Faced with the environmental challenges that companies are facing today, what tools do they have at their disposal? Many now know the carbon footprint, an essential step in order to know its dependence on carbon and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
But the carbon footprint is only interested in the impacts on climate change. What about other environmental impacts? To what extent do my product(s) also contribute to the depletion of the ozone layer, to the emissions of fine particles, to the acidification of land and fresh water or to the eutrophication of fresh water? And above all, how can I make sure that my activities have the least impact possible?
Moreover, while the carbon footprint is very relevant at the level of an organization, it is not adapted to account for impacts at a product/solution level. What are the most impacting stages in the life cycle of my product? If I slightly increase environmental impacts at one stage of the life cycle, do I greatly reduce them at another stage of the life cycle? Or vice versa.
This is where a second tool comes in, until now less well known than the carbon footprint, but which increasingly integrates the environmental strategies of companies: life cycle assessment, LCA.
LCA has established itself as the reference tool for evaluating the environmental impacts of a product or service, in particular because it takes into account all the stages of the life cycle of the system under study.
It is therefore essential for any company wishing to launch an eco-design approach for its products, communicate on the impact of its products, compare itself with certain competitors or want to meet the challenges of environmental labelling.
However, there are different types of LCA: screening LCA, product carbon footprint (PCF) and standards-compliant LCA ISO 14040 and 14044. Which is best suited to the company's goals? What are the differences between them? We take stock, strategy by strategy.
1. Overview of the different types of LCA
Let's start with a quick definition of the different LCA that will be discussed in this article.
1.1 Screening (or simplified) LCA
Sreening LCA is a relatively free and pragmatic approach to LCA as defined by ISO 14040/44 standards (see below). While maintaining a high level of rigor and robustness, it focuses on the key elements of the study. It adapts particularly well to the internal needs of businesses.
These ACVs can be multicriteria or focused only on greenhouse gas emissions, what is called a product carbone footprint (PCF).
These ACVs can be ”Cradle-to-Grave”, therefore covering the entire life cycle, or ”Cradle-to-Gate”, that is, stopping at the door of the company that manufactures the product, without taking into account the following stages of its life cycle.
These LCAs can be focused on a specific product, or compare several products including that of a competitor, what is called a Comparative LCA.
To make one, you have to follow 4 main steps:
- definition of the objectives and the field of study
- life cycle inventory (LCI), i.e. collecting data
- impact assessment (carbon or multi-criteria)
- interpretation of results
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1.2 LCA in compliance with ISO standards
It's the complete LCA, the one that complies with the standards ISO 14040 and 14044. It has additional elements compared to the simplified LCA explained above:
- The methodological rules to be followed require entering into a very fine level of detail of analysis, which therefore requires more time;
- A 40-80 page methodological report must be produced in order to accurately explain all the hypotheses used and the data used;
- This report must be reviewed by an independent expert who will identify possible methodological differences and/or express any reservations as to the interpretation of the results;
- Note that in the context of a comparative LCA, including a competing product, a panel of experts composed of at least 3 people will carry out the critical review.
These elements provide a guarantee of methodological robustness and the reliability of the most important results, which makes it possible to communicate to the general public in complete transparency and scientific rigor.
These LCA are multi-criteria, but can focus on 1 or more environmental impacts such as the impact on climate change (carbon footprint).
Do you want to know what the main steps are in carrying out a LCA? What is expected in the content? What are the specific indicators? How are the results interpreted? Or what are the differences with the carbon balance? Find our complete article dedicated to the subject: Understand everything about life cycle assessment (LCA).
2. I want to know the impact of my product/solution...
Simplified LCA will be the preferred approach to start the environmental analysis of your products/solutions. It can be used in different ways.
2.1... on climate change or on a set of environmental criteria?
- On climate change
Where the carbon footprint studies greenhouse gas emissions at the level of the company and its value chain, it is also possible to know the carbon footprint of a particular product.
You must then turn to a LCA carbon, otherwise called Product Carbon Footprint (PCF). It will focus only on the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of a product or service, thus giving a precise idea of the carbon impact of the observed system. This simplified LCA covers all stages of the product life cycle.
”Very often, the company knows the carbon impact of the transformation stage that it controls. But it knows little or very little about the carbon impact of the steps located upstream or downstream of its product, even though they are sometimes more important in the total carbon footprint. So doing a carbon LCA will allow him to know the basics, the orders of magnitude, to see the first ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thus to guide his strategy. To begin with, carbon LCA is very interesting.”
Julien Mercier, senior consultant at Sami, specialist in LCA and ecodesign strategies.
- On a set of environmental criteria
Beyond carbon, a Multi-criteria LCA will allow you to identify several key environmental indicators for your business, and to engage in a holistic approach to environmental impact. In total, using the PEF (Product Environmental Footprint) method, the European Commission recommends analysing 16 impact criteria, including in particular: climate change as well as depletion of the ozone layer, emissions of fine particles, acidification of land and fresh water, eutrophication of fresh water or even land use.
These simplified multi-criteria LCAs are what companies that carry out one or more first LCAs often do. But you can also decide to focus on some criteria and not others. In the case of environmental labelling, this multi-criteria approach is mandatory.
Carbon or multi-criteria, the work of data collection and life cycle analysis remains the same. The difference is in the complexity of interpreting the results.
2.2... on a single product or several in my portfolio?
Again, to begin with, we recommend starting with a product, the most sold and/or the most representative. The fact of undertaking the approach on a restricted area will make it possible to fully understand the challenges of data collection, to develop skills in the analysis of environmental impacts, and above all to have initial key information to properly guide the rest of the environmental strategy.
Once the LCA has been carried out on a product, it will be easy to replicate the analysis on similar products (different sizes, similar formulation, slightly different packaging, etc.).
In the case of a very varied product portfolio, product-by-product analysis will make it possible to compare products with each other and to highlight differentiated areas of reduction. The company can then orient its strategy according to the results: decide to prioritize the production and marketing of the least impacting products and/or decide to focus its ecodesign strategy on those that have obtained the worst results.
Internal comparative LCA can also allow the company to verify that a new process or a new material integrated into a product effectively reduces the environmental impact compared to the old version.
2.3... on a specific product or in comparison with a competing product?
This is one of the major challenges that an LCA is capable of responding to: comparing the environmental impact of one or more of its products with those of its competitors. This allows the company to locate itself and assess the relevance of commercial arguments based on better environmental performance.
”That's what we did with a customer. The company wanted to compare a product that integrated one of its components with a similar product but integrated a different component made by a competitor. And she believed that its component allowed for a lower environmental impact. So we carried out the LCA of the two properties. In this type of situation, businesses use LCA to confirm (or disprove, in some cases) that their product is much less impactful.”
Julien Mercier
Be careful, however, these comparative LCAs must remain internal if they are simplified LCAs. Indeed, to publicly present the environmental advantages of a product, the company must demonstrate the greatest possible robustness and scientific rigor, especially if competitors are directly concerned. This is guaranteed by compliance with an ISO standard and by verification by an independent third party.
3. I want to implement an eco-design strategy to reduce the environmental impact of my product/solution
Ecodesign, according to the ADEME definition, “makes it possible to reduce the negative environmental impacts of products, processes, or services over their entire life cycle”. Clearly, its objective is to reduce all the environmental impacts of products from the moment they are designed.
Once the LCA has been calculated, the eco-design strategy will start by varying parameters theoretically in modeling the life cycle of the initial product to study their influence on the various environmental impacts. Faced with the multitude of choices that can be made to reduce the impacts of a product, some will have more weight than others. This ecodesign work will be used to ask questions and obtain numerical answers. For example, how much does the carbon footprint decrease if I replace virgin plastic with recycled plastic? By increasing the lifespan of my product, am I significantly reducing its impact per functional unit?
Or even: does implementing such an action improve all environmental indicators or do some of them worsen? And if I lower the environmental footprint of my manufacturing materials, wouldn't I have a greater impact when using my product? Yes, because one of the risks of eco-design is to generate pollution transfers, that is to say to transfer impacts from one stage of the life cycle to another, or from one environmental criterion to another. To avoid this, a good eco-design strategy will be in”Cradle-to-Grave” (the whole life cycle) and Multi criteria environmental (not only carbon).
Finally, this eco-design approach can very well be based on a simplified LCA if it responds to an approach that remains internal, i.e. if the results are not published with commercial arguments or are not used to publicly compare several products with each other.
4. I want to communicate about the environmental performance of my product/solution
It's a recurring request, and LCA is the right tool! Attention, while simplified LCA are relevant for internal procedures, for the public, additional precautions should be taken into account.
4.1 I want to communicate the environmental footprint of my product to customers who ask me
LCA makes it possible to meet an internal need of the company but also an external one: requests from customers wishing to know the environmental footprint of one or more products, or even of the entire product portfolio of its supplier. And very often, it is even only the carbon footprint that is requested.
In industrial sectors, companies that manufacture products that are then integrated by other companies into the design of goods are therefore increasingly confronted with this type of demand. Indeed, their customers want to know the carbon footprint of the products they buy and to also be able to compare the products with each other.
When only an environmental figure is presented to customers, without claims of good or better environmental performance, a simplified LCA is sufficient. A comparative LCA on the products in your own portfolio can also be communicated to your customers. However, to support commercial arguments, or in the case of highly competitive sectors, an ISO standard LCA will be recommended.
”I supported a company specialized in the production of raw materials that then integrated very broad industrial sectors: agriculture, construction or cosmetics. Several of his customers asked him for the carbon footprint of his products. We therefore carried out simplified LCA's across his entire portfolio. She was then able to send a PDF file with the results for each of the products on request.”
Julien Mercier
4.2 I want to communicate to the general public as part of environmental labelling
For products in the textile and food sector, and soon for furniture and cosmetics, it will therefore be necessary to carry out a LCA in accordance with the standards established for these sectors. The resulting environmental score makes it possible to provide clear and transparent information to the consumer to inform his purchasing act; he is free to compare several products with each other.
4.3 I want to communicate to the general public about the environmental performance of my products (excluding environmental labelling)
As explained above, to highlight good or better environmental performance to customers, the ISO standard LCA will be essential to give you all the necessary guarantees. Critical review by an independent expert as well as the application of a recognized international framework will strengthen confidence in the results and related commercial arguments, for you as well as for your customers.
”The company can very well start with a simplified LCA to confirm that the product has good environmental performance. And if she wants to communicate about it, we switch to an ISO LCA. We resume the analysis, we check certain methodological rules and above all we have the complete report audited by a third party. In this case, the company can then communicate very widely on the results of its LCA..”
Julien Mercier, senior consultant at Sami, specialist in LCA and ecodesign strategies.
4.4 I want to communicate to my customers or the general public that my product has better environmental performance than my competitors
This is the exercise that requires the most scientific rigor and controls: it is not an expert but a panel of at least 3 experts that is required by the ISO 14040/44 standard in this context. The panel should include LCA experts but also experts in the product or sector in question.
Note that complying with the ISO standard, writing the report, and critical review by a panel is a much longer process than a simple simplified LCA. We therefore recommend to be sure of the results before committing to them.
”Care must also be taken to ensure that the difference between the two or more products analyzed is significant enough (+/- 20%) to cover the margin of error that exists in any LCA. If this is not the case, if the difference is small, we do not recommend that the company publish it.”
Julien Mercier
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