Frequently Asked Questions
This page will organize answers to the typical questions we receive regarding the LCA textbook project and this web resource in general.
Q: Why did you write this book?
A: As noted in the preface of the book, we felt that an LCA Textbook was needed, and that the methods and examples we had developed over teaching LCA courses for 10 years could provide substantial content for a book. While there are/were other books published on the general topic of LCA they generally lacked the examples and specific details needed to teach a university-level course.
Q: If I am a teacher, why should I adopt this book?
A: Because we wrote this book with you in mind. Life cycle assessment is a conceptually easy topic to teach, as there is an ISO Standard to follow. What was missing, though, was a single textbook resource to both reinforce the Standard and to show quantitatively how to apply the Standard to make decisions. As educators ourselves, we know the kinds of books that get adopted are written by a small group of authors. Handbooks and many-author books generally fail to achieve the consistent voice and framing needed for a textbook . In short, we sought to write the kind of text that will be adopted and that will be successful.
Q: If I am a teacher, are solutions available to the questions at the end of each chapter?
A: Yes! Please send e-mail to Scott (hsm@alumni.cmu.edu), and if you can show you are teaching a course (not a student!), you will be sent a link to download solutions. Also, you can be added to an email d-list for a once per semester e-mail that announces changes to content or resources.
Q: How was the book road tested?
A: Preview copies of the book were distributed to academic colleagues who attended the ACLCA’s LCA XIII Conference in 2013. We road-tested drafts of the book in about 10 courses in the Western Hemisphere for almost 2 years before making this first version widely available in 2014.
Q: If it is so good, why make the book free?
A: As with other previous LCA resources we developed, we aimed to achieve high market share (in this case, mind share). While some may associate “free” as having no value, we feel this textbook has substantial value but is free. We are also concerned about the accessibility of LCA resources in the developing world, and are partnering with colleagues in various countries to have the book translated to local languages. By the way, so that we aren’t viewed as completely altruistic, its hard to make any significant money from writing a textbook, unless its “Calculus 101”, so foregoing a small amount of income (split three ways) was an easy decision.
Q: How were you able to make it free? Did you receive funding for this project?
A: Not really. The only “funding” one could associate with this project so far is the half-time sabbatical benefit that Scott Matthews received from Carnegie Mellon in 2013-14.
Q: Is the book geared more for undergraduate or graduate student courses? For relatively less scientific audiences?
A: Our course at CMU is aimed at upper-level undergraduates and first-year graduate students with interest in environmental analysis, so the target audience was this group. Non-engineering faculty at other schools have adopted the book, so it could be used in a variety of settings. Regardless, LCA is not a domain where calculus is necessary to solve problems. The reason that LCA appeals to non-engineering audiences is that it is a quantitative framework that is accessible to many audiences.
Q: Can this book be useful if I am not teaching a whole course on LCA?
A: While the book was intended to be comprehensive enough to be used for a semester-long course (or maybe slightly more), there are various chapters that could be extracted and adapted for use in scaled-down treatments of life cycle assessment. The first few chapters could be assigned if you were only spending 1 or 2 lectures on the topic. The first 5 chapters could be used for a 2-3 week course module. Several of our road test partners were using the book as an LCA module. We made some edits based on these types of uses. We have further modifications planned for future revisions. And, if not obvious, the fact that the book is free lowers the barrier to adopting the book in any of these instances.
Q: Will the book be available in normal printed format?
A: We have no plans to do typical publishing of the book at this point in time. The benefit of a digital book is that we can make edits as needed and in real time.
Q: How does this book compare to other textbooks that have been released?
A: We did not know of any other published textbooks before starting this project, and we have not read any during or after finishing this book, so we have no way of comparing. If you do such comparisons, please let us know in the comments below!
As someone who’s been working on LCA for > 10 years, I 110% agree with everything above.
There’s been a severe lack of a resource that explains LCA with actual examples. The authors are leaders in LCA methodology and practice, it’s great that they’ve contributed their time to develop this superb resource for the community.
Use it!
-Eric Williams
Golisano Institute for Sustainability
Rochester Institute of Technology
This is a welcome development. I have been teaching LCA since 2004, this is the first comprehensive LCA textbook I have found to date.
Thank you. This is a good job done.
Israel – Thank you for your kind words, we are happy that you find it useful!
Hi,
I’m conducting an LCA as an undergrad research project. Thank you for such a fantastic resource and for providing it at no charge. I have downloaded the first few chapters of your book, however I’m curious why Chapter 11 is missing?
Cheers
The original Chapter 11 was about Uncertainty in LCA. But, most of the content that was previously in Chapter 11 has been moved to Chapter 7, so you should use that instead.
However, admittedly, there is some “advanced uncertainty” content from the original Chapter 11 that is not in Chapter 7, and we are working on a slight update of Chapter 11 to re-include it. No estimated completion time for this revision.
Is chapter 11 available?
As noted above.. The original Chapter 11 was about Uncertainty in LCA. But, most of the content that was previously in Chapter 11 has been moved to Chapter 7, so you should use that instead.
However, admittedly, there is some “advanced uncertainty” content from the original Chapter 11 that is not in Chapter 7, and we are working on a slight update of Chapter 11 to re-include it. No estimated completion time for this revision.
Are there solutions to the textbook problems?
thanks for asking about this – added a note to the FAQ above for how to get them.
Thank you for providing this resource! My university does not offer a course on LCA, but I am very interested in learning it. Do you have any advice or knowledge of resources/classes that provide instruction (in addition to this textbook) for students trying to learn LCA independently?
Sade – I am not aware of something that would independently “teach you everything”. But if anyone who sees this page knows of something like that, let us know and I will be happy to post it.
Many thanks for an excellent book on LCA. Chapter 4 mentions a speardsheet listing publicly available LCA studies for many different products. I could not find such spreadsheet. Would it be possible to send us a link? Many thanks.
Teresa
Sorry that this reply wasnt “approved” and posted quickly.
All e-resources mentioned are via the Download section for the book, under the E-resources folder. Just click the Download button from the lcatextbook.com home page.
The list you mention (which is several years out of date now) is in the folder for Chapter 4, its the only spreadsheet.
how up to date is the book kept?
Hi Chris:
Good question – we have admittedly fallen a little behind on routine textbook updates during COVID time, but have been working on other e-resources for the last few years such as spreadsheet versions of the EIO-LCA model because the website will not be working much longer.
We hope to have newly revised chapters, and at least one new chapter, for the spring 2023 semesters.