Course Overview

Sustainability metrics are increasingly used by engineers to compare technologies, evaluate design alternatives, and support more informed decision-making. This professional development course builds on sustainability fundamentals by showing how engineers can apply quantitative metrics in practical engineering analysis.

The course covers environmental performance indicators such as carbon footprint, energy intensity, water intensity, and waste intensity, then extends the discussion to life-cycle thinking, functional units, exergy, multi-metric tradeoffs, and broader social sustainability considerations such as safety performance and supply chain risk.

Through worked examples and engineering case studies, participants will learn how sustainability metrics can be normalized, interpreted, and compared across competing alternatives. The course emphasizes engineering judgment, context-dependent priorities, and practical tools for evaluating sustainability beyond a single metric.

What You Will Learn

• How to calculate and interpret carbon footprint using activity data and emission factors
• How to calculate energy intensity and apply it in process comparisons
• How water intensity and waste intensity can influence engineering decisions
• Why life-cycle thinking and cradle-to-grave system boundaries matter
• How functional units are used to make fair comparisons between alternatives
• How exergy helps engineers evaluate energy quality and useful work potential
• How sustainability priorities may vary by geography, regulation, and system context
• How to compare alternatives when one option performs better in some metrics and worse in others
• How spider graphs can be used to visualize multi-metric tradeoffs
• How social sustainability factors such as safety, ethics, and supply chain risk affect engineering decisions

Who This Course Is For

• Licensed Professional Engineers
• Engineers seeking PDHs for license renewal
• Chemical, mechanical, industrial, civil, and environmental engineers
• Engineers involved in process design, manufacturing, energy systems, sustainability, or waste management
• Professionals seeking a practical, engineering-focused treatment of sustainability metrics
• Engineers who want to move beyond theory and learn how to apply sustainability metrics in decision-making

Course Format

• Self-paced, online delivery
• Earn 2 PDH
• Includes worked examples and engineering case studies
• Includes a knowledge check
• Certificate of completion provided

Instructor Credentials

This course is developed and taught by Jeffrey R. Seay, PhD, PE, FAIChE, a licensed Professional Engineer with 12 years of industry experience as a process design engineer and nearly two decades of university teaching in sustainability and engineering. Dr. Seay is an internationally recognized expert in plastics, sustainability, waste management, and waste-to-energy systems, and has led sustainable engineering projects in multiple countries.

Course content emphasizes technical accuracy, practical relevance, and the role of engineering judgment in sustainability decision-making.

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https://issep-education.thinkific.com/products/courses/Sustainability-Metrics

ISSEP 104 is an online PDH course for engineers covering the application of sustainability metrics in engineering analysis, including worked examples, case studies, life-cycle thinking, exergy, and multi-metric decision tools.