What is a life cycle assessment (LCA)?

A life cycle assessment (LCA) measures the environmental impacts of a product across its whole life. It follows the product from the extraction of raw materials, through manufacturing and transport, to use, repair and finally disposal or recycling, and adds up the effects on climate, water, land, resources and human health.

LCA is how companies and regulators find out where a product's real impact sits. For many products, most of it is in materials and component manufacturing, far up the supply chain. For others, such as appliances that use energy, the use phase dominates.

The four phases of an LCA

The method is standardized in ISO 14040:2006 (principles and framework) and ISO 14044:2006 (requirements and guidelines). Both have since been amended. ISO 14040 defines four phases:

1. Goal and scope definition. Why the study is done, who it is for, the functional unit and the system boundary. The functional unit is the reference everything is measured against, for example one T-shirt worn for a set number of uses, or one kWh delivered by a battery over its service life.
2. Life cycle inventory (LCI). Collecting the inputs and outputs of every process inside the boundary: materials, energy, water, transport, emissions and waste.
3. Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). Turning the inventory into impact results, such as climate change in kg CO2 equivalent, water use or resource depletion.
4. Interpretation. Checking the results against the goal, testing the assumptions and drawing conclusions.

The phases are iterative. A gap found during interpretation often sends you back to collect better inventory data.

Cradle to gate, cradle to grave

The system boundary decides which life stages count:

• Cradle to gate: from raw materials until the product leaves the factory. Common for supplier data shared between companies.
• Cradle to grave: adds distribution, use and end of life. Needed for a full product footprint.

Results are only comparable when the functional unit, boundary and data rules match. That is the problem the EU's own method is meant to solve.

LCA, PEF and the product carbon footprint

The Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) is the EU's method for doing an LCA. It is set out in Commission Recommendation (EU) 2021/2279 of 15 December 2021, which replaced the earlier 2013 recommendation and also covers organizations through the Organisation Environmental Footprint (OEF). PEF fixes more of the choices an ISO LCA leaves open, so that studies of products in the same group can be compared.

For a specific product group, Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCRs) add the detail: which processes to include, which data to use and how to model them. The Commission lists PEFCRs for groups such as apparel, beer and dairy products, and work on further groups, including batteries, is ongoing.

A product carbon footprint is an LCA limited to a single impact category, climate change. It is usually calculated under ISO 14067 or the PEF method.

Where EU rules use LCA

Batteries. The carbon footprint declaration in the EU Battery Regulation is an LCA-based figure. Annex II requires the calculation method to comply with the latest PEF method and the relevant PEFCRs. The functional unit is one kWh of total energy provided by the battery over its service life, and the use phase is excluded unless design choices make a non-negligible difference. The result goes into the battery passport.

ESPR products. The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) lists the environmental footprint (a quantification of a product's life cycle environmental impacts) and the carbon footprint among the product parameters in Annex I. A delegated act for a product group can require them as information in the Digital Product Passport or set limits, and it decides the calculation method.

What it means for brands

• Supplier data decides the result. Generic database values are a starting point. Primary data from your material and component suppliers makes the result accurate and defensible.
• Results change. A new supplier, material or energy source changes the footprint, so studies need version history.
• Claims need evidence. Any environmental claim based on an LCA should be backed by the study, its method and its boundary.

How to prepare

1. Pick a method and stay consistent. Use PEF and its PEFCR where one exists for your product group; otherwise ISO 14040/14044.
2. Start with regulated or high-volume products, such as batteries.
3. Request primary data from suppliers with the method and boundary they used.
4. Keep each study with its report, verifier and date, ready to publish in a passport when a delegated act requires it.