As a master’s student at the University of Borås, I took a course on life cycle assessment (LCA), a concept I stumbled upon when a VC firm asked about the LCA of mycelium biocomposites. I had no clue back then, but this course gave me a solid understanding of the process. Being curious and hands-on, I wanted to learn more by diving into a project. My lecturer hooked me up with an LCA project, and I juggled it alongside my other studies. It was a fantastic experience where I learned about fish feed formulation, bioethanol plants, and even got to collaborate with folks from SLU in Sweden.
I’d dabbled with SimaPro software before during a student project, but this project was on another level. There were tons of data points to collect and plenty of proxies to use due to missing datasets. This project taught me the value of having a knowledgeable supervisor. His intuition, built from years of doing LCA, was invaluable in navigating the uncertainties and assumptions we had to make.
People often say that LCA can be inaccurate because it involves a lot of assumptions. They’re not entirely wrong, especially if done by someone inexperienced. However, as I learned, experience and a solid understanding of the methodology make a big difference. I was lucky to be introduced to a community of LCA practitioners, thanks to my supervisor, who even added me to a mailing list for experts in the field. This network has been a great help in answering specific questions and sharing knowledge.
One unexpected skill I picked up was using Excel for data visualization. Although SimaPro has its own plotting features, I found Excel to be more user-friendly and flexible for creating graphs. Exporting data from SimaPro and using Excel helped me present our findings more clearly.
I know I’ve got a long way to go to become an expert, but this project was a great start. I’m happy with the skills I’ve gained and am looking forward to learning more. If you’re curious about LCA or setting up similar projects, feel free to reach out. I might have a tip or two!