Kyle O’Farrell is a Certified LCA Practitioner and Principal Environmental Consultant at Envisage Works environmental consultancy. Envisage Works consults across a wide range of areas including material and product and recovery studies, material flow analysis (MFA), life cycle assessment (LCA), resource efficiency and product stewardship related studies.
We spoke to Kyle and his certification and LCA trends.
You have now been a Certified LCA Practitioner for over 2 years. How has the qualification benefited you and/or Envisage Works?
It has actually been really useful, and has probably led to a handful of projects that we would otherwise not have been offered. I’ve previously completed many projects in the waste and recycling systems and packaging spaces in particular, but the LCACP qualification has opened up work in some new areas. This is is great for the challenge and for providing a bit of variety too of course.
Are clients seeking this qualification when choosing LCA professionals?
In general, most clients may not be specifically seeking LCACPs as yet, but as an independent certification it certainly helps me to communicate my capability, and clients to quickly shortlist LCA providers. It does offer a streamlined pathway to demonstrate competency for the review of LCAs under the Green Building Council of Australia's Green Star program.
What do you predict will be the future of LCA in Australia?
My crystal ball is fairly cloudy on this one. I’d like to think that there is a strong future, built on the accelerating uptake of environmental product declarations (EPDs) both in and beyond the built environment. I anticipate that a wider range of LCA modelling tools will become available (including cloud-based options) that are more accessible and cost-effective to a much broader range of potential users.