About
EarthShift
"The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same
level of thinking that created them."-- Albert Einstein
EarthShift provides sustainability tools and methodologies to companies to help them bring the social, economic and environmental impacts of their business into balance while working within the boundaries of our planet’s resources. Operating from a concept of abundance, Earthshift believes that the more people who know how to use these tools and methodologies, the faster we will reach our goal of a healthy planet supporting healthy people.
EarthShift provides Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and total cost Assessment (TCA) capacity building within industry.
Life Cycle Assessment is an assessment of the environmental impacts associated with a product or service from cradle (raw material extraction) through production and use, to grave (disposal) or back to cradle (recycling). It is a scientific method used worldwide throughout large and small companies alike. Companies use LCA for various reasons, such as to enhance the environmental performance of a single product or the whole company. It is also used to compare the environmental impacts of materials and/or services in order to choose the least burdensome one. LCA is used for marketing purposes as well, such as making an environmental claim or “eco-labeling”. It puts the science behind the claim.
Total Cost Assessment is the consideration of all environmental and health (E&H) costs associated with a decision, including direct costs, risks and liabilities, and costs borne by others. read more...
SimaPro is the leading LCA software sold in the world today. It was developed by PRe and first released in 1990. PRe partnered with EarthShift as the sole distributor of the software in the US and Canada. Learn more about SimaPro...
TCAce software integrates environmental life cycle assessment and scenario-based risk analysis to provide a complete understanding of all potential environmental and health related costs associated with a process or product. Keep reading...
Umberto serves to model and assess complex production systems, such as a chemical or semiconductor manufacturing productions. Learn how...
Analytica is a visual tool for creating, analyzing, and communicating decision models. More on Analytica...
EarthShift leads North America in it's range, from beginners to advanced levels, of detailed LCA training classes. We offer many regularly scheduled online and on-site classes, as well as have the capability to personalize courses to suit the requests of clients. Check out our training page for more details on all our class options.
From the drive to spread the knowledge, came the drive to develop new easy to use tools, and that is just what EarthShift does with our custom tool development. We listen to the clients needs, take in to consideration particular industry concerns and build programs that can quickly and accurately bring about the data they need to make informed decisions. We build custom front ends that allow non-LCA experts to be able to use the tools and easily read the results. For corporations, large and small alike, an investment in a sustainabilty tool of thier own will pay off full fold gaining them in-house resourcefulness and environmental responsibility.
EarthShift works hand-in-hand with industry and academia on their sustainability projects. We customize our consulting agreements to meet the needs of our particular clients. Below is a few examples projects EarthShift consultants have worked on.
Project examples: EarthShift has conducted and assisted companies in a wide range of projects including comparative LCA on post consumer, post industrial, & Virgin fabrics used for carpets; the collection of life cycle inventory and the development of a tool to calculate food impacts; LCA of municipal waste water systems; comparison of Biofuels to petroleum based fuels; carbon footprinting projects; company -wide LCAs; oil exploration and drilling processes; LCA of cleaning products; etc.
Our TCA endeavors consist of such projects as; assessing the costs of building and operating a biodiesel facility in Vermont; TCA considering the costs and benefits of controlling emissions from a chemical manufacturing plant in a highly populated area; facilitating a workshop considering the costs and benefits of a company with large operations in Africa increasing its HIV/AIDS prevention programs; analyzing the benefits of setting corporate goals in Sustainability; etc.
Our current team of seven includes industry experience in electronics, food processing, packaging, buildings, Internet sales, sports equipment, and software. In addition to seasoned industry professionals, the team includes change management consulting experience and young talent with academic LCA credentials. Our programmer provides customized software solutions focused on our core methodologies.
Partnered with PRé Consultants, manufacturers of SimaPro LCA software, EarthShift offers clients the best available LCA tool in the industry and access to an international community of some of the most experienced and respected LCA professionals in the field. This unique relationship allows us to provide services that are only typically found in a multi-national organization.
EarthShift Principals
Lise
Laurin
Lise Laurin founded EarthShift in 2000 to support businesses in their
endeavor to reduce environmental impacts. She brings to this effort over
20 years in industry, with roles in manufacturing engineering, R&D,
and marketing. For the last nine years, she has been working at various
levels of capacity building within the areas of Life Cycle Assessment
(LCA) and Total Cost Assessment (TCA), providing software tools, training,
and consulting. Lise chairs the AIChE’s TCA Roundtable. She is a
member of the board of advisors of the American Center for Life Cycle
Assessment, a member of the board of advisors to the US LCI Database Project,
a Technical Advisory Group Member, CarbonFund.org, contributor to the
UNEP SETAC Life Cycle Initiative, and a member of the IEEE, AIChE, and
MRS. She began her professional life as a process engineer at Intel. She
holds a BS in Physics from Yale University
Melissa Hamilton
As a Change Management Consultant Melissa developed an acute awareness
of the imbalance between business, society, economy and the environment.
With a desire to bring this situation into balance Melissa partnered with
Lise in EarthShift in 2001. Her primary focus is developing EarthShift
as a sustainability resource for industry and academia.
Through Melissa’s training as an anthropologist, her work with organizational
development, and her skills in LCA and TCA she has developed a keen eye
for identifying a company’s needs to put them on the right path
to sustainable practices. Her holistic perspective towards business and
the environment helps her to prevent clients from falling victim to “greenwashing”
by truly identifying the best all around options, which take in to consideration
a company’s social, economic and environmental well-being. She works
hand-in-hand with companies to provide them a complete Environmental Business
Assessment utilizing EarthShift’s tools and educational development
programs.
Melissa has been involved in various alternative building and renewable
energy projects, has written articles on energy efficiency and non-toxic
buildings for organizations, and is a valuable resource for manufacturing
and building industry professionals desiring assistance to make their
products and projects “green”.
EarthShift Consultants
Laurel
McEwen (Training & Marketing Director)
With
her education, a BS in Marine Biology and a MBA, combined with her career
experience and her passion for the environment, Laurel offers an expertise
knowledge in combining monetary and environmental profits for companies.
She sees herself as a “financial realist” and strives towards
developing methods to adequately measure all three pillars (environmental,
financial & social) of sustainability.
As an EarthShift consultant Laurel teaches many of our courses on LCA
and SimaPro, and developed our Recycling course, the first of its kind
to be offered to the LCA community. Laurel's understanding of system processes
and her commitment to reuse and recycling in industry provide her with
a unique perspective when dealing with recycling issues and LCA.
George
Lam (Software programmer)
With
a BA in Computer Science from UC Berkeley plus graduate studies in computer
science at SF State University in addition to his many years of work experience
quoting, spec-ing and writing custom software apps/modifications for semiconductor
manufacturers, George serves as EarthShift's programming guru. He helps
put ideas to work by building and providing custom software solutions
for our clients.
George
is a key component in EarthShift's drive towards operating from a center
of abundance to bring LCA and other sustainability methodologies to a
broader audience. Although at the moment there are powerful tools to perform
LCA, they require the user to have in-depth knowledge of LCA to perform
meaningful analyses. The creation of custom software applications can
help simplify the building of models for vertical markets, allowing LCA-laypeople
to perform the analysis.
Harnoor
Dhaliwal (LCA Consultant & Tech Support)
As
an environmental sustainability consultant, Harnoor brings a lot to the
table with a Masters in Environmental Management from Indraprastha University
in India and a M.S. in Environmental Policy Studies from New Jersey Institute
of Technology. She carried out a Master's Thesis on sustainable remediation
of contaminated sites by using the LCA approach, giving her in-depth understanding
of the complex nature of contaminated areas and the practical difficulties
of making a system truly sustainable, as well as thorough grasp on
Life Cycle
Impact Assessment methodologies and the science behind them.
Her acute
knowledge of how different pollutants behave in the environment and her
practice in the difficulties of assessing/modeling such pollutants makes
Harnoor a valuable resource to industry and design professionals venturing
in to LCA.
Harnoor
invisions environmental sustainability to be the combined product of corporate
environmental stewardship as well as responsible/environmentally conscious
consumer behavior. She works with EarthShift on this quest to make it
common practice in the world today.
Nathan
Ayer (LCA Consultant & Canadian Business Manager)
Nathan brings to Earthshift particular expertise in environmental management
and the application of tools such as life cycle assessment, carbon footprinting,
and environmental assessment. Nathan’s Masters research, focused
on the use of life cycle assessment to study alternative salmon aquaculture
systems and other primary food production systems, offers great experience
to clients looking for help modeling food.
Nathan has a strong background in the research and analysis of sustainability
issues, including both environmental and socioeconomic aspects. In addition
to his Masters Degree in Environmental Studies, he has several years of
project experience as a professional environmental consultant, as well
as experience working for federal and provincial environmental agencies
in Canada and for non-governmental organizations.
Nathan believes strongly that our pursuit of sustainability must be guided
by the use of tools such as life cycle assessment to determine the environmental
implications of alternative technologies and policy decisions.
Meghan
Doherty (Marketing & Sales Assistant Manager)
Meghan puts her degrees in communications and outdoor management
to use spreading the knowledge of sustainability practices. She works
with clients to help find the best options for them to acheive their sustainability
goals. Handling the software sales as well as the training and consulting
agreements, Meghan serves as Earthshift's front end to customer relations.
Our clients include: Dow Chemical, Rio Tinto, DuPont, General Electric, Xerox, Genencor, Hazen & Sawyer, Colgate, and Continuum, among many others. While many of our clients are Fortune 500 clients, we also work with smaller companies at the leading edge of sustainability as well as design and engineering firms.
The company is a member of the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment, the Vermont Businesses for Sustainability, the Maine Businesses for Sustainability, New Earth, The US Green Building Council and the New England Environmental Business Council.
EarthShift 830 Taft Road · Huntington, VT 05462 · Ph: 802-434-3326· Fax: 802-329-2214
