What is Life Cycle Assessment?

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a methodology that allows for the systematic evaluation of the environmental impacts associated with a product, process or service throughout all stages of its life cycle: from raw material extraction, production and transport to use, waste management and recycling. LCA is a key tool for managing and communicating sustainability objectively and with verifiable data. LCA provides:

  1. A comprehensive overview: It allows us to understand the environmental impacts throughout the entire life cycle, avoiding the transfer of impacts from one phase to another.
  2. Identification of critical points: It helps to detect the stages with the highest consumption of resources or generation of emissions and waste.
  3. Environmental improvement and efficiency: It facilitates decision-making to reduce impacts, optimise processes and design more sustainable products.
  4. Regulatory compliance and certifications: It is the basis for eco-labels, Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) and systems such as ISO 14001, EMAS or ISO 14006 for eco-design.
  5. Competitive advantage: It reinforces the company’s image of sustainability and provides transparency to customers, investors and stakeholders.
  6. Support for the circular economy: It promotes eco-design, reuse and recycling strategies, minimising the environmental footprint.

Development of a Life Cycle Assessment

As a sustainability consultancy, we develop Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in four main phases that are iteratively related:

 

Definition of the objective and scope

Defining the objective and scope establishes the purpose of the study, the target audience, the decisions it will support, and the boundaries of the system (which processes are included and which are not).

It also involves defining the “functional unit”, which serves as a basis for comparison (e.g. 1 kg of product, 1 kWh of energy, etc.).

Life Cycle Inventory Analysis (LCI) is the process of collecting and quantifying all relevant inputs and outputs of a system throughout its life cycle. Inventory Analysis (LCI) involves:

  • Collecting and quantifying the inputs (resources, energy, raw materials) and outputs (emissions – including carbon footprint or water footprint -, waste, eco-products) of all processes included in the system.
  • Prepares the “mass and energy balance” associated with the life cycle. Serves as the basis for the “Impact Assessment”, where these flows are translated into environmental effects (climate change, eutrophication, etc.).

In life cycle impact assessment (LCIA), inventory data is translated into “environmental impact categories” (e.g. climate change, acidification, eutrophication, resource depletion, toxicity, etc.). It includes three key steps:

  • Classification (assigning flows to impact categories).
  • Characterisation (quantification of impact potential using equivalence factors, e.g. CO₂ eq.).
  • Optional: Normalisation and weighting to facilitate interpretation.

Interpreting the results involves:

  • Analysing and discussing the results. Identifying critical points, limitations and possible improvements.
  • Verifying the consistency and quality of the data.
  • Drawing conclusions and making recommendations for continuous improvement.
These phases are not strictly linear, but rather “iterative”. It is common to go back and adjust objectives, limits or data as the study progresses.

What regulations are linked to stroke?

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is regulated and supported by several international standards and benchmarks that define its methodology and application. The main ones are:

ISO 14044 - Requirements and guidelines for conducting LCA

ISO 14044: Requirements and guidelines for conducting an LCA (definition of objective and scope, inventory, impact assessment and interpretation). It is one of the core standards of LCA. Its key points are:

  • It develops the requirements and practical guidelines for conducting an LCA.
  • It is the most widely used methodological guide: how to collect data, assess environmental impacts and document results.

It complements the ISO 14040 standard, which establishes the principles and general framework of LCA. It also defines the phases: objective and scope, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation.

ISO 14025 standard: Type III environmental declarations (EPD/DAP), based on LCA results. The standard:

  • Regulates Environmental Product Declarations (DAP/EPD), which are based on verified LCA results.
  • The LCA provides the quantitative data that is then communicated to the market in a DAP.

ISO 14067: Product carbon footprint, uses the LCA methodology to quantify greenhouse gas emissions.

  • Defines how to calculate the Product Carbon Footprint.
  • The calculation of CO₂ and other GHG emissions throughout the life cycle is done by applying the LCA methodology.

ISO 14046: Water footprint, calculated based on LCA. The standard:

  • Establishes the method for calculating the water footprint.
  • Based on LCA, it identifies and quantifies water-related impacts throughout the life cycle of the product or service.

ISO 14006: Eco-design, integrates LCA into product development. It does not require a full LCA to be carried out, but promotes its use as a tool for integrating environmental criteria into product design.

EMAS does not require a formal LCA to be carried out, but it does promote a life cycle approach to environmental management, taking it into account in the Environmental Statement.

LCA is a recommended tool for strengthening the identification of significant aspects and enriching the Environmental Statement with verifiable indicators.

ISO 14001: Environmental management, although it does not require a full LCA, uses it as a support tool to identify impacts. It does not require an LCA, but recommends using it as a tool to identify significant aspects and impacts.

EN 15804 Environmental product declarations. Basic product category rules for construction products: Product category rules (PCR) for construction, linked to DAP/EPD based on LCA. Defines the Product Category Rules (PCR) for preparing DAP/EPD for materials and works, always using data from LCA.

GHG Protocol – Product Standard: International standard that also relies on LCA to calculate carbon footprint. It is based on LCA to calculate greenhouse gas emissions throughout the entire life cycle.

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