Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Gain a holistic understanding of your impact footprint throughout your product or service's life cycle, across boundaries. We leverage our expertise and technology to deliver comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment studies compliant with industry standards.
Life Cycle Assessment : What is it?
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Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a robust, data-driven methodology for evaluating the environmental and social impacts of a product or service throughout its entire lifecycle.
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This approach provides a comprehensive understanding of the product's footprint and potential areas for improvement.
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The standardized nature of LCA methodology guarantees consistency and transparency in our assessments, allowing for informed decision-making.
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By analyzing each stage of the product's life cycle, we can identify opportunities to optimize resource utilization and enhance overall product performance in a sustainable manner.
How do you use LCAs?
Typical LCA Boundaries
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Cradle to Gate from resource extraction (cradle) to the factory gate (before the product is transported to the consumer).
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Cradle to Grave from resource extraction (cradle) to the disposal phase (grave).
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Cradle to Cradle from resource extraction (cradle) to the recycling of the product into new raw materials (another cradle).
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Grave to Grave focusing on the disposal or end-of-life phase of a product to another disposal phase.
Frameworks for LCA
- ISO 14040:2006 : This standard outlines the general principles and framework for conducting LCA studies.
- It covers the key stages of LCA (goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation) and provides guidance on conducting a comprehensive and transparent LCA.
- ISO 14044:2006 : This standard builds upon ISO 14040 by providing detailed requirements and guidelines for each stage of the LCA process. It specifies how to conduct inventory analysis, select impact categories and characterization models, and interpret the results of the study.
Overview of Process Flow : Life Cycle Assessment
Define Goal & Scope
- Defining the Goal
- Setting the Scope
- Defining the Functional Unit
- Defining the System Boundaries
- Establishing Data Quality Requirements
- Critical Review Process
Conduct Inventory Analysis
- Data collection & treatment
- Refining system boundaries
- Calculation
- Validation of data
- Relating data to the specific system
- Allocating impacts to the systems
Impact Assessment
- Category definition
- Classification
- Characterization factors
- Valuation/weighting of each
Interpretation
- Identification of significant environmental issues
- Evaluation
- Conclusions & recommendations
Social Life Cycle Assessment - SLCA
SLCA helps organizations manage social risks in their supply chains, enabling issue assessment, prioritization, mitigation, targeting, and reporting in line with best practices and upcoming legislation. The main impact assessment factors include but are not limited to:
- Poverty
- Fair pay
- Forced Labour
- Migration
- Child Labour
- Work/life balance
- Social benefits
- Indigenous rights
- Sexual harassment
- Discrimination
- Health and safety
- Corruption
- Access to resources
- Fair trading relationships
- Consumer privacy
- Responsible communication
- Skill development
- Marketing at children
- Education
- Employment