Sustainable development is a key change for nowadays society to prevent future problems. Consequently, the role of engineers has to be modified in order to acquire sustainable competences for their projects. At this point, Life Cycle Assessment methodology can be useful for Sustainability Education as it provides a holistic view. For the future engineering students, LCA methodology will complement their knowledge, making them able to analyze projects looking at environment, society and economy. The capacity of work thinking about environment, society and economy will allow engineering students to develop their work taking into account all impacts generated. Therefore, future engineering generations will conduct us towards sustainable development.
The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how Life Cycle Assessment methodology can be established as an educational support for Sustainability Education. Moreover, a LCA tool analysis has been conducted in order to determine which LCA tools can be helpful for the achievement of sustainability knowledge by engineering students.
The thesis has been divided into two main parts. First part analyses and provides a Life Cycle Assessment Guide for engineering students, explaining the methodology step by step for the development of a normalized LCA. Second part it’s an analysis of available LCA tools to determine if they are viable, or not, to introduce LCA methodology to engineering students. After the development of these parts, conclusions have been conducted by the analysis of the obtained results.
The conclusion of the thesis is that LCA methodology can be helpful for Sustainability Education purpose. Conversely, there is not an ideal LCA tool to satisfy this need, but some of them can fit the intended objectives.
