Life Cycle Assessment
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is defined as the systematic analysis of potential environmental impacts of products or services throughout their entire life cycle. During a Life Cycle Assessment (Life Cycle Analysis), you assess the potential environmental impacts of a product or service throughout its stages such as production, distribution, use, and end-of-life according to ISO 14040/44 standards.
LCA studies, which have become widespread with the increasing awareness of sustainability, provide companies with a holistic perspective on their sustainability journey and the opportunity to design both their products and activities in a way that has less impact. Our LCA experts support our clients from the design and impact analysis of the methodology.
Specific Services
Purpose and Scope definition
This stage is an evaluation phase where you describe the product or service, choose a functional basis for comparison, and define the required level of detail. You then set a goal that sets the scope, including purpose, application, and audience. Finally, you determine whether a critical review of this objective is required.
Inventory Analysis
With the inventory analysis, a list of all the inputs and outputs related to the lifecycle of your product or service, for instance energy, water, raw materials and processed materials as inputs, and all substances released into the environment, such as the emission of pollutants into the air, soil and water, and losses as outputs.
LCA Assessment and Interpretation
At this stage, resource use and emissions produced by their potential impact are categorized and quantified under a limited number of impact categories. LCA studies serve an opportunity to systematically evaluate the ways to reduce the negative impact of the products or services on the environment.
Key Benefits of the Service
LCA methodology provides a comprehensive guidance through the design and improvement stages of the products and processes, helping them make informed decisions that align with their sustainability goals and regulatory requirements.
- Identifying environmental impacts of products/services at every stage of their life cycle
- Better decision-making at the design phase
- Managing risks and potential liabilities
- Optimizing supply processes and competitive advantage
- Increasing awareness among clients about shifting consumer behaviors towards more sustainable products.
Why is LCA life cycle assessment important?
LCA is important because you may have a good or service that reduces costs, energy, or emissions in one area of its use, but overall, the impacts are larger. Lifecycle assessment lets us better understand the true impacts of any given good or service.
What software tools are used for LCA?
SimaPro and GaBi are the leading software tools used for life cycle assessments.
What is an EPD (Environmental Product Declaration)?
An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is an independently verified and registered document that communicates transparent and comparable information about the life-cycle environmental impact of products in a credible way. As a voluntary declaration of the life-cycle environmental impact, having an EPD for a product does however not imply that the declared product is environmentally superior to alternatives.
