LCA for Enterprise-wide Scalability

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) isn’t just a sustainability buzzword; it’s a strategic business tool that offers 360-degrees of upsides, spanning from financial, to logistics and operations, to R&D, to marketing and branding. LCA offers a comprehensive view of environmental impacts across a product’s life cycle, from raw material extraction to end-of-life. This insight is essential for informed decision-making, especially now as consumers, investors, and regulators increasingly demand transparency and accountability.

Understanding life cycle impacts is a key to lean business operations by uncovering hidden inefficiencies, reducing waste, and optimizing resources. LCA acts as a risk control by highlighting potential regulatory or reputational threats early. LCA strengthens brand value by enabling credible environmental claims backed by data, giving businesses a competitive edge in eco-conscious markets.

As LCA practitioners, how do we get this across to the executive levels? How do we let our non-sustainability peers know that there is value behind our reports, and that we can enact data-backed enhancements to the lifecycle of a product? 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. Stay tuned for more posts in this SimaPro Synergy Series as we explore how to effectively prepare your organization for an enterprise-wide LCA solution. We’ll cover key topics like data governance and configurable LCA modeling.

Also catch us at ACLCA 2025 in September where we will further discuss SimaPro Synergy and enterprise-wide LCA solutions.

Just Launched! On-Demand Intro to LCA and SimaPro Course

LTS is excited to announce the launch of our on-demand course for Introduction to LCA and SimaPro! Here are some frequently asked questions we would like to share:

What’s the difference between the on-demand course and the live course?

On Demand Course LIVE Course
Medium LTS Training Portal Zoom
Duration 9 hours 9 hours
Time Allocated Up to 6 weeks 3 weeks
Pace Self-paced  Pre-scheduled sessions – check our calendar!
Lesson Format 44 pre-recorded mini lessons Three, 3-hour group sessions, scheduled over 3 successive weeks
Quiz Format 22 ungraded mini quizzes, 1 final quiz 1 final quiz
Q&A LTS online forum via LTS site Live Q&A via Zoom
Resources LTS online forum, course slide deck, course homework and exercises, access to course content for total of 6 weeks, and other key resources! Real-time conversation with our Sustainability Consultants, course slide deck, course homework and exercises, recordings of each session available for 2 weeks after the course date, and other key resources!
Certificate SimaPro User Certificate SimaPro User Certificate
SimaPro Included with course! Included with course!
Price $1,450 $2,425
Registration Register Online    OR    Register via PO Register for our Live Course

The course content is the same, just held at different paces!

The On Demand course is administered via the LTS website. It is a pre-recorded course administered by one of our Sustainability Consultants. The course is broken up into bite-size recordings with ungraded mini-quizzes throughout. A final quiz is administered at the end of the course, where an 80% passing grade is required to receive your certificate. Attendees will be given free access to SimaPro for the duration of the course. To register for our on-demand course, please visit our website. This is a great way to take the course if you live outside of North, Central, and South America since you will not have to worry about the time zone.

The LIVE course is administered over Zoom by one of our Sustainability Analysts or Consultants. It’s held during EST business hours. The course consists of three, 3-hour sessions held over the course of three successive weeks, for a total of nine hours. A final quiz is administered at the end of the course. Attendees will be given free access to SimaPro for the duration of the course. To register for one of our live courses, please complete the form and submit to training@longtrailsustainability.com.

Upcoming LIVE dates:

 

Will I have access to SimaPro software?
Yes, both on-demand and live course attendees will have access to SimaPro for the duration of the course!

 

Will other courses be hosted in the on-demand format?
Yes, we are rolling out more on-demand courses! Below are our current and projected offerings for 2024.

Our on-demand courses are pre-recorded, self-paced, and provide you with the same detailed content as the live trainings. You will be able to ask our LCA Consultants questions through the online training portal and receive timely responses.

 

Why LTS?
LTS has been training professionals in LCA for over 20 years. We have one of the world’s largest and longest running LCA training programs, which includes certifications and beginner to expert level courses.

DATASMART 2020 Released

Written by Long Trail Sustainability, Senior Consultant, Shelly Severinghaus

The 2020 DATASMART update, released on October 26, 2020, includes 10 new processes, 76 updated processes[1], and 11 corrected processes. This includes new molybdenum data from the International Molybdenum Association. Electricity mixes for Canadian provinces and territories, the Canadian country average, U.S. eGRID, U.S. state and the U.S. country average were also updated to incorporate the most recently published data. Two new waste scenarios for general waste and packaging waste were created based on the most recent publications from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The LTS Method was updated with the latest ReCiPe 2016 version 1.04 method. Finally, corrected water flows were corrected for Chinese textile processing system level data.

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Climate Class: Energy Efficiency at Home

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New Training Certificate Program and Upcoming Classes

For nearly two decades, LTS has trained professionals and academia in sustainability assessment and management techniques. Leaders in sustainability training, with industry recognized Certificate Training Programs, we have over a dozen custom developed courses ranging from beginner to expert level. We can provide you with the tools and the knowledge needed to competently evaluate environmental impacts and make informed decisions that avoid trade-offs.

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Climate Class: A Responsible Sort

How to compost, recycle and buy things that last— for the earth, and for people

In collaboration with the Germantown Laundromat and BEST Creative Studio, we are excited to share this month’s article on how to compost, recycle and buy things that last— for the earth, and for people — as well as Intersectional Environmentalism (protection of both people and the planet).

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SimaPro 9.1 Released

We’re excited to share that SimaPro 9.1 has been released. This new version includes a number of updates and improvements, including:
– ecoinvent 3.6
– updated datasets for Industry Data 2.0 and ELCD
– two new impact assessment methods: EN 15804 and EF 3.0
– a number of smaller improvements and bug fixes

Learn more here >>

Everyone with a valid service contract from January 31, 2020 onward can update to SimaPro 9.1. Update and installation files can be found here.

Need to renew your service contract? Contact us at info@ltsexperts.com.

Client Spotlight: Eco-Products, Let’s Make It Better

We love seeing our work in action! Check out the product carbon emissions in Eco-Products 2020 Sustainability Report. We also appreciate their honest take on sustainability efforts.

“[W]hile cute hashtags sound nice and make for good social media stats, they don’t speak to the truth about corporate sustainability work: that it’s hard. It’s hard to be honest about the fact our products aren’t perfect. It’s hard to set goals with deadlines… and make them public (gulp). It’s hard to recalibrate our sustainability strategy every year to make sure we’re pushing ourselves to continually do better. But we do it.”

Eco-Products The Dish: On Earth Day 2020 (and beyond), Let’s Make It Better

Eco-Products, a leading supplier of sustainable, single-use foodservice packaging made from renewable resources and post-consumer content, commissioned us to develop and manage their Product Evaluation Platform tool, a simple, web-based LCA reporting tool, which utilizes SimaPro Share, designed to develop public sustainability reports and create customized customer reports.

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Climate Class: Earth Day Edition

Enrolling in a sustainable future, we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, and look at the connection between the Climate Crisis and COVID-19.

Happy Earth Day! LTS is excited to be collaborating with the Germantown Laundromat and BEST Creative Studio on Climate Class, a monthly newsletter identifying Crisis culprits and breaking down what they are exactly, why they’re a problem, and what we change now in our everyday lives to make a difference together.

Check out this month’s article as we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day and look at the connection between the Climate Crisis and COVID-19.

Enroll in a sustainable future by signing up to receive Climate Class in your inbox.   

DATASMART 2019 Update

Written by Long Trail Sustainability, Senior Consultant, Shelly Severinghaus

Map of Canadian Provinces and Territories (Source: Sparcle)

The 2019 DATASMART update, released on June 28, 2019, includes 58 new processes and 105 updated processes[1]. This includes new Canadian electricity mixes by province and territory, as well as the high, medium, and low voltage for each region. The U.S. electricity mixes by eGRID and by state were also updated to incorporate more recently published data. Two new waste scenarios for general waste and packaging waste were created based on the most recent publications from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The LTS Method was updated with three damage categories based on ReCiPe 2016, and is now called the LTS 2019 method, found in the Global Category. The 2019 update also includes more detailed documentation in the process comments. Finally, the update includes updated water flows in hydropower and nuclear energy production processes.

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