LCA (Life Cycle Assessment)

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a systematic methodology for evaluating the environmental impact of a product, service, or process throughout its entire life cycle , from raw material extraction to end-of-life disposal. It is the most rigorous approach to understanding a product’s true environmental footprint.

An LCA follows four phases defined by ISO 14040/14044:

1. Goal and scope definition , defining the purpose, system boundaries, and functional unit (e.g., “1 kg of packaged product delivered to consumer”)
2. Life cycle inventory (LCI) , collecting data on all inputs (materials, energy) and outputs (emissions, waste) at each stage
3. Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) , translating inventory data into environmental impact categories (climate change, acidification, eutrophication, etc.)
4. Interpretation , analysing results, identifying hotspots, and drawing conclusions

LCA considers multiple life cycle stages:

• Cradle-to-gate: Raw materials through manufacturing
• Cradle-to-grave: Full life cycle including use phase and disposal
• Cradle-to-cradle: Includes recycling and material recovery loops

In the context of sustainability reporting, LCA underpins product carbon footprints and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). Under the CSRD, companies may use LCA data to support ESRS E5 (Resource use and circular economy) disclosures.

LCA is also central to the EU’s Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) methodology and the EU Taxonomy’s do-no-significant-harm (DNSH) criteria.

Dcycle’s platform integrates LCA databases and emission factors to help companies assess product-level environmental impacts alongside their corporate carbon footprint.