Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

To reduce the environmental impact of your product, it is essential to have a comprehensive understanding of its entire environmental footprint.

An LCA is the first step in achieving
carbon neutral certification with Climate Active

A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is defined as the systematic analysis of the potential environmental impacts of products or services during its entire life cycle.

Our expert LCA team evaluate the environmental impacts throughout the entire life cycle of a product, which is known as cradle to grave assessment. This includes the raw material acquisition, manufacturing and production, distribution and transportation, use and operation, and end-of-life phases.

Every LCA sets out specific environmental impact categories that guide the outcomes. There are many unique sets of categories depending on the project including:

  • Climate change (contribution to global warming)

  • Energy (cumulative energy demand and loss throughout a life cycle)

  • Land use

  • Water use

  • Resource depletion

  • Air pollution

  • Acidification (contribution to the occurrence of acid rain)

  • Eutrophication (the release of nitrogen and phosphorous, which leads to algal blooms)

  • Radiation

  • Ecotoxicity (the release of toxins that are harmful to life)

The International Organization for Standardisation provides guidelines and requirements for conducting a Life Cycle Assessment according to ISO 14040 and 14044 that our expert team follow.

Life Cycle Assessment Phases

  • Scope & Definition

    During this phase, we assist you in defining the product or service you intend to conduct an LCA on. We will select a functional basis for comparison, and you can specify the desired level of detail. We will then establish a goal that determines the scope of the assessment, including the objective, application, and target audience and if a critical review is necessary.

  • Life Cycle Inventory

    We collect, quantify and organise data related to all inputs and outputs associated with your product throughout its life cycle, which allows us to create a detailed inventory of the flows of materials, energy, and emissions throughout the life cycle stages. We work with you to identify data requirements and make this a straightforward process.

  • Impact Assessment

    We provide you a clear understanding of the environmental impacts associated with your product for each of the impact categories selected - such as global warming potential, land use, water use and/or particulate matter.

  • Interpretation

    What does this all mean? We’ll make sure you and your teams are confident speaking to the results, and identify opportunities for minimising negative environmental impacts.

Life Cycle Assessment Terminology

System Boundary
The activities within the product’s life cycle phases that are included and excluded from consideration.

Product System
The entirety of all activities within the system boundary that are associated with the functional unit.

Functional Unit
Reference unit for scaling the product system based on the function(s) provided. All assessments are based on this unit. eg 1L of coffee, 700ml of shampoo

Reference Flow
To determine the necessary amount of product required to achieve a functional unit, measurements can be expressed in terms of mass, energy, area, volume, or other physical units.

Reporting
We follow the ISO 14044 guidelines to asure all reporting is accurate and thorough.

Life Cycle Inventory Analysis
To accurately measure the resource and energy flows, as well as emissions and other releases, within and beyond the product system boundary, it is essential to collect and analyze all relevant data.

Life Cycle Impact Assessment
To determine possible environmental effects, we assess the analysis findings across a broad range of impact categories.

Interpretation
Discussing and evaluating the findings of the Life Cycle Assessment and Inventory results to conclude, compare scenarios and identify existing improvement potentials.

Critical Review
An independent expert can perform a third-party assessment to verify compliance with ISO 14044 requirements. This boosts the credibility and communication of LCA study results.

Our Process