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Graduate Diploma in Carbon Accounting & Life Cycle Assessment

GradDip (NFQ Level 9)
Sustainable Development Goals

This course is available through the following application route(s)

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Climate change, environment, and Corporate Social Responsibility are creating an ever increasing demand for employees with skills in carbon footprinting, GHG accounting, and Life Cycle Assessment. Drivers of this demand are the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (particularly understanding and managing scope 3 emissions), the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (2021) Act, Future Jobs initiative “transition to low carbon economy’ and Ireland’s National Plan on Corporate Social Responsibility.

This programme provides the competency, knowledge, and skills required to work with ISO standard methods for carbon footprinting, GHG inventory, and life cycle assessment in a commercial environment.

Course Content and Structure: 

Modules: The Graduate Diploma in Carbon Accounting and LCA comprises 60 credits over a calendar year. In the Autumn students take BSEN30360 Life Cycle Assessment, BSEN40820 Carbon Footprinting and BSEN40720 Carbon and Sustainability (15 ECTS in total), in the Spring, BSEN40400 LCA Applications and BSEN40810 Greenhouse Gas Accounting (15 ECTS in total) and in the summer BSEN40800 Industry Project (30 ECTS).

Delivery: All lectures and tutorials can be completed online, with the option of attending some on campus if desired. The lectures are recorded to accommodate students' needs, so you can review them at your convenience if you're unable to attend live sessions

Course Hours: The programme is delivered over three trimesters, starting in September, January and May. Each trimester is 12 weeks of teaching plus 3 weeks for final assessments. The workload is around 6-9 contact hours plus time to work on assignments per week between September and April. In May a similar amount of time is dedicated to project work.

Application Assessment: Applications may include a short 10-minute interview.

Module Information:

Under the "What modules can I take?" section below you will see general module information, for a more detailed description including module selection rules click here.

About This Course

Following completion of this Graduate Diploma, students will be able to:

  • Explain and apply the theory of carbon footprinting, GHG accounting and life cycle assessment
  • Compile a data inventory, with calculations appropriate to ISO14044, ISO14064 and ISO14067
  • Interpret the inventory and impact data to identify hotspots and significant issues, and draw conclusions
  • Present a written report summarizing findings, and recommendations in accordance with the relevant ISO standard

Complete one of the following:

  • calculate the carbon footprint, using ISO14067, of an extant product currently in the market, or a new product that is market-ready
  • complete an institutional GHG inventory, using ISO 14064, and identify mitigation options
  • life cycle assessment, using ISO 14044, of an extant product, process or service, considering at least 4 impact categories relevant to the company/sector.

There is an ever increasing demand for employees the with skills that this Graduate Diploma provides. While theoretical knowledge of GHG and other emissions is important, there is a clear demand in Ireland for people with the skills necessary to complete Carbon Footprint, GHG Inventory and Life Cycle Assessment of product and organisations. This skill is transferable across sectors and can be aligned with the different parts of a business, be that process and production, management, health and safety, sustainability or even marketing. This graduate diploma will be ideal for professional development or for reskilling by those looking for a new career opportunity.

Graduates progress into: 

  • Sustainability team member or leader
  • Corporate Social Responsibility
  • Energy management
  • Consulting
  • Sourcing and Procurement

Employers include, Veolia, Arup, Codema and RPS.

Below is a list of all modules offered for this degree in the current academic year. Click on the module to discover what you will learn in the module, how you will learn and assessment feedback profile amongst other information.

Incoming Stage 1 undergraduates can usually select an Elective in the Spring Trimester. Most continuing undergraduate students can select up to two Elective modules (10 Credits) per stage. There is also the possibility to take up to 10 extra Elective credits.

Module Type Module   Trimester Credits
Stage 1 Core Modules
 BSEN30360 Life Cycle Assessment Autumn  5
Stage 1 Core Modules
 BSEN40820 Carbon Footprinting Autumn  5
Stage 1 Core Modules
 BSEN40720 Carbon & Sustainability Autumn and Spring (separate)  5
Stage 1 Core Modules
 BSEN40400 LCA Applications Spring  5
Stage 1 Core Modules
 BSEN40810 GHG Accounting Spring  10
Stage 1 Core Modules
 BSEN40800 Industry Project Summer  30

Climate change, environment, and Corporate Social Responsibility are creating an ever increasing demand for employees with skills in carbon footprinting, GHG accounting, and Life Cycle Assessment. 

Professor Nick Holden, Programme Director. 

"When I started working with life cycle assessment, over 20 years ago, I was the only person in Ireland using the method. Since then LCA and carbon footprinting have become critical issues for industry in Ireland and beyond. It is amazing to think that almost all livestock farms in Ireland now voluntarily participate in a national carbon footprinting programme (Origin Green) because of the benefits gained. I have seen increasing interest in what we doing the last few years as companies and their employees have to learn about and implement management of GHG emissions (particularly scope 3). While theoretical knowledge of GHG and other emissions is important, there is a clear demand in Ireland for people with the skills necessary to complete Carbon Footprint, GHG Inventory and Life Cycle Assessment of product and organisations. This skill is transferable across sectors and can be aligned with the different parts of a business, be that process and production, management, health and safety, sustainability or even marketing. This graduate diploma will be ideal for professional development or for reskilling by those looking for a new career opportunity ".

Marta Gulman, Class of 2023/2024

I applied to this course to further my knowledge on technical sustainability concepts such as carbon accounting and life cycle assessment and to further apply this knowledge in industry to support emission reductions for industry in Ireland. 

The course has brought a deepened technical understanding of carbon footprinting, life cycle assessment modelling, and application of statistical analysis to calculate scope 1-3 emissions for organisations. Very worthwhile course, however, requires a significant time commitment as a prerequisite due to the nature of the content taught.

Graduate Diploma in Carbon Accounting & Life Cycle Assessment (T384) Part Time
EU          fee per year - € 8950
nonEU    fee per year - € 13780

***Fees are subject to change

Funding: A limited number of funded places are now open through www.springboardcourses.ie 

 

NFQ Level 8 honours degree (or international equivalence ) in a relevant subject or >5 years relevant professional experience.

You may be eligible for Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), as UCD recognises formal, informal, and/or experiential learning. RPL may be awarded to gain Admission and/or credit exemptions on a programme. Please visit the UCD Registry RPL web page for further information.

Part Time option suitable for:

Domestic(EEA) applicants: Yes
International (Non EEA) applicants: Yes


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General application route(s) for Irish/UK/EU applicants* for International (non-EU) applicants* to Graduate Diploma in Carbon Accounting & Life Cycle Assessment:

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showAudience-audienceEU showAudience-audienceInt T384
Graduate Diploma in Carbon Accounting & Life Cycle Assessment
Graduate Diploma
Part-Time
Commencing September 2024
 Graduate Taught Closed
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