Life Cycle, Thinking, Engagement, Assessment, and Modeling (LCTEAM) were nominated and selected as the recipient for the 2023 University of Minnesota Systemwide Sustainability Collaborative Team Impact Award! This award recognizes student collaborations from all campuses who have made significant contributions to the University of Minnesota and local communities in helping create a more sustainable and just future. The team was awarded $1000 in funding for their achievement. The LCTEAM was recognized during the closing of the 2023 Sustainability Symposium on April 14.
LCTEAM (Life Cycle Thinking, Engagement, Assessment, and Modeling) is a graduate student group created at the end of 2021 to spark connections, discussion, and collaboration among students whose research areas and interests are related to life cycle thinking, sustainability, and modeling. The goal of the team is to build skills in this area and develop holistic research perspectives, which are key to finding solutions for the most entrenched environmental issues.
The team meets bi-weekly to discuss research and give feedback, share skills and insights gained, and explore topics related to life cycle thinking and how these ideas might strengthen research. For example, two of the members attended a conference on systems thinking, they developed a presentation on what they learned, which they presented to LCTEAM and led a multi-session workshop in which methods were applied to current research efforts of the team.
What started as an effort to connect BBSEM students working in systems thinking and sustainability to provide community, technical support, and guidance to other incoming graduate students. It has since evolved into a broader academic support organization that informs the graduate program committee on improving the department to make it a more inclusive and supportive environment for all graduate students.