A Guide to Environmental Life Cycle Assessment

DEFINING THE BASICS

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment or LCA is intended to be a systemic method for assessing the environmental impact of the whole life cycle of a product (or service, process, organization), so-called “cradle to grave”.

Picture: Different stages of a product life cycle

The method includes the impacts of all life cycle stages of a product: From Raw material extraction/production, manufacturing, distribution and retail, use and recycling or disposal.

Regardless to the product or industry, the most significant environmental impacts come from different stages for different processes. For example, in the case of a gasoline-powered car, the most consequential climate-related emissions are emitted during its use stage; when it comes to biofuel powered cars, the major problems are at large demanded areas for crop production, which leads to a series of ecological-related issues as soils depletion, biodiversity loss, soil and water contamination; for electric vehicles they are at mining and end of life stages.It can help to identify areas where environmental improvements can be made and can be used to compare the environmental impacts of different products or processes.

REGULATION & TRANSPARENCY

LCA is not legally regulated, but there is a global standard, ISO 14044, outlining how one should be done. An LCA is also a great way to prepare for the newly approved (Nov 28, 2022) CSRD Environmental reporting requirements, which will apply starting in Jan 01, 2024 for large public-interest companies?with over 500 employees (NFRD) being implemented gradually up to 01 Jan, 2026 for listed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (report in 2027).

The CSRD will require disclosure under a common framework of?European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). Five of those standards are related to disclosure on environmental impacts, here few key details:

ESRS E1 Climate Change (Scope 1, 2 and 3)

ESRS E2 Pollution (Air, soil and water,?Substances of concern and of very high concern)

ESRS E3 Water and marine resources (Water and marine resources & Water consumption)

ESRS E 4 Biodiversity and ecosystems: Direct impact drivers on biodiversity loss: Climate change, land-use change, freshwater-use change and sea-use change, direct exploitation, invasive alien species, pollution impacts on the state of species and impacts on the extent

ESRS E5: Resource use and circular economy: Resource use and circular economy,?resource inflow, resource outflow and waste.

In all those five standards texts, the scope extends beyond the “Own operations and value chain” and also includes “upstream and downstream value chain”. ?

Being almost in 2023, what can a business do now to be ready in 2024? A great way to get the data a business will need to provide transparency on is to conduct an Environmental Life Cycle Assessments.

REPORTING AND DECISION MAKING

There is a multitude of reporting standards outlining what needs to be reported. LCA is a methodology that can bring numeric substance into that reporting, regardless of which reporting framework is applied, although, LCA disclosed data must not be restricted to materiality under the risk of falling into greenwashing.

With LCA studies comparing the situation before and after specific changes have been implemented, companies can show how much progress has been made compared to a benchmark or target. Alternatively, they can simulate the impact of planned changes. Changing the material, a bag is produced with now and in the future, revealing positive and negative implications for environment and society.

Business leaders need data to decide on the most impactful activities, enabling them to manage limited resources and evaluate cost vs benefits.

It is important that Life Cycle thinking is embedded in decision-making at all levels in an organization, in functions such as Product Design, Procurement, Logistics etc. Especially under and increasing regulatory pressure to provide transparency across the value chain.

MORE THAN GLOBAL WARMING

While the global warming crisis is a critical issue that needs to be solved urgently, there are other issues that are just as alarming.

The widely used ReCiPe 2016 LCA method covers 17 impact categories. They can be grouped into following five main areas:??Global warming?,?Use of water, Use of natural resources, ?Impact on ecosystems ,?Impact on human health

It is important to consider all these impact categories to make informed decisions.

Picture: The 17 impact categories of the ReCiPe 2016 method can be grouped into 5 main impact categories and areas of protection

HOW TO COMPILE AN LCA

An Environmental LCA requires sufficient competence and reliable data to make a valid model. While LCA is not super complicated, you still need to be familiar with the methodology and understand how to utilize existing databases. In preparing an LCA, judgement needs to be applied and some decisions must be made. Being familiar with how to conduct an LCA is essential to making the right decisions.

Environmental LCA is also labour intensive to some extent. The process usually starts with data collection or process mapping. Whoever does the LCA needs to understand the business processes related to the company or product in question to model their impacts. In today’s global economy, supply chains are often vast and complex. Collecting data from all relevant parties can require much effort, even though tools like Earthster can make it easier. An LCA specialist usually spends most of their time to gather the relevant data from suppliers and should not forget about post-consumer behaviour and processes. Building the model and doing the calculations for the LCA is usually a relatively quick thing to do, especially with new software.

There are ways to run or offshore your LCA. ?But the beauty and full potential of it, is revealed when you accept using Life Cycle Assessment as a way to conduct business, choose partners and adapt to circumstances whether regulatory, economic, customer driven or environmentally caused. Therefore, doing an LCA is not a one-time shot really, but at its best when applied continuously and it may be a very worthy investment into the skillset of your team.

TAKE-HOME MESSAGE

The widespread adoption of the LCA methodology has an important practical meaning. It allows businesses, governments, and other organizations to make informed decisions about the environmental impacts of their actions and to take steps to reduce those impacts.

Ultimately, LCA helps support the transition to a more sustainable and environmentally responsible society.

This article was produced in cocreation with our partners at Environmental Impacts Academy, helping companies worldwide building capabilities in LCA projects, as well as Dr Julio Campo, Ecological Economy expert and Michal Slota, Biotechnologist at Content Farmers - all valued members of frogeex network advising companies, municipalities and organizations to be eco-logical and efficient.

You can find full list of solutions by Environmental Impacts Academy and discover more on sustainable living via www.frogeex.com

Sources:

How sustainable are biofuels? Answers and further questions arising from an ecological footprint perspective - ScienceDirect

A global comparison of the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of combustion engine and electric passenger cars - International Council on Clean Transportation (theicct.org)

First set of draft ESRS https://www.efrag.org/lab6#subtitle3

Council of the EU Press release 28 November 2022 10:30: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2022/11/28/council-gives-final-green-light-to-corporate-sustainability-reporting-directive/