Original Source: Sustainability Consulting
“So, you have heard about life cycle assessment and how beneficial it is for sustainability in business. But how does that work exactly? How can a request for a report or a call for insight into your supply chain help your competitive position? And how would you get started with any of this?
Since all our sustainability consulting services, from corporate-level consulting to single-product assessments, are based around life cycle assessment (LCA), we will give you a quick overview of the methodology.
What is life cycle assessment?
Life cycle assessment is the factual analysis of a product’s entire life cycle in terms of sustainability. With LCA, you can evaluate the environmental impacts of your product or service from cradle to grave.
The 4 steps of LCA methodology
LCA is a standardised methodology, which gives it its reliability and transparency. The standards are provided by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) in ISO 14040 and 14044, and describe the four main phases of an LCA: goal and scope, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation.
Step 1: LCA goal & scope definition
The goal & scope definition ensures the LCA is performed consistently.
An LCA models a product, service, or system life cycle. What is important to realize is that a model is a simplification of a complex reality and as with all simplifications this means that the reality will be distorted in some way. The challenge for an LCA practitioner is to develop the model in such a way that the simplifications and distortions do not influence the results too much. The best way to deal with this problem is to carefully define the goal and scope of the LCA study.
In the goal and scope the most important (often subjective) choices are described, such as the reason for executing the LCA, a precise definition of the product and its life cycle, and a description of the system boundaries…”
https://www.pre-sustainability.com/sustainability-consulting/lca-methodology-basics
Contributors: Open SourceCategories: Industry Articles, SIG U Resource
SRC Type: Sourcing Management, Sustainability