SM sponsors Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) LCA + U (2013/14) challenge.

Building on the success of ESW teams in 2012-13, the challenge has been reissued to invite more teams from more schools to make a difference.

Sustainable Minds and ESW are pleased to announce the 2013-2014 edition of the Life Cycle Assessment + Universities (LCA+U) challenge, which invites student teams to design more sustainable alternatives to current campus activities using Sustainable Minds LCA software. Teams are invited to work with their campus communities to develop proposals for meaningful, realistic sustainability solutions on their campuses, with the top proposals receiving training and access to software. Selected teams will present their work to a national audience, and all teams will have support in implementing the results of their projects and creating a data-driven impact on campus.

In the design process, engineers often consider many long-term factors of designs: degradation of performance, resilience, reliability, and other objectives all impact the final solution to a challenge. Increasingly, LCA is playing a role in these decisions to allow engineers to understand the full environmental, economic, and health impacts of their solutions and decisions. As leaders in sustainable engineering, ESW members should be well versed in the methods and tools of LCA. This will enable them to utilize and advocate for consideration of LCA alongside traditional objectives and metrics at their universities and in their careers.

If you're interested in learning more about ESW initiatives or other ways that Sustainable Minds is supporting educational initiatives please contact sales (at)sustainableminds.com.

Read the RFP and apply now! For more information about LCA+U, contact Erin Lennox at erlennox (at) eswusa.org.