Who Needs an LCA?

LCA serves anyone making decisions with environmental consequences. Manufacturers, designers, procurement teams, and policymakers all use life cycle data.

Manufacturers and Product Developers#

Product development choices affect environmental impacts for decades. Material selection, manufacturing processes, and design for disassembly each create long-term consequences.

LCA reveals design trade-offs. Lighter materials might reduce use-phase energy but require more intensive manufacturing. Durable products create higher production impacts but last longer. Modular design enables repair but complicates manufacturing.

Manufacturers use LCA to substantiate environmental claims. Marketing statements about sustainability need evidence. Generic claims like “eco-friendly” mean nothing without supporting data. LCA provides that data.

Construction and Architecture#

Buildings last 50-100 years. Design decisions made today create environmental consequences throughout that lifetime.

The EU requires Environmental Product Declarations for many building materials. These EPDs rely on underlying LCA studies. Specifiers compare products based on EPD data, driving manufacturers to conduct LCAs.

Embodied carbon in materials now matters as much as operational energy. Cement and steel production create substantial climate impacts. Building design can optimise material quantities and select lower-impact alternatives, but only if you measure impacts.

Procurement and Supply Chain Management#

Large purchasers increasingly demand environmental data. Public sector procurement often includes environmental criteria. Corporate sustainability commitments require supply chain transparency.

LCA enables apples-to-apples comparison. Rather than vague supplier claims, you get quantified impacts across standardised categories. This supports informed purchasing decisions.

Supply chain hotspot identification matters. A procurement team might discover that raw material extraction dominates impacts, making supplier selection critical. Manufacturing efficiency might matter less than material choices.

Policy and Regulation#

Regulations increasingly reference life cycle approaches. The EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism taxes embedded emissions in imports. Extended Producer Responsibility schemes assign end-of-life costs based on environmental performance.

Policy design needs impact data. Setting meaningful thresholds requires understanding typical product performance. Identifying effective intervention points needs hotspot analysis. LCA provides this evidence base.

Standards development uses LCA. Product Category Rules for EPDs need representative product assessments. Ecolabelling criteria need benchmarking data. These frameworks rely on life cycle studies.

Investors and Financial Institutions#

Climate risk assessment extends beyond operational emissions. Scope 3 emissions in supply chains often dwarf direct operations. LCA methods apply to portfolio assessment.

Green finance frameworks require environmental verification. Green bonds fund projects with demonstrated environmental benefits. Investment screens exclude high-impact sectors. These mechanisms need quantified impact data.

Not Everyone Needs Full LCA#

Simplified assessment methods exist for smaller organisations. Streamlined LCA focuses on key hotspots. Screening assessments identify whether detailed study makes sense.

Carbon footprinting examines one impact category. This misses other environmental concerns but requires less data and resources. For climate-focused decisions, carbon footprinting might suffice.

Sometimes qualitative assessment works. If you’re comparing similar products with one obvious difference, detailed LCA might confirm what’s already apparent. Resources matter.

When LCA Adds Value#

LCA makes sense when:

• Decisions affect significant environmental impacts
• Trade-offs exist between different life cycle stages
• Multiple impact categories matter
• Substantiation of environmental claims is needed
• Regulatory compliance requires life cycle data
• Stakeholders demand environmental transparency

LCA doesn’t make sense when:

• Environmental impacts are clearly negligible
• Resources for assessment exceed potential benefits
• Simpler methods provide sufficient information
• Data availability is too poor for reliable results

The methodology requires effort. Make sure the question warrants that effort before starting.