent environmental metrics with the aim of empowering companies to incorporate sustainability insights into business strategy and daily decision-making.

But what does it take to scale LCA? In this course, we will cover SimaPro Synergy and what it takes to get your organization “Synergy ready”, data governance, and how to make enterprise data available for LCA reporting and beyond.

Speaker: Christina Bertorelli, Long Trail Sustainability

Automating LCA Workflows with MSMG LCI OPTIMIZER, R, and Python

One of the most persistent challenges in life cycle assessment (LCA) practice is the manual and fragmented nature of inventory data handling. Practitioners often rely on spreadsheets (e.g., Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets) to estimate and compile life cycle inventory (LCI) data, which is manually transferred into LCA software platforms like SimaPro. This conventional workflow introduces inefficiencies and potential errors and limits reproducibility, especially in large-scale or iterative studies involving multiple products or scenarios.

This workshop addresses these challenges by introducing participants to automated LCA workflows using the newly developed open-source MSMG LCI OPTIMIZER, alongside tools in R and Python, to streamline LCI data preparation, mapping, and integration into LCA software (SimaPro) and models. The MSMG LCI OPTIMIZER will be made available to all attendees, and the session will include guided exercises using Jupyter Notebook (Python), RStudio (R), Excel, and SimaPro.

Speaker: Duah Philip, Missouri University of Science and Technology

Using EN-ROADS to Reach Net-Zero

Using Climate Interactive/MIT Sloans EN-ROADS simulator engage the audience in developing policies and taking concrete action to get the world (global audience) to a 1.5 or 2 C world by 2100. Encouraging a multi-solving, systems thinking approach.

Speaker: Rebecca LeBlanc, LCA Resource

LCA 101

Join our Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) 101 workshop, a comprehensive introduction to LCA. This 3-hour workshop provides a foundational overview, demystifying the principles and processes of LCA. Attendees will gain an understanding of how LCA is used to evaluate the environmental impacts of products or services throughout their entire life cycle—from raw material extraction through materials processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and disposal or recycling. Ideal for beginners or those seeking a refresher, this session equips participants with the basic knowledge to start applying LCA in their work or studies, paving the way for informed decision-making towards sustainable practices

Speaker: Christoph Koffler, Sphera

The Seamy Underside: Allocation, Displacement, and (How to Avoid) Distortion of LCA Results

When a process has more than one product, the inventory needs to be split up among the products. This is typically done through allocation - divvying up portions of the inventory to the different processes based on their value or mass or some other characteristic - or by displacement (system expansion) - calculating that products are displacing functionally equivalent products and subtracting the equivalent product's inventory. The course has two aims. First, what are these procedures, how can we understand how this affects the LCA results, and what are some best practices for ensuring that the LCA is transparent, robust, and credible? Second, how to actually calculate the allocation or the displacement? This can be confusing; we will work through examples.

Speaker: Valerie M. Thomas, Georgia Tech Institute of Technology

Advanced Analysis Techniques in LCA

New techniques have been developed which improve our ability to use LCA. Some of these techniques make LCA easier to use earlier in the development process, some improve our ability to understand the certainty of our results, and one enables us to better assess tradeoffs. In this workshop, you will learn what these techniques are and how you might leverage them.

The first topic will be leveraging uncertainty. Often, there is sufficient uncertainty in our models that the results seem unsubstantiated. We’ll discuss how to embrace that very uncertainty to help develop robust conclusions. When applying the pedigree matrix, we often find we’re applying it a little bit for the amount of an input or output and a little bit for the fit of the dataset selected.

The next topic will discuss how a second pedigree matrix can be used to assess fit for purpose. Assessing products which are under development is difficult because a lot of things are in flux, including what materials will be used. Underspecification enables users to consider “sets” of materials or services, such as “all thermoplastics” or “all plastics.” The results provide information on whether the choice within the set matters or not. This technique can also be used to limit data collection efforts in traditional studies.

Decisions are difficult when there are tradeoffs between different impact categories, particularly when the decision maker has no environmental science background. Traditional single scores are useful in these cases, but rely on the best guess of a few experts as to what will really change life as we know it in the future. Stochastic Multi-Attribute Analysis provides a scientific way to handle tradeoffs. Sometimes the scope of products that we want to cover in studies is quite broad, making it challenging to make conclusions, and if we develop a tool around the study, often some of the results are outside of the scope of the initial LCA, requiring additional studies. Adapting Design of Experiments from empirical research enables an assessment of a broad scope of products, enabling broader claims and a better foundation for tool review.

Speaker: Lise Laurin & Miguel Hernandez, EarthShift Global

Speaker: Reed Miller, University of Maine

Using Federal LCA Commons Resources to Submit Data to the USLCI

The Federal LCA Commons (FLCAC) centralizes free and public, U.S. life cycle inventory (LCI) data. The FLCAC is evolving to accept and store quality LCI datasets at scale while also adapting to become more interoperable and accessible. The USLCI database and other FLCAC repositories are now publishing according to, and being retro-fitted to align with, emerging FLCAC data guidelines.

The National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), in partnership with the USDA National Agricultural Library (NAL), has developed a comprehensive online USLCI data publication handbook and online support tools to help implement a streamlined, transparent, user-focused USLCI publication workflow. The handbook and support tools outline how to prepare your data for publication to the USLCI, including: data extractions, file export and conversions, metadata descriptors, nomenclature, categorization, and the representation of flows and processes. There are also detailed descriptions on how to use the openLCA software to prepare your data, and how NREL will support the publication of your work.

The USLCI data handbook and support tools are fully aligned and compliant with the emerging FLCAC conventions and data guidelines. The objectives of this course are to 1) update participants on the status of the FLCAC resources and how to navigate and obtain public data for use in their projects, and 2) to use online USLCI support resources to walk participants through formatting, submitting, and validating their data when publishing on the USLCI.

The course will walk through the publication workflow from a local file to published dataset on lcacommons.gov using openLCA and the FLCAC Collaboration Server (a repository and version control software developed by USDA and GreenDelta). At the end of the course, participants will have a clear understanding of steps to prepare and publish LCI data on the USLCI, gain deeper insight into the Federal LCA Commons, and become aware of other developments in this space.

Speaker: Jake Namovich and Paige Weiler, Eastern Research Group

From Emissions to Impacts: Understanding Environmental Chemistry for Better Life Cycle Assessment

This short course will explore the often-overlooked role of environmental chemistry in life cycle assessment (LCA). While much attention in LCA is placed on data quality, system boundaries, and modeling assumptions, far less is said about how emissions actually behave once released into the environment. This course aims to close that gap by introducing participants to the basic principles of chemical fate, partitioning, and transformation that underpin impact assessment models such as ReCiPe, USEtox, and TRACI.

Using practical, high-impact examples - like sulfur dioxide (SO₂), which contributes to both acidification and eutrophication depending on its environmental pathway, and methane (CH₄), which is both a potent greenhouse gas and a precursor to photochemical smog - we will demonstrate how a single emission can contribute to multiple impact categories. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of how LCA results are derived, how fate and exposure models work, and why LCA software should not be treated as a black box. The course is designed to be highly interactive, with real-world examples and group exercises to reinforce key concepts, ultimately empowering practitioners to deliver more scientifically grounded and transparent interpretations of their LCA work.

Speaker: Arka Pandit, Dematic