What is an LCA?
LCA stands for Life Cycle Assessment, or life cycle analysis. It is a systematic methodology used to evaluate the environmental impacts associated with the entire life cycle of a product, process, or service.
Life cycle refers to all stages in the life of a product, from the extraction of raw materials, through production, use, and disposal or recycling. The goal of an LCA is to quantify and assess the environmental burdens and benefits across these stages, considering factors such as resource consumption, energy use, emissions, and waste generation.
The assessment takes a holistic approach, considering the various environmental aspects associated with a product or process rather than focusing on a single stage or impact.
Why we do LCAs?
A life cycle assessment can be a highly informative tool to allow businesses to identify opportunities to improve the environmental performance of their products at various points in their life cycle. It can also be used to help identify the potential environmental hotspots and areas where improvements can be made to minimize negative impacts and promote sustainability.
LCA’s are also useful for informing decision-makers in industry, government or non-government organizations the purpose of their strategic planning, priority setting, product or process design or redesign and the selection of relevant indicators of environmental performance, including measurement techniques.
An LCA is conducted over 4 steps in the following:
Conducting an LCA with Impact Solutions
Following the Principles and framework of ISO 14040, Impact Solutions can work with you to analyse your products carbon footprint, following up with the data needed to fully understand your products environmental impact. If necessary, our team are then on hand to help support you to make your product have less of an impact through providing innovative alternatives to increase its LCA.
