How to start doing LCA’s in your company – implementation Roadmap

Many sustainability leaders are faced with the task to start doing LCA’s.

More and more people we talk to are telling us that their customers start asking for LCA’s or EPD’s for their products. The need for LCA’s can also be driven by the EU CSRD regulation or by a need to back up green claims in marketing, eco-design initiatives or many other factors. Whatever the driver is, a common question we get is:

“Where do I start?”

We decided this question is worth an issue of our newsletter.

We have seen examples where a single sustainability manager has been given the daunting task of delivering LCA’s for a company’s product portfolio. They have purchased a license to an LCA software, and this single person has tried to figure out what to do with it. Alone. This is NOT the way to start.

So what should you do then?

You should start by creating a roadmap for your LCA journey. If you want, you can download our step by step guide to use as a starting point

Roadmap to successful LCA implementation

A recent study, "Challenges in Sustainability Transitions in B2B Firms and the Role of Corporate Entrepreneurship in Responding to Crises Created by the Pandemic," delved deep into the hurdles faced by companies striving to embrace sustainable practices.

From this study, three key challenges emerged that echo the sentiments of sustainability professionals across industries: Knowledge Management, Stakeholder Support, and Constrained Resources. While each presents its own set of complexities, it's the first - Knowledge Management - often proves to be the biggest barrier. LCA is no exception.

1. Learn LCA basics

First you need a basic understanding of what LCA is all about. It is not rocket science, but it is a bit complex and it is important to know what it actually is that you need to accomplish

Our Leader’s LCA online course is a convenient solution for just that. We recommend it at least for the person responsible for implementing LCA in your company, but it would be beneficial for the whole leadership team too. Why? Because LCA activities will need involvement from different stakeholders both inside and outside your organization.

2. In-house or consultants?

When you have that basic understanding, you will be better equipped for the next step on your roadmap, which is to decide whether you will do your LCA’s in-house or rely on consultants, or maybe a mix of both. There are pros and cons with both alternatives and the right answer depends on what you will use the LCA’s for.

If you just need to provide an LCA report or an EPD to someone and you don’t plan any further action based on it, and you don’t expect you will need a lot of those LCA’s or EPD’s, then using a consultant is the easy way out. Note however that you will still need to support that consultant by providing access to a lot of data about your processes, materials, supply chain etc.

If you want to use your LCA result to improve the environmental impacts of your product(s) or you plan to create multiple LCA’s or EPD’s, then doing a lot of the LCA work in-house is probably more flexible and cost efficient. Whatever your decision is, you will need to secure enough budget, people and commitment across the organization to get things done.

3. Add competence to your team

If you decide to do LCA’s in-house, you will need to identify who will do that work. Will it be someone in your sustainability team, a few R&D engineers maybe or someone else? When you have made that decision, those persons need to be upskilled so that they can do that job. LCA is not rocket science, but it is a bit difficult, and you really do need to know what you are doing, otherwise things can go seriously wrong. We will be happy to help with that upskilling too, with our hands-on LCA training.

Note that our next start date for the “Flex” training is in less than two weeks, on September 9th 2024. The “Intensive” training program starts on October 7th.

4. Pilot LCA project

As part of our training program, you will have someone do a real life LCA for one of your products (or services, processes, organizations...). This will teach those people who do the LCA, but also many others in your organization and across your value chain what it actually means to do an LCA in practice, who needs to be involved, which kind of data is needed and where it can (hopefully) be found etc. So this is in fact your company’s LCA pilot project.

When you have your first LCA’s done, it is time to look at your next steps again. Here are a few more questions to answer:

5. Choose software

Which LCA software will you choose, to systematically start scaling up your LCA activities and make it part of your normal processes?

6. Extend your team's knowledge

You can now do a few more LCA's and gain a bit more experience, to expend your team's knowledge and figure out what processes you need to set up, so that things work smoothly.

Will you also upskill some more people to understand and/or to do LCA’s? Who would those people be? R&D managers maybe? Or your procurement team? That depends on what business you are in and how your organization is structured.

7. Scale up

You are now ready to do more. You can build on the initial models you have created, with your newly acquired competence and experience, to create LCA's for hundreds or thousands of products, to simulate impacts of new business models, design more sustainable products, create EPD's, support business decisions or whatever you use LCA for.

We are here to help!

Now these are a lot of questions, and you will want a preliminary idea of what your answers might look like, although they will be reevaluated and refined along the way. We have talked to many companies about these topics and we would be happy to help you create your own plan.

Feel free to book a free meeting with our Co-Founder Poul Lindqvist to create your roadmap and help you figure out how to get started.