The environmental control of the activities of companies and organizations is an essential challenge to be met in the face of climate issues. The Carbon Assessment and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the product are among the tools that allow companies to measure the impact of their activities on the environment, in order to implement actions to reduce their overall carbon footprint.
Do these tools share the same goals?
Are they aimed at the same actors and are they substitutable for each other?
The Carbon Footprint and the LCA produced are two very distinct protocols, for which it is important to clearly discern the respective perimeters, the analysis criteria and the methods of interpretation.
Definitions of Carbon Balance and Product LCA
What is the carbon footprint?
A diagnostic tool developed by the Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME) and made mandatory for certain structures by the Grenelle de l'Environnement, the Carbon Assessment is a protocol for measuring the GHG emissions (greenhouse gases) of a product, service or activity. Accounting takes into account direct and indirect CO2 emissions, but also other greenhouse gases: methane, hydrofluorocarbon, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride and perfluorocarbon are thus converted into carbon equivalent (eq.CO2) in order to allow a global balance.
The scope of the Carbon Balance is threefold. It is divided into scopes 1, 2 and 3 based on the international GHG Protocol methodology. These scopes distinguish between direct GHG emissions (scope 1) and indirect GHG emissions, respectively linked to energy consumption (scope 2) and all indirect emissions related to company activity (scope 3), both upstream and downstream of the value chain: from the purchase of raw materials to the delivery, use and end of life of products.
What does LCA produce?
Product Life Cycle Assessment, abbreviated ACV, for its part, is a complete procedure, based on the ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards, and which offers standardized steps for evaluating the environmental impact of a product or service from its creation to its end of life. The field of study is broad, and can therefore include greenhouse gas emissions such as the impact on natural resources, toxicity on living beings or the harmful effects on soils and oceans. The LCA evaluation method, recognized and standardized since the mid-90s, quantifies the impacts at all stages of the life cycle of a product, from the extraction of raw materials to the recovery or treatment of waste at the end of life, including the manufacture of the product and its packaging, transport, distribution and use by the consumer.
The major differences between the Carbon Balance and the Life Cycle Analysis of a product lie on the one hand in the scope evaluated, on the other hand in the criteria studied.
What differentiates the Carbon Balance from the LCA?
Perimeters of both methods
The scope of the Carbon Assessment is twofold, at the same time operational (with various emission stations) and organizational (at different sites and installations within the same company or organization).
Life Cycle Assessment, on the other hand, focuses on value chain of a product or service, from inputs to outputs, including manufacturing.
Criteria studied by each protocol
The Carbon Balance method is considered to be mono-criterion, since it only measures the carbon footprint of company activities.
On the other hand, the LCA protocol produced takes the form of a multi-criteria analysis, including CO2 emissions, but also the use of water and the impact on soils for example.
Carbon Balance and Product Life Cycle Assessment: common goals
The common objective of the Carbon Balance and the LCA product is to enable companies to quantifying their environmental impact, in a global context of ecological transition in society and the economy. Both tools offer accurate data on the climate and environmental impacts of an activity. Based on their results, companies can therefore develop an improvement approach and an informed sustainable development policy.
Quantifying its impact is also a way for companies subject (or not) to the Carbon Footprint to meet regulatory obligations or to anticipate them: extra-financial reporting legislation is regularly expanding its scope and new requirements are likely to come into force.
Finally, both approaches are performance drivers in a rapidly changing market, while environmental criteria are increasingly weighing on the choices of consumers and partners. Both the Carbon Assessment and the Life Cycle Analysis of a product allow companies to communicate on their impact reduction approaches, without the suspicion of greenwashing.
Carbon balance and LCA, two complementary tools
Given their differences in scope and approach (single-criterion and multi-criteria), Carbon Assessment and Product Life Cycle Analysis are two complementary and non-substitutable tools for measuring the environmental impacts of a company's activities and taking concrete reduction measures.
The Carbon Footprint first appears to be the fastest and easiest tool for measuring the ecological impact of a product or an activity as a whole in order to implement actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But because the method only concerns GHG emissions, and not the use of water resources or possible soil pollution, there is a risk that the measures taken will result in a transfer of environmental impact instead of a reduction in it. Reducing the Carbon Footprint may therefore in some cases involve increasing the overall environmental impact of the organization.
In addition to the Carbon Assessment, the LCA multi-criteria protocol allows a very detailed level of analysis of the environmental impact of a product, across the entire value chain and on various environmental criteria. It thus serves as a basis for other actions, including comparing the life cycle of different products from the same company, changing suppliers or looking for alternative materials with the aim of eco-design.
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