09.11.2026 - 09.12.2026 (Each module runs for 3 days a week.)
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Comprehensive Sustainability Assessments for Materials, Products, and Processes
This comprehensive training course is designed to equip participants with the essential knowledge and practical skills needed to conduct sustainability studies across environmental, economic, and social dimensions. Through a combination of theoretical learning and hands-on exercises, you will explore social and environmental life cycle assessments, economic assessments, eco-design principles, chemical risk assessment, and become familiar with the EU’s Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework. You will also gain insight into the EU Omnibus Initiative, sustainability reporting (CSRD, ESRS), and understand the implications of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).
This training course will enhance your ability to make strategic decisions in product and process design, research and development, policy development, and organisational strategy.
The course is structured into five interactive modules. Each module can be booked individually or in combination. When booked together as a package, participants benefit from reduced pricing.
Module 1: Eco-Design and Multicriteria Sustainability Hotspot Analysis (9.11. - 11.11.2026)
Learn about MET-ESG multicriteria analysis and Eco-Design concepts. In this module, fast and practical sustainable analysis tools—including Process Trees and Hotspot Tables—are used to rapidly identify priority areas in environmental, social, and economic performance. Hands-on exercises provide practical experience in the use of Hotspot Tables to identify sustainable risks in product supply chain.
Module 2: Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (E-LCA) (16.11. - 18.11.2026)
Learn to perform LCA according to ISO 14040 standards to evaluate the environmental impact of products and processes throughout their life cycle. Participants will work hands-on with OpenLCA, a leading open-source life cycle assessment software, to model systems, calculate impacts, identify hotspots, analyse results, and interpret environmental performance. In addition, participants will gain insights into Umberto, providing an overview of its features and how it compares to OpenLCA in practical LCA workflows.
Module 3: Economic Impact Assessment (23.11. - 25.11.2026)
This module introduces key economic assessment tools used to evaluate material criticality and cost-related sustainability aspects. You will gain practical knowledge of Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA) based on ISO 14051 to identify and quantify process inefficiencies, material losses, and waste management costs, enabling a clearer understanding of their economic implications.
The module also introduces the EU Raw Materials Criticality framework, showing how to interpret and apply it in practice to ensure reliable material supply and support economically sustainable decision-making.
Module 4: Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) (30.11. - 2.12.2026)
Learn to conduct Social Life Cycle Assessments based on the Product Social Impact Assessment (PSIA) method. You will explore impacts on stakeholders across the entire product lifecycle and gain hands-on experience with tools and methodologies for comprehensive social impact evaluation.
Learn about chemical risk assessment (CRA), to ensure that products and processes meet safety and sustainability standards.
In subsequent steps, a gender-sensitive S-LCA approach will be examined, followed by a practical method to assess sustainability impacts using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at country or regional level, evaluating how changes influence environmental, social, and economic performance.
Module 5: EU Regulatory Frameworks (7.12. - 9.12.2026)
This module covers key regulatory frameworks driving sustainability and corporate responsibility in the EU. You will gain a deep understanding of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and its requirements for organisations to identify, prevent, and mitigate human rights and environmental risks throughout their value chains. The module also addresses reporting obligations under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and provides insights into the alignment of these regulations with the EU’s broader sustainability goals. Through practical examples, you will learn to navigate compliance, integrate regulations into strategies, and prepare your organisation for evolving sustainability standards.
In this module, you will also receive an introduction to corporate carbon footprint and carbon footprint calculation.
This includes methodological principles for preparing the GHG balance sheet (Scopes 1, 2 and 3), as well as information on the recording tools required to prepare your own balance sheet.
Training Course Learning Goals: Life Cycle Perspective and Holistic Sustainability Assessments
Understanding and applying sustainability and life cycle modeling is critical for organizations—including companies, research institutes, and universities—aiming to reduce environmental impact, enhance social responsibility, ensure reliable material supply, and improve economic performance.
Key benefits and learning outcomes include:
- SSbD Framework: Understand how the two-phase SSbD framework combines an initial (re)design phase with an assessment phase throughout the technology-development process, integrating chemical risk assessment with environmental, economic and social assessments.
- Multicriteria-Analysis, Hotspot-Tables & Eco-Design: Apply the C-MET-ESG framework and hotspot tables to identify and assess sustainability hotspots across process chains and understand the principles and relevance of eco-design for emerging technologies.
- Life Cycle Assessments (LCA): Learn to perform LCAs according to ISO 14040 standards to understand and minimise environmental impacts of products, processes, or research activities.
- Economic Feasibility, Performance, and Material Criticality: Determine economic viability, enhance financial performance, and manage risks related to the supply of critical materials using LCC, MFCA and insights from the EU Raw Materials Criticality framework.
- Social Impacts: Conduct social life cycle assessments (S-LCA) based on the PSIA method to evaluate stakeholder impacts and strengthen social responsibility.
- Assessment with SDGs: Use SDGs and their targets at country or regional level to evaluate how changes affect environmental, social, and economic performance.
- Chemical Risk Assessment (CRA): Learn the basics of CRA to identify and evaluate chemical hazards as a foundation for safer product and process design.
- EU Sustainability Directives: Gain insights into the regulatory context supporting SSbD, including the EU Omnibus Initiative and the CSDDD.
- Expert Support: Discuss specific applications, research challenges, or organizational questions with experts to advance sustainability practice and strategy.
- Holistic Integration: Develop the ability to combine sustainability assessments, regulatory frameworks, and strategic decision-making to improve product and process design, research outcomes, policy development, supply reliability, and economic performance.
This course will help you strengthen sustainability capabilities, secure material supply, reduce risks, enhance efficiency and economic performance, and achieve both competitive and societal advantages.
Contact
Julia Gebefügi
Sustainability Manager
+49 (0)30 673809 - 25
