SHORT  DESCRIPTION 

The main objective of the course is to develop assessment skills on the environmental impacts caused by (associated with) a product, process or production activity.

It is obligatory and planned for a total of 45 hours, during the first year of the second level of study, Scientific Master degree, of the "Wood Processing Engineering" study program. 

23 hours of lectures form the background for seminars and work of course, which are used to develop and train the knowledge from the lectures and recommended literature through counting the examples in order to understand environmental issues of wood products manufacturing.

The student needs to possess good knowledge on forestry, wood processing techniques and its conservation, environmental protection, trade and marketing.

The course is part of teaching curricula taking into account that growing trend of environmental protection has caused products with minimal negative impact on the environment to be preferred by the market. This has forced companies to improve their environmental performance using new management methods. One such method is the LCA (Life Cycle Analysis), which are based on decision-making strategies to have products that pollute as less as possible the environment and require less raw material and energy to be produced. This method presents a calculation of all environmental impacts of a material, taking into account the entire cycle of its use. In the case of wood, it takes into account everything involved in the growth and exploitation of forests, wood processing (manufacturing of products), transportation, product’s usage and its elimination.

During the course the student will acquire and develop the judgment skills on environmental issues related to the woodworking industry, issues related to the impact of wood products manufacturing on human health, ecosystems and forest management. The information he will receive will serve to him for a better decision making in product design, selection of materials and processing techniques, and what will be done with the product at the end of his life, in order to have as few waste in environment as possible, as well as small amount of material and energy use. On the other hand, in addition to focusing on environmental improvement, the student will also be introduced to the cost of the life cycle, in order to be able to make the most realistic decisions in different product design situations.

ISO LCA standards and the application of software in the collection, modeling and analysis of data that enable impact assessment will be treated as well.

At the end of the course the student should be able:

-          to explain the purpose and principles of the LCA, and its potential applications and limitations;

-          to describe the content and to explain the aim of the LCA’s analytical phases;

-          to perform a full LCA for a wood product, even by applying respective software;

-          to draw up a report on the LCA performed according to the guidelines and terminology defined by respective ISO standards.

The student’s assessment will be performed by means of a final oral exam. To be eligible for the final exam the student have to participate at least in 50% of hours of lessons and in 80% of hours of seminars as well as to perform a passable presentation of its specific course work. There are foreseen 100 points for the course in total. 10 points regards to active participation during the course, 20 points regards to two mid-term exams during the course, 15 points to the course work and 55 points for the final exam. The limit for a successful end of the course is 45 points. After that, 5 credits (ETC) will be granted to the student.