Description
Conduct life cycle assessments to quantify environmental impacts of products, processes, and services from raw materials through end of life. Apply physical and social science methods to optimize resource use, inform design and policy, and connect technical systems with societal and environmental outcomes.
- • Define study goals, scope, functional unit, system boundaries, and assumptions for LCAs.
- • Collect, verify, and gap-fill life cycle inventory data from suppliers, operations, and literature.
- • Model cradle-to-gate, cradle-to-grave, and circular scenarios in LCA software.
- • Select and apply impact assessment methods and characterization models.
- • Perform hotspot, sensitivity, and uncertainty analyses to identify key drivers.
- • Conduct comparative LCAs to evaluate design or sourcing alternatives.
- • Apply hybrid LCA and environmentally extended input-output models when primary data are limited.
- • Use material and substance flow analysis to support inventory development.
- • Quantify product carbon, energy, and water footprints across life stages.
- • Evaluate trade-offs across impact categories and prevent burden shifting.
- • Build and maintain LCA datasets, metadata, and data quality assessments.
- • Ensure conformance with ISO 14040/14044 and relevant program rules.
- • Prepare LCAs to support Environmental Product Declarations and product category rules.
- • Model recycling, reuse, and end-of-life pathways, including allocation and system expansion.
- • Analyze options to improve environmental performance of products and systems.
- • Recommend design and process changes to reduce impacts and resource use.
- • Partner with R&D, engineering, procurement, and operations to integrate findings.
- • Review industrial practices and supply chains to identify environmental hotspots and liabilities.
- • Develop and manage databases of materials, energy, emissions, and waste for product systems.
- • Forecast impacts under projected demand, technology, policy, or market scenarios.
- • Develop alternative energy and material scenarios and compare economic and environmental outcomes.
- • Identify environmental impacts of products, systems, or projects using LCA indicators.
- • Translate industrial ecology principles into practical circularity and eco-design guidance.
- • Quantify potential impact reductions from redesigning linear systems into closed loops.
- • Assess how human behavior and use-phase patterns influence life cycle results.
- • Prepare technical reports, EPDs, and documentation; communicate results to stakeholders.
- • Support or conduct independent critical reviews of LCA studies.
- • Monitor and report sustainability KPIs linked to life cycle metrics.
- • Verify regulatory compliance and voluntary disclosures using LCA-based evidence.
- • Establish allocation rules and co-product treatment consistent with standards.
- • Integrate LCA with environmental management systems and product stewardship.
- • Use statistical analysis to evaluate program effectiveness and track improvements over time.
- • Identify sustainable alternatives to materials, energy, and waste-management practices based on LCA.
- • Review literature and datasets to stay current on methods, factors, and policy.
- • Train colleagues and suppliers on LCA concepts, tools, and data collection.
- • Create consequential or dynamic LCA models to capture market and time effects.
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
