Climate change is this century’s biggest global challenge for humanity itself. Global economic orders, national business methods and regional financial structures are under immense strain due to the direct impact of the climate change crisis on them. This besides consumers’ demands and investors' climate conscious attitude had pushed for an unprecedented ask for the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of any product, services, operations and an organisation itself. The global LCA market was worth around USD 230.1 million in 2024, which is projected to show rapid growth from USD 261.8 million in 2025 to USD 695.3 million by 2032 at a CAGR of 15%, as per the Fortune Business Insights.

In this blog we will understand everything about LCA and why it is important for your business.

What is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)?

Systematic and scientific study of the environmental impacts of a product, services or an organisation through specific data throughout their entire life cycle is called Life Cycle Assessment. Accurate evaluation of data from the production process, distribution, use of items and the end-of-life phases is conducted under LCA. The assessment also puts strong emphasis on all upstream (suppliers data) and downstream activities (waste management or product distribution).

What are the things covered under LCA?

Input materials: Everything that comes under the raw materials is put under this category of Life Cycle Assessment. This covers details such as mining, agriculture, deforestation, energy and chemicals used to refine materials. Moreover, under the input data gathering, details related to energy consumption, emissions and waste from the production processes are also taken into serious consideration during the manufacturing processes. To put it simply, it answers questions like which raw materials were used to produce the item and details about the origin point of such raw materials. This can also be called the upstream details of the product as it involves analysing how raw materials get transported to the manufacturing centre.

Output materials: This involves evaluating fuel usage, emissions from the logistics and transport systems used for the distribution of products. Also known as the downstream details, under this category how products are transported and distributed to the consumers or retailers for sale is analysed. Kinds of logistics and methods of transportation such as truck, rail and airplane are taken into serious consideration. Moreover, during the output materials carbon footprint accounting, study is also conducted on the usages and consumptions of materials by the end user or consumer. The use phase of the product also focuses on energy consumption while using the product, maintenance requirements for that product in use and items it consumes for it to be able to function properly. All these details are gathered and studied.

Disposal details: The last category that is covered under the Life Cycle Assessment is how things get disposed of. Under this, data related to the wastage or dumping or end-use of the product is collected to prepare the LCA report. Under the end-of-life phase, landfilling, recycling, incineration and environmental burdens of the product’s disposal are evaluated.

Major Compliances For LCA

There are primarily three international standards and compliances when it comes to Life Cycle Assessment. These are the guidelines on ways to conduct an LCA.

ISO Standards: The ISO Standard family of 14040/44 outline the ground rules for conducting LCA. Most of the other standards and compliances usually follow ISO Standards.

European Product Environmental Footprint (PEF): The PEF provides pointed recommendations about calculating the footprint of a product on the basis of different categories.

Environmental Product Declarations (EPD): EPD is a global document with specific guidelines for quantifying the environmental declarations and presenting the report in line with ISO Guidelines. It is a report that is prepared after conducting a thorough LCA.

What are the stages and phases of LCA?

There are four phases or stages of Life Cycle Assessment for any product, service and organisation. They all involve separate activities under the LCA depending on their stages and are interdependent for the final outcome.

Defining of goal and scope
Inventory analysis or data gathering
Impact assessment
Interpretation and report generation

Define LCA goal and scope

Decide exactly what you want to analyse, how you want to assess and how deep you want to evaluate. This also means what you don’t want to analyse, setting the boundaries of the study and the level of depth in the assessment.

Accurate inventory analysis

Under the inventory assessment, data collection areas and limitations are decided. This involves collecting specific data from the input and the output sources of the product life cycle. All data points starting from raw materials to manufacturing processes and end use of the product until its disposal is collected under the inventory analysis.

Assess the impact with data

This phase involves Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) which means measuring the environmental impact of the product and service with accurately collected data preceding this stage.

We measure the impacts and calculate different equivalents under this phase. This also means classification of different equivalents of measurement under different environmental impact categories including Global Warming Potential, Human Toxicity, Ecotoxicity, Acidification and Eutrophication.

Generate reports

This is the final stage of the LCA under which interpretations of the data collected are drawn. Final LCA report is prepared here with strong recommendations and conclusions for effective decision-making. All the interpretations of the data have to be contextualised to get a fair picture of the emissions and assessment.

Types of Product Life Cycle Models:

Cradle-to-grave

Under the cradle-to-grave product life cycle model, evaluation of the life cycle of product or service is conducted. Data from the raw material to disposal stage is collected and analysed. To put it simply, the product’s data is assessed from the inception of the item to the end stage of the item.

Cradle-to-gate

Under the cradle-to-gate model, assessment of the product is carried out only until it leaves the factory gates prior to getting transported to the consumer. You can monitor the carbon footprint of your product until it’s ready to reach the consumer.

Cradle-to-cradle

Under the cradle-to-cradle model, product life cycle assessment is done from the inception or manufacturing of the product to the stage where it is sent to be recycled or reused. This assessment starts at the cradle stage and ends at the stage where it becomes reusable or is sent for recycling. It is a concept that primarily works in the Circular Economy model.

Gate-to-gate

The gate-to–gate product life cycle assessment model focuses on evaluating the environmental impacts of a specific unit operation or production process.

LCA importance and business benefits

Life Cycle Assessment is critical for any product in any sector as it unlocks business opportunities, ensures global market access and aligns sustainability goals with long-term business strategy.

Sustainability efforts: The most important objective that Life Cycle Assessment helps achieve is sustainability goals and Net Zero targets for the product, services and organisations.

Compliances and regulations: You stay ahead of compliances and different regulations under the ISO14000 family ((PUT all regulations here)). This ensures the company is protected against any trade barriers due to climate laws in climate conscious economies across the world. This not only saves the business but also saves penalty related expenditures and trade restrictions.

Competitive advantages: Accurate Life Cycle Assessment also ensures competitive advantages for the company. Better market planning and revenue generation opportunities can be created. For instance, a business that has stronger climate commitment will stay ahead of its rivals with a lax attitude towards corporate sustainability. This ensures early and stronger market penetration and also an expansion in the sustainability conscious world.

Investors and consumers trust: Most investors have realised the climate risk of any business, service and product in the market. Hence, they prefer to invest in companies and organisations that are not just aware of their climate risks but are also taking timely measures to become climate-friendly. Apart from this, consumers are increasingly becoming climate conscious and they prefer choosing brands that are mitigating their environmental impacts and are open about it.

Supply chain decarbonisation: Accurate and timely Life Cycle Assessment helps in supply chain decarbonisation. Most environmental impacts are witnessed in the supply chain management. Life Cycle Assessment helps in identifying the emission hotspots and provides actionable insights about the supplier selection in the supply chain.

Climate Risk Management: The most significant thing that Life Cycle Assessment ensures is specific climate risk management. Under the LCA, different kinds of data from multiple data points are gathered in a systematic way. Hence, an accurate and objective interpretation of the data can assist in cutting unwanted costs, saving penalty money, and redesigning the product in a more sustainable manner as per the market demands. It also highlights resources dependencies and environmental risks that be taken into consideration while avoiding or minimising disruption of the supply chain. It also makes the company, product and service future-ready.

Challenges in conducting Life Cycle Assessment

Life Cycle Assessment is one of the most comprehensive and difficult exercises for multiple reasons. The challenges arise due to complexity of the assessment and data-gathering limitations. Herre are top 6 challenges in conducting LCA:

Lack of data availability and quality of data
Inconsistency in defining system boundaries
Accurate interpretation of data
Right LCA methodology
Tool and database restrictions

‍Lack of data availability and quality of data

The primary challenge in conducting a successful Life Cycle Assessment comes from shortage of data and lack of accuracy in the limited data that is available for the analysis.

In most of the cases, results of the study depend on the secondary data given by the vendor or suppliers of the raw materials needed for the production of the main item. Such data is usually a proxy information that does not represent the actual environmental impact of the company’s supply chain. In many instances, third party vendors also provide assumed data rather than actual information.

Gathering accurate and qualified data is a big challenge in the entire LCA journey. Reliable data from all the points and for all the specific activities is important for accurate LCA results. However, data gaps, inconsistencies in data gathering and procurement for multiple lifecycle stages can be cause of concern. Consequently, incomplete and unreliable data causes inaccurate interpretations of LCA results which results in many economic losses as well.

Inconsistency in defining system boundaries

The ultimate goal of the LCA for a company should be very clear as it significantly helps in defining the system boundaries and scope of data gathering. Clear demarcation of the system boundaries for the LCA helps in understanding what to study, how much to study and what areas to omit to reach the desired goals and findings. For instance, you need to decide what data you need to gather about raw material extraction, upstream and downstream processes, etc.

Accurate interpretation of data

After setting the boundaries and gathering the relevant data for the Life Cycle Assessment, comes the challenge related to interpreting the data accurately and objectively. Final LCA results depend on organising the data and preparing a report without biases and assumptions. Inaccurate reading of the collected data can result in discrepancies. In order to avoid such confusions, the evaluator must ensure that the report is prepared according to established frameworks such as ISO 14040 and 14044. Sticking strictly to the relevant standards can help maintain the accuracy of the interpreted data.

Choosing right LCA methodology

Choosing the right LCA methodology is one of the significant challenges. Moreover, even a minor mistake while deciding the methodology to conduct LCA can result in absolutely inaccurate LCA report generation. There is a well established methodology to carry out LCA with a structured approach. This methodology has different stages that must be followed in a sequential manner for effective LCA. These include phases like defining the goal and scope of study, inventory analysis or data gathering, impact assessment with the collected set of data, and finally interpretation and report generation.

Tool and database restrictions

Finally, everything comes down to the kind of tool and database we use for the LCA. Every tool has limitations as not all of them cover all kinds of materials and processes specific to different industries. Any brand should choose the platform and tool that covers specific activities and has a comprehensive database integrated to it for swift LCA.

Why choose us to eliminate your LCA challenges?

The Climate Action Front is a platform that is on a mission to make a climate conscious economy and help corporations achieve their NetZero targets on time with accurate data. We value data accuracy, long-term commitments and shared values to minimise the climate risk on your products, services and organisations. Our team comes with a robust background in sustainability and data management. We know that data is at the core of your business and we value them at any cost. Our founder, which is me (Shubham Thakur), has a robust track-record in helping companies of all scales in preparing their NetZero roadmap and assisting in understanding how climate change is impacting the economy. We will not rest until you become a complete NetZero on time decided by the nature of your business and sustainability goals.