Civil and Environmental Engineering Systems Analysis
Environmental Input-Output life cycle assessment.
Introduction
This website has resources to carry out Economic Input-Output (environmental and social) Lifecycle Assessments(EIO-LCA) of goods and services. It is envisioned as a resource for students and analysts to carry out these analyses. The website includes video tutorials, examples, computational tools, and other resources developed for Northwestern University’s CivEnv 304: Civil & Environmental Engineering Systems Analysis. We are grateful for funding provided by VentureWell, which provided partial support to the student researchers, Allie Holmgren and Jing Yu.
Background on Environmental LCAs
We provide a video that introduces Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA) method, explaining how they measure the social, environmental, and economic impacts of products and services. The purpose is to provide a conceptual understanding of these assessments and their complexities, preparing viewers for performing LCAs and implementing the computational resource provided in this website.
Background on Environmental LCAs
Readers might refer to the VentureWell website for more background information, resources and examples about LCA,
LCA computational resources
We provide a demonstration video about the details of performing EIO-LCA using a t-shirt example. It aims to provide knowledges about how to calculate and interpret the economic and environmental impacts of manufacturing, transportation, and retailing, using provided tools and resources.
LCA computational resources (available in Excel and Matlab)
Student projects
We provide several student projects that use the EIO-LCA tool from 2024SP_CIV_ENV_304 as examples of applications of this LCA computational tool.
Contact
For any questions, please contact us at our institutional emails: CivEnv304@gmail.com.