Duration: 2 days, 09:00 to 16:30 daily
Format: In-person or live online
In-person locations: Newcastle, and other locations anywhere in the world available where trainer travel expenses are covered
Online format: Live sessions with screen sharing and hands-on exercises
Group size: Maximum 10 participants
Prerequisite: Working knowledge of openLCA (equivalent to Below280’s Comprehensive course or GreenDelta Intermediate level). Basic familiarity with Python is helpful but not required.
In-person rate: £1,495 + VAT per participant
Online rate: £995 + VAT per participant
Group discounts: 10% for 3 to 5 participants, 15% for 6 or more
For dates and registration: info@below280.com
The Course
Two days of practical training in automating openLCA calculations using Python and the IPC server. Delegates leave able to run batch scenario calculations, perform sensitivity analysis, pull data programmatically from their databases, and build basic prospective models with future electricity grid scenarios.
This course picks up where GUI-based openLCA training ends. Participants already know how to build LCA models, set up product systems, and run calculations manually. The scripting course teaches them to do those same things at scale: hundreds of scenarios from a CSV, systematic sensitivity analysis across every parameter, and database-wide parameter extraction.
Participants keep all scripts, example files, and course materials.
Programme Structure
Day 1: Foundations and Scenario Calculations
Morning: Connecting Python to openLCA
- What the IPC server is and how it works
- Installing the Python packages (olca-ipc, olca-schema)
- Writing and running a connection check script
- How openLCA’s data model maps to Python objects: processes, flows, product systems, impact methods
- Pulling data from the database: listing processes, reading exchanges, extracting documentation
Afternoon: Parameters and Scenarios
- How parameters work in openLCA: global vs local scope, input vs dependent, formulas and operators
- Pulling all parameters from a database or product system to CSV
- Building a scenario CSV: one column per scenario, one row per parameter
- Running scenario calculations from the command line
- Reading and interpreting scenario output
- Hands-on exercise: participants build and run scenarios against a provided model
Day 2: Sensitivity, Prospective LCA, and Own Models
Morning: Sensitivity Analysis and Prospective Modelling
- One-at-a-time sensitivity analysis: varying parameters individually by a fixed percentage
- Interpreting sensitivity output: which parameters drive which impact categories
- Introduction to prospective LCA: the background electricity problem
- How ecoinvent electricity markets work and why they can’t be changed from the GUI
- Parameterising electricity markets across the full supply chain using the prospective tool
- Building future grid scenarios from published projections
Afternoon: Applying Skills to Your Own Work
- Participants work on their own models with trainer support
- Connecting scripts to participants’ own databases
- Building scenario and sensitivity files for real projects
- Troubleshooting common issues: parameter names, context matching, unit mismatches, connection errors
- Discussion: integrating scripted workflows into regular LCA practice
Your Trainers
Delivered by Below280’s LCA team. The scripting tools and techniques taught in this course come from our commercial LCA and EPD project work across manufacturing, construction, energy, and carbon capture sectors.
Who Should Attend
LCA practitioners and consultants who use openLCA and want to automate repetitive work. Researchers running large parameter studies or comparative analyses. Sustainability teams managing multiple product variants or site configurations. Anyone who has built an LCA model in openLCA and thought ‘I wish I could run this 50 times with different inputs without clicking through the GUI each time’.
Participants should be comfortable building product systems and running calculations in openLCA. Python experience helps but is not essential: the course starts from a working script and builds understanding from there.
What’s Included
- Two full days of instruction
- Course scripts, exercise files, and reference materials
- Example openLCA database for exercises
- 30 days post-course email support for technical questions
- Certificate of completion
- Lunch and refreshments daily (in-person only)
Below280 publishes open-source example scripts on GitHub that illustrate the kinds of techniques covered in the course. The course adds structured exercises, real-world workflow patterns, troubleshooting guidance, and hands-on support applying the techniques to your own models and data.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not in depth. The course uses working scripts and builds understanding of what each part does. If you can read a for loop and understand what a variable is, you have enough. If you have never seen Python code before, spending an hour with a beginner tutorial before the course will help.
Exercises use the US Federal LCA Commons database, which is free and open source. The concepts and skills learnt in this course can be applied to any database. Participants working with their own databases in the afternoon session can use whatever they have licensed.
Yes. Setup instructions are sent ahead of the course, including IPC server configuration. Trainers provide installation support on the first morning if needed.
Yes, provided you are comfortable building and calculating product systems in openLCA. If you are unsure whether your level is sufficient, contact us for a quick check.
Run hundreds of scenario calculations from a CSV file. Perform systematic sensitivity analysis across all parameters. Extract every parameter from a database to a spreadsheet. Build basic prospective models with future electricity grid scenarios. Automate any workflow that currently requires clicking through the openLCA GUI repeatedly.
Below280 publishes example scripts as open source on GitHub. The course covers techniques and workflows beyond what is published, with structured exercises and hands-on support.
About Below280
Below280 is a specialist LCA, EPD and CBAM consultancy based in Cramlington, Northumberland, and the official UK partner of GreenDelta, developers of openLCA. The scripting tools taught in this course are drawn from Below280’s commercial LCA project work and published as open-source resources for the LCA community.
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