What is it?

A Life Cycle Assessment is a tool for assessing a product's environmental impact throughout its life cycle. The effect is usually understood as resource extraction and greenhouse gas emissions. The life cycle covers all materials necessary to produce, transport, process, use, and dispose of the product.

Which problem does it solve?

A LCA creates transparency about the impact of a specific product.

This transparency helps to make environmentally aware decisions.

Who should be involved?

Correct and complete data is essential for a life cycle assessment. Therefore, input from across the value chain is necessary, in particular:

• Suppliers / Procurement
• Distribution / Logistics
• Product Design
• Operations / Production
• Use Phase / Customer Research
• End-of-life / Waste management

How does it work?

Life cycle assessment is done in four steps:

1. Goal and scope definition: Decide what the LCA is used for and which product/process scope should be applied.
2. Inventory Analysis: Create a database of all incoming and outgoing substances, energy flows and their weight and volume.
3. Impact Assessment: All substances' actual or potential impact on the environment and human health is assessed.
4. Interpretation: Review the analysis results, understand the sensitivity of product adaptations and draw conclusions.