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, has 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 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, service 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, the study is also conducted on the usage 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 LCA Compliances

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 a product or service is conducted. Data from the raw material to the 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.

Why trust and 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 Net Zero 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 it at any cost. Our founder, who 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 Net Zero on time, as decided by the nature of your business and sustainability goals.