What steps can you take to ensure a complete life cycle assessment for your product or service?

In my experience the LCA purpose can also include benchmark with your competitor, how do I position my product compare to the competition.

One critical aspect of ISO compliant LCA is defining whether you plan to use these results to make a public, comparative assertion (PCA) vs internal only. Any LCA intended to inform a PCA or an Environmental Product Declaration must be independently verified to avoid legal claims of greenwashing or consumer backlash

The choice between primary and secondary data sources is a critical decision, impacting precision and resource requirements. Ensuring data relevance, consistency, accuracy, and completeness is fundamental; irrelevant or inconsistent data can lead to misleading results. Allocation becomes essential when dealing with co-products or joint production, demanding judicious decisions to attribute environmental impacts correctly. In summary, the quality of the data collected directly shapes the credibility of LCA results and informs sustainable decision-making in areas from product design to policy development, making this role a cornerstone in environmental analysis.

Primary data should always be your first choice, but not always possible in reality. Considerations when selecting secondary data include whether it has been verified via measurement or estimate, the breadth of sites and time period of measurement, the overall age of the data, and geographical and technical relevancy. You should be sure to cite your data sources and justification in every instance.

This assessment can also be divided into 2 categories, the midpoints and enpoints. The midpoints are based on problematic impact indicators. The endpoints are potential damages at the end of the causal chain. These endpoints are less recognized by the scientific community.

Selecting the right impact assessment method is critical as it determines how inventory data translates into environmental impacts. The choice should be based on the goals and scope of the LCA. Example: If the goal is to assess the environmental impact of a new building material, the LCA specialist might choose an impact assessment method that emphasizes categories like greenhouse gas emissions, resource depletion, and energy consumption. Example: In a study of a food product, the LCA specialist might focus on categories like water use, land use, and biodiversity if the goal is to assess the product's impact on ecosystems and natural resources.

For GHG and climate impact category assessments, the IPCC LCIA method is considered the global authority. IMPACT World + is the leading method for spatially differentiated mid and endpoint assessment around the globe in human health and ecosystem quality.

LCA is often iterative - the interpreted results may drive you to adjust system boundaries or take a deeper dive into certain data sets.

The final step in the LCA process involves the practical implementation of improvement options to reduce environmental impacts, with strategies like eco-design, material substitution, process optimization, energy efficiency, waste reduction, and circular economy. Selecting the most effective options based on LCA results is crucial, with consideration of feasibility, cost, and potential trade-offs. Regular monitoring and measurement of outcomes are essential, facilitating continuous improvement. It is equally important to periodically update the LCA to account for changes in products, processes, and new data.