What is Life Cycle Assessment?
LCA is a standardized way to quantify a product’s environmental impacts across its entire life. It turns complex data into clear choices you can act on. Less noise. More signal. Better products.Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) visualizes the product journey from raw materials to end of life, used to evaluate environmental and sustainability impacts. 👉 Raw materials → Manufacturing → Distribution → Use → End of life
Key Questions LCA Answers:
- Where are the biggest hotspots across the value chain?
- Which materials, suppliers, or processes drive most of the impact?
- Whether a design change actually reduces total impact rather than shifting it elsewhere?
- How different product options compare on a fair, functional basis?
- What role use, maintenance, and end‑of‑life play in the overall footprint?
What LCA Delivers
- A clear hotspot map that shows where to focus effort first;
- Comparable results per unit that let you choose the better option;
- Input material for Environmental Product Declarations and customer requests;
- Evidence and narratives you can reuse across product, marketing, and sales.
Core Elements of an LCA:
- Goal and scope define why you are doing the study and how you will use the results.
- Functional or declared unit sets the basis for comparison, for example 200 wears of a t‑shirt or 1 kg of product.
- System boundary and cut‑offs decide which processes are included, for example packaging, transport, and recycling.
- Data sources combine primary data from your operations with quality secondary data from LCA databases.
- Impact assessment method converts flows into indicators, for example EF 3.1, ReCiPe, or IPCC for climate.
- Interpretation and quality checks include hotspot analysis, sensitivity checks, uncertainty, and external review when needed.
LCA Example: Reusable vs. Single-Use Products
Consider comparing a reusable cup to a single-use alternative. The reusable version may have a higher initial impact due to materials and manufacturing. But when used 200 times, cleaned efficiently, and actually reused, its per-use impact drops significantly. LCA makes this comparison fair by:- Normalizing impacts across a functional unit (e.g. 200 uses)
- Highlighting key variables like durability and cleaning method
- Revealing trade-offs that aren’t obvious from carbon alone
Why LCA Matters in Sustainable Product Design?
Every product carries a hidden environmental footprint—energy use, emissions, water consumption, toxicity, and resource depletion. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) reveals that footprint in a structured, comparable way, helping designers and sustainability teams make informed decisions beyond just carbon metrics.How Businesses Use LCA for Compliance and Reporting?
- Credible communication for marketing and sales without greenwashing;
- Design and R&D to choose better materials, finishes, and suppliers early;
- Procurement and tenders where EPDs and comparable results are required;
- Risk and compliance as regulations and digital product data grow;
- Reporting with defensible, repeatable numbers your stakeholders can trust.
Want to master life cycle assessment? Explore Sustainly’s full Learning Hub for tutorials, impact modeling tools, and sustainability use cases.