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How to conduct a Life Cycle Assessment
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By Kara Anderson, UK Copywriter, on 09/29/2022
Updated by Agnès Potier-Murphy, on 07/27/2026
A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a method for measuring the environmental impact of a product or service at every stage of its life, from raw materials to disposal — often called cradle to grave.
Behind every product you use, from your smartphone to your car, lies a complex chain of materials, resources, and emissions. Understanding that life cycle is vital if we're going to reduce emissions and design more sustainable products. That's where LCAs come in, giving companies a methodical way to quantify that impact at every stage.
In this article we'll explore:
What a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is
The key steps in conducting an LCA
The main types of LCAs
Why LCAs matter for ESG and CSR
US regulations and standards to know
The challenges and benefits
How Greenly can help
What is a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)?
A Life Cycle Assessment, also known as an LCA or a Life Cycle Analysis, is a complete measurement of a particular product or service's environmental impact across its entire life cycle (often called cradle to grave, which we'll cover in more detail later). Although you can apply Life Cycle Assessments to services, it's typically used in the realm of products and manufacturing, so we'll refer to LCAs in this context throughout this article.
One clarification worth making early: Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) isn't another name for the whole process, but one specific phase within it, which we cover in the stages section below.
What is a life cycle?
It might sound strange to talk about a "life" for an object that was never alive. But every product or service goes through its own version of a life story, a series of stages running from the moment it's first conceived to the moment it's finally disposed of. That story starts with pulling raw materials from the earth, and ends with whatever happens to the product once someone's done with it, materials and all.
Most products and services move through six broad stages:
-
1
-
2
Materials sourcing / procurement
Acquiring raw materials and resources.
-
3
Production / implementation
Manufacturing or implementing the product or service.
-
4
Distribution / delivery
Shipping or delivering the product to users.
-
5
Usage
How the product is used and the resources consumed during its lifetime.
-
6
End of life
Recycling, reuse, disposal, or repurposing when the product is finished.
A Life Cycle Assessment examines each of these stages to identify and quantify the environmental impact tied to a product or service, including energy usage, carbon emissions, and waste production.
What does a Life Cycle Assessment measure?
As we've already touched on, a Life Cycle Assessment is a way to measure the environmental impact of a product or service.
It looks at all stages of a product's journey, from the resources used to make it, the manufacturing process, distribution, its use, and even disposal at the end of its life.
To ensure consistency across LCAs, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has standardized Life Cycle Assessments via the ISO 14040 series. This series provides a globally recognized framework for gauging how the life cycle of a product or service influences a wide range of environmental factors.
Within that framework, the impact-assessment phase groups results into impact categories — specific types of environmental harm a product's life cycle can contribute to. These are often reported at the midpoint level (closer to the raw measurement, like "ozone depletion" or "acidification"), and sometimes rolled up further into broader damage areas like human health or ecosystem quality, depending on the method used. EPA's TRACI tool, built specifically for US assessments, reports at the midpoint level shown below.
ISO 14040/14044 set the framework for LCAs. The exact impact categories depend on the LCIA method — many roll detailed indicators up into three high-level damage areas.
Damage to human health
- Particulate matter & human toxicity
- Photochemical smog & ozone depletion
- Climate change impacts on health
Damage to ecosystem quality
- Acidification & eutrophication (freshwater/marine)
- Terrestrial & aquatic ecotoxicity
- Land use/land-use change & climate change
Resource depletion
- Minerals & metals depletion
- Fossil fuel use
- Water scarcity/stress
Climate change (GWP)
Particulate matter
Human toxicity
Terrestrial ecotoxicity
Freshwater ecotoxicity
Marine ecotoxicity
Acidification
Eutrophication (freshwater)
Eutrophication (marine)
Ozone depletion
Photochemical ozone formation
Water use
Resource use (minerals/metals)
Resource use (fossils)
Land use
Working from a standardized set of categories like this makes it possible to compare products or services on a like-for-like basis.
Example of an LCA
To see how this plays out in practice, let's walk through a familiar product: a laptop.
Picture yourself as the manufacturer, running an LCA that traces the product's entire journey, from the raw materials pulled out of the ground to the day it's finally recycled or thrown away. Here's what that might look like in practice:
-
Raw materials
Identifying components like gold, copper, and aluminium – and understanding how mining and refining these materials contribute to emissions and resource depletion.
-
Manufacturing
Measuring the energy used, waste produced, and emissions released during production to pinpoint where efficiency improvements could be made.
-
Packaging
Assessing the impact of packaging choices, such as switching from plastic to recycled cardboard or reducing unnecessary wrapping.
-
Distribution
Calculating transport emissions, which can vary significantly depending on whether products are shipped by air, sea, or road.
-
Usage
Estimating electricity consumption during the laptop’s lifetime – often one of the biggest contributors to its overall footprint.
-
End-of-life
Analyzing what happens when the laptop is no longer used – can components be recycled, repurposed, or repaired instead of going to landfill?
By assessing every stage of the laptop's lifecycle, you get a comprehensive overview of its environmental footprint, from cradle to grave.
Armed with this knowledge, you can identify areas for improvement and implement strategies to make the laptop more sustainable.
That's good news for the environment, but it can also mean real cost savings, a stronger public image, and stronger appeal to consumers who increasingly factor sustainability into what they buy: 65% of Gen Z and 63% of Millennials say they're willing to pay more for sustainable products.
What are the different types of Life Cycle Assessments?
There are three main types of Life Cycle Assessment, each offering a different level of depth, as commonly categorized in LCA literature. Which one makes sense for you depends less on the product and more on what you plan to do with the results.
A quick internal check might only call for something lightweight. But if the results are headed for external reporting, marketing claims, or compliance, you'll want a more detailed, data-rich analysis instead.
The three types of LCAs are:
💡
Conceptual Life Cycle Assessment
(Life Cycle Thinking)
What it involves
Conceptual LCAs are the most basic form of assessment. They provide a broad, preliminary look at a product or service’s environmental impact using limited data.
How results are presented
Results are typically shown as short statements or simple visuals that highlight which materials or processes contribute most to the product’s impact.
Who it’s useful for
Ideal for early-stage design teams or stakeholders who need a quick, high-level understanding of environmental impacts without diving into complex data.
⚙️
Simplified Life Cycle Assessment
What it involves
This version goes a step further by using generic data and standardized modules to estimate environmental impacts across key stages of a product or service’s life cycle.
How results are presented
Findings are based on semi-quantitative data from pre-existing databases and industry averages, offering a more refined picture than a conceptual LCA.
Who it’s useful for
Useful for companies seeking a balanced approach - detailed enough to inform early sustainability strategies, but not as resource-intensive as a full analysis.
📊
Detailed Life Cycle Assessment
What it involves
The most comprehensive approach, involving tailored data collection and a deep dive into every stage of the product or service life cycle.
How results are presented
Includes custom datasets, in-depth impact categorization, and a detailed interpretation of results aligned with ISO 14040 and 14044 standards.
Who it’s useful for
Best suited for external reporting, regulatory compliance, or product comparisons where accuracy and transparency are essential. Often required for environmental product declarations (EPDs).
It's also worth noting that the focus of LCAs can vary based on your objectives. A Social LCA, for example, quantifies the social impact of a product, considering factors like labor conditions and community development. An Environmental Life Cycle Assessment, by contrast, evaluates a product's environmental impact specifically — energy use, waste generation, and similar factors.
What Life Cycle Assessment standards are there?
Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) run on a globally recognized framework built by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), specifically the ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards.
That shared framework is what makes LCA results trustworthy and comparable in the first place: it gives companies a consistent way to produce transparent, verifiable data on their environmental footprint, and means results can be shared and compared across companies and countries without everyone using a different yardstick.
Alongside these ISO standards, a handful of related frameworks (some European in origin) round out the rules for how LCAs get carried out and reported. Here's a summary of the standards worth knowing and what each one covers:
| Standard | Description | Key Features | Application |
|---|---|---|---|
|
ISO 14040
|
Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - Principles and framework | Defines the principles and framework for LCA, including the goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation. | Applicable to all types of products and services, providing a generic framework for LCAs. |
|
ISO 14044
|
Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - Requirements and guidelines | Provides detailed requirements and guidelines for conducting an LCA, including specific steps for each phase of the LCA. | Ensures consistency and reliability in LCA processes across different organisations. |
|
ISO 14025
|
Environmental labels and declarations - Type III environmental declarations - Principles and procedures | Specifies requirements for environmental product declarations (EPDs), which provide quantified environmental data for products. | Used for creating Type III EPDs, which are based on LCA data and are used for product comparisons. |
|
ISO 14067
|
Greenhouse gases - Carbon footprint of products - Requirements and guidelines for quantification | Focuses on the quantification and reporting of the carbon footprint of products (CFP) based on LCA. | Helps organizations measure and communicate the carbon footprint of their products. |
|
Product Environmental Footprint (PEF)
|
European Union initiative for measuring environmental performance | Provides a method for assessing the environmental performance of products using a life cycle approach. | Developed by the European Commission to harmonize environmental footprint methodologies. |
|
Organizational Environmental Footprint (OEF)
|
European Union initiative for measuring environmental performance at the organizational level | Similar to PEF but focuses on the environmental footprint of entire organizations. | Helps organizations assess and improve their overall environmental performance. |
Note that PEF and OEF are still in a non-mandatory "transition phase" as of the European Commission's latest guidance: useful reference points, but not yet binding requirements.
Are there any alternatives to Life Cycle Assessments?
When it comes to understanding your product's impact on the environment, there are a few alternatives to the full LCA. These include:
This approach assesses the product's impact from production until it leaves the factory gates.
A mini-LCA focusing on a single process in your production chain, providing insights into specific areas of your product's life cycle.
A concept rooted in the circular economy, this method emphasizes recycling waste to become new raw materials for other products or industries.
Tailored to fuels, this LCA covers the life cycle from raw extraction to emissions during usage.
A standardized (ISO 14025), independently verified report built on LCA data used to communicate and compare a product's environmental impact against others in its category. EPD is usually the documented output of an LCA.
Evaluate the potential environmental impact of proposed construction projects.
Uses averages to estimate materials, energy, and emissions within specific sectors of the economy.
These methods can provide useful insights, but it should be noted that none are as detailed or accurate as a Life Cycle Assessment.
Most of these approaches are lighter-weight ways to answer a narrower question when a full LCA isn't necessary. EPDs are a bit different: rather than a substitute for an LCA, they're typically the documented result of one, standardized under ISO 14025.
What are the different stages of a Life Cycle Assessment?
ISO 14040 and 14044 break a Life Cycle Assessment down into four stages:
- Establish goals and scope
- Conduct an inventory analysis
- Assess impact
- Interpret the results
Each stage feeds into the next, taking you from a rough sense of what you're trying to find out to a clear read on the results. And it's rarely a straight line, and you'll often loop back to an earlier stage as new information comes in, which is usually how the best improvements get spotted.
Here's a closer look at each one:
1
Establish goals and scope
Every LCA needs a clear reason for existing before anything else happens. Are you trying to cut your environmental footprint, satisfy a reporting requirement, or shape a product decision? Answering that shapes everything downstream — this is the planning stage, where you decide what you'll measure, how far you'll go, and where the line gets drawn.
Common starting points include:
- Identifying ways to reduce environmental impact
- Communicating your sustainability efforts to customers
- Informing internal policies or long-term strategy
To draw your boundaries, ask: how much of the product will I examine? Which impacts matter most? What am I deliberately leaving out?
2
Life Cycle inventory analysis
This is where the real data-gathering starts. You're mapping every environmental input and output connected to your product — commonly called its material flows.
Inputs cover raw materials and energy going in; outputs cover waste and pollutants coming out. Together, they show what your product draws from the environment, and what it hands back.
This stage tends to eat the most time. Expect a mix of primary research, supplier data, and industry databases. Don't be surprised if a few gaps need filling with reasonable estimates.
3
Assess impact
With the inventory in hand, it's time to figure out what it actually means. This stage translates raw data into real-world impact — carbon emissions, water use, and other factors get grouped into categories like climate change, resource use, or human health. The point is to see which areas drive most of your footprint, so you know where a change would actually move the needle.
4
Interpret the results
The last stage is about drawing conclusions. You'll double-check your impact assessment for consistency, flag the issues that matter most, and turn all of it into something usable — clear takeaways and concrete next steps, whether that's redesigning a product, changing suppliers, or shaping longer-term sustainability goals.
This is the point where data turns into action.
System boundaries mark where your LCA starts and stops — which stages, processes, and inputs count, and which don't. Get this wrong in either direction and the study suffers: too broad, and it becomes unmanageable; too narrow, and you risk missing the impacts that actually matter. Whatever you decide, document it clearly and justify it in line with ISO 14044.
Why should my company carry out a Life Cycle Assessment?
A Life Cycle Assessment is one of the most trusted ways to measure and disclose your company's environmental footprint, precisely because it's so rigorous and so firmly rooted in data. Other ways of measuring impact exist, but none match an LCA for depth or quantitative rigor.
See a product's full footprint in one place — materials, energy, emissions, waste — and spot where the biggest problems hide.
Map your Scope 3 emissions, compare suppliers on real data, and push upstream reductions where you actually have leverage.
Swap materials, streamline processes, cut energy use — lower impact and lower costs usually move together.
Stay aligned with ISO 14040/14044, support EPDs, PEF/OEF, and ISO 14067 carbon-footprint reporting — and feed reliable data into your GHG reports as rules keep tightening.
Design with repair, reuse, and recycling in mind; build take-back models that keep products out of landfill.
Give leadership the evidence to set targets and policies that are actually grounded in data, not guesswork.
Use standardized methods to compare models and materials on equal footing, and see how you stack up against the market.
Back your claims with verifiable data to win tenders, meet buyer requirements, and avoid greenwashing accusations.
Purpose attracts talent, and it's measurable: 70% of Gen Z and Millennials say a company's environmental credentials factor into where they choose to work.
What challenges should my company be aware of when undertaking an LCA?
LCAs are a genuinely useful tool for any company trying to understand and cut its environmental impact. They show where emissions actually come from, how resources are being used, and where a change would make the biggest difference. But running one is rarely simple.
Data gaps, fuzzy scope definitions, and a dozen other snags tend to show up along the way. This section walks through the most common ones, along with our best advice for handling each.
Challenge
Defining clear goals
Without clear goals, an LCA can become unfocused and unmanageable. Precise objectives shape the scope, data needs and method.
Solution
Start with purpose: Are you aiming to cut impact, meet regulations, or improve design? Write it down and use it to guide every decision.
Challenge
Setting the right scope
Too broad becomes overwhelming; too narrow misses key impacts.
Solution
Define what’s in and out from the start. Focus on stages and impact categories most relevant to your goals.
Challenge
Data collection
Accurate, complete data is hard to gather; gaps and inconsistencies reduce reliability.
Solution
Plan early. Combine primary data with trusted databases, engage suppliers, and use flow models to organize and fill gaps.
Challenge
Balancing detail
Too simple lacks insight; too detailed eats time and resources.
Solution
Match effort to purpose: simplified for screening and internal use; detailed for external reporting or compliance.
Challenge
Impact assessment
Turning inventory data into impacts is complex; different methods can yield different results.
Solution
Choose categories and methods aligned to your goals. Lean on ISO 14040/14044 for consistency and comparability.
Challenge
Interpreting results
Insights can be unclear without checks, context and prioritization.
Solution
Run completeness, consistency and sensitivity checks. Highlight significant issues and translate them into decisions.
Challenge
Taking action
Measuring alone doesn’t change outcomes.
Solution
Use findings to set targets, switch materials or suppliers, and track progress. Share responsibilities across teams.
FAQs: LCAs in the UK
Are Life Cycle Assessments mandatory in the US?
No federal law currently requires companies to conduct an LCA. The SEC's 2024 climate-disclosure rule was stayed shortly after adoption, and in May 2026 the SEC proposed rescinding it entirely. At the state level, California's SB 253 does require large companies doing business in the state to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, with Scope 1 and 2 reporting due by November 10, 2026 — but that's a GHG-disclosure law, not an LCA mandate by name, and its companion law on climate financial risk (SB 261) is currently paused pending a court challenge. No US law requires an LCA specifically, but growing disclosure pressure — especially from California — makes LCA data increasingly useful for compliance.
Which US standards relate to Life Cycle Assessments?
LCAs conducted in the US generally follow the same global standards used everywhere else: ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, which define the framework and requirements for carrying out an assessment. These are voluntary international standards, not US-specific rules, but they're the benchmark most American companies and auditors use to produce credible, comparable results. The EPA's TRACI tool is also widely used for the impact-assessment stage specifically, since it's built around US environmental data.
Which industries in the US rely most on LCAs?
LCAs are most established in construction, manufacturing, and energy, where materials and design choices carry an outsized environmental footprint. Packaging, food and beverage, and consumer goods companies are adopting them too, largely to back sustainability claims with real data instead of assertions.
How does an LCA support sustainability reporting and investor confidence?
LCA data gives companies something concrete to point to when making sustainability claims, a number backed by a recognized methodology, rather than a vague statement. That matters more than ever with investors specifically: even as US sustainable-investment sentiment has cooled amid political pushback, 67% of US asset owners are still pursuing sustainable investment strategies, and most remain concerned about climate-related financial risk. Solid underlying data is exactly what lets a company substantiate the claims that audience is looking for.
What is life cycle assessment software?
LCA software automates the heavy lifting of an assessment, pulling in emissions factors, running calculations across life-cycle stages, and generating ISO-aligned reports instead of building the analysis manually. It's especially useful for companies running LCAs across multiple products, since it cuts the time and specialized expertise a manual process demands.
Is there a certification for life cycle assessment professionals?
Yes, several organizations offer LCA-focused training and credentials covering ISO 14040/14044 methodology and impact-assessment techniques. Certification isn't required to conduct an LCA, but it adds credibility for consultants or in-house teams producing assessments for external audiences.
How can Greenly can help with LCAs?
We won't pretend otherwise: running an LCA is a genuinely complex undertaking, especially the first time around. It takes real time, real resources, and specialized know-how that most organizations simply don't have sitting in-house. That's where a company like Greenly comes in:
Save Time & Reduce Costs
Leverage AI automation & direct integrations to generate thousands of LCAs at a fraction of the cost, while accessing the Greenly Sustainability Suite.
📂 Upload your BOM & get a regulatory-compliant template. 90% of the LCA process automated.
🔌 Plug-and-play integrations (ERP, PLM, eCommerce)
🔗 Connected with the Sustainability Suite for corporate alignment
✅ Compliance (ISO 14040.44, ISO 14067, EPD, FDES, PEP) + 1-click audit-grade reporting generation
Make Eco-Design Your Everyday Tool
Our intuitive, no-code platform empowers product managers to run impact calculations, test design changes, and simulate low-carbon substitutions.
🏗️ Build a strong reference framework to apply consistently across your portfolio.
♾️ Generate unlimited LCAs for your entire product portfolio.
📑 Choose any LCA type (ISO, EPD, FDES, Service, etc.) and our platform will guide you through every step..
🔍 Granular analyses (materials, components, processes) with data visualizations.
🔄 Multi-scenarios: duplicate LCAs, adjust factors & compare.
Precision & Reliability with Science-Backed Data
Our LCAs are based on ISO-aligned methodology and reference databases, ensuring compliance with the strictest regulatory standards.
📐 ISO-aligned methodology (14040.44 & 14067)
📚 300k+ Emission Factors (Ecoinvent, IEA, Agrobalyse, EPD, PEF, etc.)
✍️ Create & use your own custom emission factors
🤝 Supplier-specific factors via self-service LCA modules
📊 Multi-criteria analyses aligned with EPD / FDES / PEP
Become Your Own LCA Expert
Our platform is designed to make every user more confident in LCA and eco-design.
🎥 Online training: learn how LCAs work & understand regulations (EPD, FDES, PEP…)
✅ Automated verification & quality control (no manual cross-checks)
💬 Expert support & guidance: 8.5/10 CSAT, 17-min avg. response time
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