Life cycle assessment (LCA) is today one of the most reliable methods for evaluating the environmental impacts of a product or service, and it is being adopted by a growing number of companies. But between a streamlined LCA and a full LCA, how do you choose the approach best suited to your company, your product and the products it manufactures? Objective, scope, budget, deadlines, regulations: several criteria guide this decision. Qweeko helps you see clearly to make the right choice.
What is life cycle assessment? The fundamentals to know
LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) is a standardised method (ISO 14040 and ISO 14044) that allows a company to evaluate and reduce the environmental impact of a product or service, from raw material extraction to end of life. This is the so-called "cradle to grave" approach, which integrates every stage of the life cycle.
Each stage of the product's life cycle is analysed to measure a product's environmental impacts: raw material production, manufacturing, transport, the use phase, and finally end-of-life treatment. At each stage, resource flows — energy, water, materials — enter and leave the system during use, generating measurable environmental impacts.
LCA is today the essential reference tool for producing recognised documents such as PEPs (Product Environmental Profiles) and EPDs (Environmental Product Declarations), whose use is becoming widespread in building and industry tenders.
The full LCA: a rigorous method for certified results
Definition and steps
The full LCA is the most exhaustive form of life cycle assessment. It follows the four steps defined by the ISO 14044 standard:
- Defining the goal and scope of the study: what do we want to measure, on which product or service, and how far?
- Life cycle inventory (LCI): exhaustive collection of all input and output data at each stage
- Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA): calculation of impacts on climate change, water consumption, acidification, etc.
- Interpretation of results: critical analysis to guide the company's decisions
How do you carry out a full LCA?
To carry out a full LCA, the company must first establish an exhaustive life cycle inventory, then mobilise primary data (field measurements, supplier technical datasheets) and secondary data from recognised databases such as ecoinvent, the INIES database or the PEP ecopassport database; because the quality of each piece of data collected determines the reliability of the results. The software tool used must be able to model the entire system, each process and the whole life cycle.
The approach also involves verification by an independent third party, which guarantees the reliability of the results.
When should you use a full LCA?
A full LCA is recommended in the following situations:
- You want to publish a verified, defensible PEP or EPD for your product
- Your product is subject to regulatory requirements such as the RE2020
- You are responding to public tenders or to frameworks such as HQE, BREEAM or LEED
- You want to communicate credibly about your environmental impacts and share these results with your customers and partners
- The value chain of your product or service is complex and involves many manufacturing stages
Its limits
Carrying out a full LCA takes time — several weeks to several months depending on the complexity of the product — and requires specialised expertise. It is a significant investment for each product, but making this effort yields results that are recognised on the most demanding markets.
The streamlined LCA: an agile tool to guide your approach
Definition and scope
The streamlined LCA is a lighter version of the method but remains a recognised approach for guiding environmental choices. It relies on generic data, a restricted framework and conservative assumptions. Rather than integrating and analysing every stage of the product's life cycle with the same level of detail, it focuses on the stages that generate the most environmental impact — the famous environmental "hotspots".
The aim is not to obtain certified results on each process, but to quickly obtain a view that is reliable enough to make informed decisions.
How do you carry out a streamlined LCA?
To carry out a streamlined LCA, the company mainly uses secondary data available in generic databases. The scope of the study is deliberately reduced to the most contributing stages, particularly those related to manufacturing. A suitable modelling tool makes it possible to obtain initial results on environmental impacts within a few days to a few weeks.
When should you use a streamlined LCA?
The streamlined LCA is particularly suited to the following cases:
- You are in the design phase of a product and want to guide your choice of materials or processes
- You want to quickly identify levers to reduce the environmental impact of your product or service
- You are running an internal eco-design initiative and need a quick snapshot of your environmental impacts
- Your company wants to prioritise its efforts before committing to a full LCA on its high-stakes products
- Your company faces budget or deadline constraints that do not yet allow a full LCA
Its limits
The streamlined LCA does not allow you to publish a certified PEP or EPD. Nor can it serve as the basis for external communication about your product without a risk of greenwashing — a growing concern in the context of the European Green Claims Directive. Its results are orders of magnitude, useful internally, but not defensible externally.
Streamlined or full LCA: how to decide?
The choice between the two methods depends above all on the objective your company wants to achieve and the scope of the intended approach, as each method meets distinct needs.
Opt for the streamlined LCA if your company is in an exploratory phase, if you want to use LCA as a design-support tool, or if you need a first environmental diagnosis to guide your priorities without delay.
Opt for the full LCA if your objective is to produce and publish a PEP or EPD, to meet regulatory obligations, or to credibly and verifiably showcase the environmental impacts of your product or service.
In many cases, the two approaches are complementary: a streamlined LCA upstream helps guide the product's design and identify priority areas for improvement, while a full LCA downstream validates the results and produces the documents needed for external communication.
Qweeko supports you in your LCA approach
At Qweeko, we support manufacturers, producers and engineering firms in carrying out their LCA — as well as in generating PEPs and EPDs compliant with the frameworks in force.
Whether your company is beginning its environmental journey on a new product or needs certified results to respond to a market, our tool and our expertise let you integrate reliable deliverables, within the best timeframes.