burden-free since 1997
A free course in AI-assisted LCA
LCA used to be slow and expensive. That’s changing.
AI can now do much of the work in a life cycle assessment, if you know what to ask for. This course teaches you the method, then how to use AI to apply it. By the end, you’ll build your own LCA plugin for Claude, Codex or Copilot.
What made LCA hard
The old barriers are coming down
LCA was never hard because the maths is hard. It was hard because of everything around the maths.
Then · Cost
Software, data and expert time before you saw a single result.
Now · Start free, scale up
Start a screening with free data and an AI assistant. Bring in licensed data or software when the study calls for it.
Then · Time
Weeks of hunting factors, typing spreadsheets and formatting reports.
Now · Drafts in minutes
The assistant drafts the inventory and the report. Your time goes into checking it.
Then · Jargon
Allocation, characterisation, A1–A3. Reports assumed you already spoke the language.
Now · Plain language
Ask the assistant to explain any step, in your own words, as often as you need.
Then · Changing standards
Every amendment meant retraining people and redoing templates.
Now · Rules written once
A plugin carries the standard’s rules. Update it once, and every study follows.
What hasn’t changed
You still have to know what you want: the goal, the functional unit, the boundary, the standard. AI follows instructions well. It can’t make those decisions for you, and it won’t tell you when your question is wrong.
The course
From first principles to your own plugin
Three parts. Each one builds on the last.
Learn the method
What an LCA is, where emission factors come from, how standards and EPDs work. Enough to know what to ask for.
LCA 101 · LCA 201Use AI for LCA
Brief an assistant, make it cite every number, and check its work line by line before you sign anything.
Prompting · checking · sourcesBuild your plugin
Package your method, your standard and your data rules into a plugin your whole team can use.
Claude · Codex · CopilotSee where you’re heading
A working LCA plugin
This is the kind of plugin you’ll build in Part 3. Give it a bill of materials and a standard. It asks what it needs to know, flags missing data instead of guessing, and shows where every number came from. Ours are free: ask and we’ll email them. Once you’ve used them, we’re happy to review the result.
You paste a bill of materials and name the standard.
Before calculating, the plugin asks and flags.
Every line says where its number came from.
Teaching numbers.
Start with Part 1
Three sample lessons
What is LCA?
The method behind every footprint and EPD, in four phases and three ingredients.
Open lesson →Where emission factors come from
Elementary flows, characterisation and the database work done before you multiply.
Open lesson →How to read an EPD
What a verified declaration contains, and what to check before you compare two.
Open lesson →Every lesson is free. Prefer to learn with a practitioner, for yourself or your team?Learn with a teacher →