How a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can benefit your business
- An LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) involves systematically mapping and evaluating environmental and resource impacts across the entire lifespan of a product. Almost like using a magnifying glass on every step of a product's life, from creation to recycling, and its resource and environmental implications.
- Compliance with international standards such as ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 not only ensures regulatory adherence but also signals your commitment to environmental stewardship.
- Undertaking a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is becoming a fundamental part of how companies are working toward net zero and more sustainable production, consumption, and supply chain processes.
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An LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) involves systematically mapping and evaluating environmental and resource impacts across the entire lifespan of a product. Almost like using a magnifying glass on every step of a product's life, from creation to recycling, and its resource and environmental implications.
In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, sustainability isn't just a buzzword; it's a fundamental aspect of success. Companies worldwide are increasingly recognizing the importance of understanding and mitigating their environmental impact to stay relevant, both in the eyes of consumers and regulatory bodies. Our experts experience this daily.
By embracing LCA, businesses gain invaluable insights into the environmental implications of their products and services, facilitating a more sustainable approach to product development and strategic planning.
LCAs make sustainability tangible
Drawing from her research at MIT and over a decade of hands-on experience, Khadija has become adept in Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs), recognizing them as indispensable tools for companies to pinpoint environmental impacts. This sentiment is shared by Customer Success Manager, Jona Roßmann, who often witnesses firsthand the benefits for manufacturers, noting how LCAs provide useful insights even before formal Environmental Product Declarations (EPD). Consequently, many customers appreciate the clarity LCAs offers, providing concrete figures on environmental impacts such as recycling, production waste, and transportation, ultimately making sustainability tangible, quantifiable, and objective.
Your 3 reasons why
An LCA can help you pinpoint improvement opportunities for your business in many ways. Together, Khadija and Jona gives us their top reasons for why you should do an LCA:
- Benchmarking environmental performance: By utilizing LCAs, companies can effectively benchmark their environmental performance against industry rivals, established standards, and best practices. This comparative analysis equips businesses to maintain competitiveness in an increasingly environmentally conscious market landscape.
- Prioritize sustainability initiatives: Utilizing the insights from LCAs empowers you to strategically prioritize sustainability initiatives and make informed decisions by assessing the environmental implications of various scenarios, including supplier changes, material substitutions, process enhancements, and technological advancements. Using scenario analyses, we illustrate the potential impact of implementing specific measures, such as increasing recycling rates, transitioning to renewable energy sources, or adopting more environmentally friendly raw materials, providing a roadmap for achieving improved sustainability outcomes.
- Communicate environmental achievements: LCAs enable companies to transparently communicate their environmental achievements to key stakeholders, including customers, investors, and regulatory bodies. By quantifying and presenting tangible environmental progress, companies enhance their credibility and demonstrate their commitment to sustainability leadership.
Communicate environmental achievements: LCAs enable companies to transparently communicate their environmental achievements to key stakeholders, including customers, investors, and regulatory bodies.
The future awaits
Conducting an LCA for your products isn’t just about meeting current standards; it’s about future-proofing your business. By delving into the environmental implications of your products and services, you pave the way for informed decision-making across your supply chain. Not only does it ensure regulatory adherence, but it also signals your commitment to environmental stewardship.
Additionally, the 2024 revision of the EU Construction Products Regulation (CPR) will require manufacturers to provide an LCA for every construction product that complies with International and European standards such as ISO 14040, ISO 14044, and EN 15804+A2.
Eager to delve deeper into LCAs? Reach out to our experts to learn more