Brightcon 2026, hackathon and courses

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) models are increasingly complex and interdisciplinary. Challenges related to transparency, reproducibility, and data interoperability are becoming more critical for both research and practice. Integrating diverse datasets, combining complex modelling approaches, and ensuring methodological consistency across disciplines require not only technical competence but also shared understanding of documentation practices, assumptions, and data management. At the same time there is a need for practical and engaging educational approaches that make these challenges tangible.
We propose a 45 minute workshop structured with a 25 minute hands on exercise and a 20-minute plenary discussion connecting the exercise to reproducibility challenges in LCA research and practice. LEGO is used as media for hands-on exercises on model construction, documentation, and reproduction. The exercise will serve as a starting point for reflection on ambiguity, missing information, interpretation differences, and undocumented assumptions.
The exercise is designed to parallel key challenges in LCA practice, including goal and scope definition, functional unit interpretation, modeling choices, methodological transparency, and data quality issues. In the plenary discussion the participants will reflect on the balance between transparency and practicality, the limitations of peer review, and the implications of irreproducible studies for scientific credibility and policy support. The workshop aims to identify best practices for interdisciplinary collaboration, improving reproducibility in LCA, and fostering more transparent and reusable modelling approaches across LCA research