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.