Webcast: Creating Knowledge Workers for the Greener Product Marketplace Part 11: Introducing lifecycle thinking across disciplines

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On March 16th, we held the eleventh in a series of webcasts featuring educators from leading colleges and universities demonstrating how Sustainable Minds is being used in education at different learning levels. Understanding product life cycle concepts has fundamental value to students in a broad spectrum of disciplines beyond design and engineering. Learn from expert lifecycle assessment educators how they are working with students to convey life cycle thinking and ecodesign concepts through hands-on product life cycle modeling. They will share how they use Sustainable Minds to engage students in essential conversations about modeling, innovating, measuring and interpreting results.

PANELISTS

Thomas Alan Kwan
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
Center for Green Chemistry & Green Engineering
Yale University

Mr. Kwan is associated with the Yale Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering under Prof. Paul T. Anastas. In addition to his roles as a lecturer and in research and curriculum development in the Center, he also teaches Sustainable Design and Innovation in the Executive MBA program of the Yale School of Management. The objectives of this class are to innovate sustainable solutions for real issues of our current production and consumption system, to provide experiential learning in design thinking, rapid prototyping, and pitching products, as well as in the efficient and effective use of benign materials and energy across the life cycle during product design. Outcomes included using Sustainable Minds to bridge design thinking and sustainable making; teaching executives to communicate more effectively with LCA experts, and insights about life cycle thinking gained from hands-on experience modeling with Sustainable Minds.

Neethi Rajagopalan , Ph.D.
Research Associate
Department of Forest Biomaterials
San Jose State University
North Carolina State University

Ms. Rajagopalan researches sustainability of bio-based products, and teaches PSE 476-Life Cycle Assessment to junior, senior and graduate students from the Paper Science & Engineering and Sustainable Materials & Technology tracks, as well as other disciplines. The course is an overview of the various aspects of conducting and interpreting an environmental life cycle analysis on a product or service. Students learn how to construct a life cycle analysis goal and scope, inventory, impact assessment and then interpret the LCA results. The class considered that Sustainable Minds provided an easy, inexpensive and user-friendly approach to teaching LCA and conducting environmental assessments of products.

Terry Swack, CEO & Moderator
Sustainable Minds