Sustainability Assessment - KPIs & Life Cycle Analysis

Aim

This teaching material aims to provide a practical framework for assessing the sustainability of an engineering design. It introduces key ideas from life-cycle thinking, the triple bottom line, and qualitative hotspot analysis, and shows how these can be combined with simple calculations and KPI scoring to support clear, evidence-informed design decisions. The goal is to recognise where the major impacts of a system occur, compare alternatives against a baseline, and use structured reflection to guide more sustainable design choices.

Learning Outcome

How to Use This Material

Working in your teams, read through the material page by page. For each page, discuss the content together and think about how it applies to your project. Ask questions and ensure everyone is confident before moving from one page to the next.