LCA and Sustainability Consulting Services
What is Life Cycle Assessment?
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an analytical tool used to quantify and interpret flows to and from the environment over the entire life cycle of a product or service.
By analyzing impacts throughout the product life cycle, LCA provides a comprehensive view of the product or process, and an accurate picture of the true environmental trade-offs inherent in decisions and product selections.
Depending on the intended application and audience for your LCA endeavors, EarthShift Global will recommend an appropriate type and level of assessment. If your objective is to publish your results for an external audience or to use them to support marketing claims, we will make sure that your assessment and any related documentation will not only withstand the scrutiny of consumers, stakeholders and regulatory agencies but also complies with all ISO requirements related to data collection, modeling, interpretation and reporting.
To help make the study actionable, we often provide the model in EarthSmart, our optimized web-based LCA tool, so that you can perform your own scenario analysis to improve and evaluate your sustainability performance.
Available Options for LCA / Life Cycle Assessment Consulting:
Screening-Level LCA/Hotspot Analysis
- Are you curious about where the majority of impacts are occurring in your product’s life cycle?
- Are you seeking a cost-effective means to quickly identify the environmental hotspots in your product design or supply chain?
If so, a screening-level LCA or “hotspot analysis” is the most cost-effective way to gain a high-level view of your product’s environmental footprint. Knowing where your biggest impacts originate allows you to focus your investment dollars and maximize the reduction of your environmental footprint.
Single-Product Life Cycle Assessment
- Are you seeking to establish a baseline of a single product’s environmental footprint for use as a benchmark for future assessments of similar products?
- Are you receiving customer requests for more comprehensive information regarding the environmental performance of your product?
If so, EarthShift Global can help you move forward by performing a rigorous, ISO-compliant single-product LCA that is ready for critical review – so you’ll be ready to provide your customers with the information they need to make informed decisions.
“I recently reviewed a study and found that EarthShift Global team’s approach to model multi-functionality was innovative while conforming to the ISO standard.”
— Mary Ann Curran, author of Life Cycle Assessment Handbook and
former LCA Research Program Manager, US EPA
- Are you trying to determine how one product compares with another, or with its competition?
- Are you seeking to make a marketing claim and state that one product is environmentally preferable to another?
If so, ISO standards require third-party critical review of your comparative LCA. EarthShift Global can help you put the science behind your marketing claims by conducting an extensive, ISO-compliant LCA that refines your screening LCA and provides a report that is ready for critical review.
Packaging Design Life Cycle Assessment
- Are you attempting to quantify the environmental impacts of your package, or do you want to integrate environmental assessment into your design process?
- Would you like to go to market with a strong sustainability story for your new package?
EarthShift Global’s packaging experts can help you do so by utilizing PackageSmart, an optimized LCA tool that maintains robust ISO 14040 methodology in the background. We can help you evaluate and communicate the environmental impacts of your packaging using the sustainability metrics that matter most to your customers and retailers.
Interested in More Information Regarding our Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) or Research and Analysis Services?
Please call, +1 (207) 608-6228 or email our sustainability consultants using our contact us form.
