GaBi Product Sustainability Software Training Course

Course overview

Environmental teams are increasingly asked to substantiate product carbon footprints, life cycle assessment results, environmental product declarations, and design claims with auditable data rather than spreadsheet estimates. GaBi enables practitioners to model product systems, connect bills of materials and process data to established life cycle inventory datasets, and identify where emissions, resource use, and other impacts occur. This course addresses the practical challenge of building models that are transparent enough for internal review, supplier discussion, customer requests, and decision-making.

Participants work through the GaBi modelling workflow from goal and scope definition to interpretation of results. They create plans and processes, define material and energy flows, apply allocation rules, select datasets, build product systems, run life cycle impact assessment calculations, and interpret contribution analysis. The course also covers data-quality documentation, scenario modelling, parameterisation, sensitivity analysis, and report-ready charts. Participants learn to distinguish a screening model from an ISO-aligned study and to recognise assumptions that can materially change a product footprint.

Instruction combines demonstrations in Sphera GaBi with guided individual modelling exercises and a multi-stage product case study. Each participant develops a structured GaBi model for a representative product, including foreground process data, linked background datasets, documented assumptions, impact results, hotspot charts, and improvement scenarios. They leave with an exportable model package, an interpretation worksheet, and an action plan for applying GaBi to a live product, portfolio, or customer request.

The course is designed for environmental, sustainability, product, engineering, and supply-chain professionals who already work with product data and need to produce defensible life cycle evidence rather than rely on high-level carbon calculators.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Construct a GaBi product system using plans, processes, flows, quantities, and linked datasets
• Define an LCA goal and scope with functional unit, reference flow, system boundary, and cut-off rules
• Select and document appropriate GaBi datasets for materials, energy, transport, packaging, and end-of-life processes
• Apply allocation, recycling, and substitution approaches to multi-output and circular material flows
• Calculate product impacts using ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 life cycle assessment principles
• Perform contribution analysis and hotspot identification using GaBi result tables and charts
• Build parameterised scenarios for design, sourcing, energy, transport, and end-of-life alternatives
• Produce an auditable LCA interpretation pack containing assumptions, data-quality notes, results, and recommendations

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Life Cycle Assessment Practitioners — who need to build and review product models in GaBi
• Sustainability Managers — who must convert product environmental data into defensible decisions and disclosures
• Environmental Engineers — who assess process, material, energy, and waste impacts across product life cycles
• Product Development Engineers — who need to compare design alternatives before specifications are fixed
• Product Sustainability Specialists — who respond to customer footprint requests and product environmental claims
• Supply Chain and Procurement Managers — who need to test how supplier materials, sourcing, and transport affect product impacts

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable using a Windows-based business application, navigating structured data, and working with basic product information such as bills of materials, mass balances, energy use, transport distances, and supplier specifications. Prior exposure to life cycle assessment terminology is useful: participants should recognise concepts such as functional unit, system boundary, life cycle inventory, and impact category. Experience with Sphera GaBi is not required. Advanced statistics, programming, chemical engineering qualifications, and previous ISO study authorship are not required. Participants should bring a laptop capable of running the approved GaBi training environment if joining live online.

Training methodology

The instructor demonstrates each GaBi workflow step using a product case, then participants reproduce and adapt it in their own training model. Short technical briefings establish the LCA method before hands-on work with plans, processes, datasets, parameters, and result views. Group reviews are used to test boundary choices, allocation logic, and interpretation claims against realistic stakeholder questions. Daily exercises build toward a final model review, where participants present hotspots, improvement scenarios, data limitations, and a practical application plan for their workplace.

Course outline

Day 1: GaBi foundations and LCA scoping

• GaBi workspace structure, databases, plans, processes, flows, and product systems
• ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 life cycle assessment framework
• Goal definition for internal decisions, comparative studies, and product footprint requests
• Functional units, reference flows, and service-based comparison logic
• System boundaries, life cycle stages, cut-off rules, and exclusions
• Foreground versus background data and the role of secondary datasets
• Product data collection templates for materials, energy, transport, packaging, and waste

Workshop: Participants define the goal, functional unit, system boundary, and data requirements for a selected product case and produce a scoped LCA modelling brief.

Day 2: Building product models in GaBi

• Creating plans and process structures in Sphera GaBi
• Defining input and output flows with units, quantities, and flow direction
• Modelling bill-of-materials components and assembly relationships
• Linking foreground processes to GaBi background datasets
• Representing electricity, fuels, utilities, and production energy use
• Modelling transport legs, packaging materials, and distribution assumptions
• Checking model completeness through balance, connection, and unit validation

Workshop: Participants build a cradle-to-gate GaBi plan for the case product and produce a connected process map with initial inventory data.

Day 3: Data choices, allocation, and circular flows

• Searching, filtering, and assessing GaBi datasets by geography, technology, and time period
• Dataset documentation, representativeness, and data-quality assessment
• Modelling co-products and multi-output processes
• Physical, economic, and system-expansion allocation approaches
• Recycled-content and end-of-life recycling modelling choices
• Closed-loop, open-loop, and substitution treatment of secondary materials
• Parameterising quantities and assumptions for repeatable model updates

Workshop: Participants model a recycled material and co-product decision in GaBi, document the selected allocation approach, and compare its effect on results.

Day 4: Impact assessment and result interpretation

• Life cycle impact assessment methods and midpoint indicator selection
• Running calculations and reading GaBi result tables
• Contribution analysis by life cycle stage, process, material, and flow
• Hotspot identification and significance thresholds
• Interpreting climate change, resource use, acidification, and eutrophication indicators
• Sensitivity analysis for uncertain process data and modelling assumptions
• Avoiding unsupported comparative claims and misleading single-indicator conclusions

Workshop: Participants calculate their model, generate contribution charts, and produce a hotspot interpretation worksheet with three evidence-based findings.

Day 5: Scenario modelling, reporting, and workplace application

• Creating baseline and alternative scenarios with GaBi parameters
• Comparing material, energy, transport, packaging, and end-of-life design options
• Developing improvement recommendations from model results
• Recording assumptions, sources, exclusions, and data-quality limitations
• Preparing report-ready charts, tables, and model documentation
• Internal review questions for product footprints and ISO-aligned LCA studies
• Planning a GaBi implementation workflow for live products and stakeholder requests

Workshop: Participants present a baseline-versus-improvement scenario, submit an auditable interpretation pack, and produce a 90-day GaBi application plan.

Tools & standards covered

Sphera GaBi, GaBi Databases, ISO 14040, ISO 14044

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions