The project’s general objective was to provide tools and teaching methods allowing to minimize environmental, economic, and social impacts of products and activities on future economies by raising Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) awareness. The project Partners aimed to achieve this through specific objectives: 1) Define training needs acknowleding and supporting students' interdisciplinary backgrounds; 2) Collect, analyze and evaluate IT tools for LCA teaching; 3) Develop a modular LCA course with modules for different LCA advancement levels; 4) Introduce innovative teaching methodologies including project/challenge-based learning; 5) Assemble e-learning platform for HE lecturers and students; 6) Deliver courses to partner students, strengthening LCT/LCA competencies and providing open badges; 7) Coach students in solving real company challenges; 8) Make courses publicly available; 9) Produce comprehensive handbook with coaching methodologies. The project targeted international cooperation between engineering and economics students, supporting UN SDGs 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) while addressing all sustainability dimensions.
The Consortium of Universities from Poland (SUT), Italy (Unicusano), Finland (LUT) and Greece (NTUA), supported with Italian company (Valuedo) applied for LIFE-C project to address and support the European Green Deal's goal and challenge of transforming the EU into a resource-efficient, climate-neutral economy by 2050. The project responds to critical needs: 1) Educational gap: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) knowledge remains limited to environmental specialists, while all professionals need life cycle literacy for sustainable decision-making; 2) Teaching gap: Current curricula lack systematic LCT integration across engineering and economics programs; 3) There's a skills gap between industry demands for green competencies and job seekers' qualifications; 4) HEI lecturers need support with digital LCA tools and innovative teaching methodologies. The project aimed to educate future environmentally-aware professionals by developing and delivering modular e-learning courses that provide practical LCA tools for sustainability evaluation across all sectors, creating an international network of collaboration-ready staff guided by sustainability principles.