LCANZ Mentoring Programme 2024-25
Friday 31, May 2024
Introducing LCANZ’s first Mentoring Programme (2024-25)
Applications to our new mentoring programme are now open. LCANZ members are invited to apply to become Mentors or Mentees through the online application form by the end of May.
Our mentoring programme supports a key part of our mission statement to “promote networking and knowledge sharing between organisations and people”. The programme is funded by LCANZ and developed and facilitated by the Professional Development subcommittee.
This programme is designed to match people within our LCA community to help advance skills, experience, and knowledge in the use of Life Cycle approaches, including:
- Life Cycle Assessment (LCA),
- Life Cycle Thinking (LCT), and
- Life Cycle Management (LCM).
More familiarity and confidence with these approaches will increase their use, creating the momentum needed to raise awareness, reduce environmental impacts and fight climate change.
How it works
- Applications to the programme open in early May.
- A maximum of 10 mentees will be accepted in 2024-25.
- Applicants must be LCANZ members.
- Individuals apply to become a Mentee or Mentor through an online application form by end May.
- Applications are reviewed by the LCANZ Professional Development subcommittee in June.
- Mentees and Mentors are matched based on their area of interest and expertise.
- Applicants will be informed of their success and matches in late June.
- If any successful mentors or mentees remain unmatched, we will post their areas of interest through LCANZ channels.
- Matched Mentees and Mentors meet for six one-hour sessions over the course of ten months, starting from July.
- LCANZ pays the Mentor (or their company) a nominal fee of NZD 100 per session.
- Mentors also receive a free ticket to the next LCANZ summit.
- Mentees provide feedback to LCANZ throughout the programme. This will be used to monitor effectiveness and, if necessary, make recommendations to improve the programme.
- LCANZ will facilitate a group mentee discussion once a quarter.
- Mentees and mentors may mutually agree to continue their mentoring relationship beyond the LCANZ-supported six sessions.
What are the requirements of a Mentee?
- Be an LCANZ member.
- Submit an application through the online form, including:
- what topic area(s) you would like support for, in the area of Life Cycle approaches,
- a short bio about yourself, and
- why you would like the opportunity to have a mentor.
- Commit to six one-hour sessions over ten months.
- Provide regular feedback to LCANZ about the effectiveness of the programme, including a short progress note after each mentoring session.
- Agree to share details with the cohort of mentees so we can set up a group discussion.
What are the requirements of a Mentor?
- Be an LCANZ member.
- Submit an application through the online form, including:
- what topic area(s) you can offer support for, in the area of Life Cycle Approaches,
- a short bio about yourself, and
- your relevant experience in the areas you are offering support.
- Confirm that your employer is supportive, if applicable.
- Commit to six one-hour sessions over ten months.
- Provide feedback about the programme, including opportunities for improvement.
What skills does a Mentor need?
Mentors do not necessarily need to be LCA practitioners or experts. We welcome Mentors with diverse experience which may include:
- conducting LCA,
- applying Life Cycle approaches, which could be in a specific sector,
- an academic career in LCA,
- use of LCA in a corporate environment,
- Circular Economy experience, or
- general business experience.
What does the mentoring programme cover?
The Life Cycle approaches area covers a range of topics that may be explored in the mentoring relationship. Themes may include:
- Starting a career focusing on Life Cycle approaches such as Life Cycle Thinking (LCT), Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Management (LCM).
- Setting up an in-house LCA team.
- Career development in the LCA field.
- Understanding and communicating the business case for LCAs or EPDs.
- Understand internal commitment once an LCA is commissioned, e.g. time for data collection etc.
- Commissioning LCA studies.
- Commissioning EPDs.
- Interpreting LCA studies.
- Communicating LCA results.
- Using Life Cycle approaches to support Circular Economy strategies.
- High level support for post grad students.
- Developing research topics.
- Developing grant or funding requests.
- Identifying the right approach (life cycle thinking, LCA, carbon footprint, circular economy, C2C, etc.).
- Identifying the right tools and databases, e.g. etool, SimaPro, GaBi, ecoinvent, openlca, LCAQuick, etc.
What is outside the scope of the Mentoring Programme?
The mentoring programme excludes:
- Technical training.
- Supervision of students.
- High level support for post graduate students can be part of the mentoring programme, but a mentor cannot take the role of a supervisor.
- Undertaking advisory services.
What is LCANZ’s role?
The LCANZ Professional Development subcommittee is responsible for developing and facilitating the mentoring programme, including:
- Reviewing applications.
- Matching mentoring pairs.
- Paying the mentor / the mentor’s company a nominal fee of NZD 100 per session.
- Providing mentors with a free registration to the LCANZ annual Summit.
- Maintaining details of successful unmatched applicants and promoting the programme to identify matches.
- Monitoring the effectiveness of the programme, based on feedback from Mentees and Mentors.
- Facilitating a quarterly group Mentee discussion.
- Setting up a closed discussion group on LinkedIn for Mentees.
- Providing a guidance document to the mentoring relationship to matched Mentors and Mentees.
Any questions?
LCANZ is here to assist you along the way if you have any questions or concerns.
Please contact us via email at secretary@lcanz.org.nz.
LCANZ Mentoring Programme FY2024-25-v1.0