CESR Hosts Life Cycle Assessment Workshop

Last week, CESR welcomed 26 researchers to campus for a three-day workshop on the fundamentals of Life Cycle Assessment.  CESR co-director Jennifer Dunn envisioned the workshop as a means to equip students and early-career researchers with the skills to apply LCA in their own work, opening new research pathways that might be difficult to explore at their home institutions.  The event ultimately drew participants from 15 institutions across the United States studying a wide range of topics in sustainable energy, water treatment, industrial chemicals, polymers, and many others.  Over the course of the event, participants learned how to design, run, and interpret life cycle assessments while gaining experience with a variety of tools and models commonly used in the field.  Alongside Dunn’s own extensive work in LCA modeling, participants heard from specialists at Argonne National Laboratory and Sphera who highlighted the variety of career paths available in the larger field.

CESR would like to thank our event co-sponsors at Sphera, whose generous financial support allowed several participants to travel to Evanston for the event and provided meals throughout the workshop.