Know Your Product's True Impact.

From manufacturing and supply chain to end-of-life management, we quantify every environmental impact across your product's lifecycle. Back up your sustainability claims with solid data, and win consumer trust.

ISO
14040/44 Aligned
0+
Impact categories assessed
B Corp
ready
The Challenge

Green claims without evidence are a liability.

Consumers and regulators are scrutinising environmental claims more closely than ever. The EU Green Claims Directive, the UK's Green Claims Code, and the Competition and Markets Authority are all tightening the rules around what businesses can say about the sustainability of their products.

Some companies want to tighten up, but often don't know where to look. They focus on packaging when the real impact is in manufacturing.

The EU Green Claims Directive requires substantiated lifecycle evidence for environmental marketing claims. Getting ahead of this now protects your brand and creates a genuine competitive advantage with sustainability-conscious consumers.

The Solution

What is a Lifecycle Assessment (LCA)?

An LCA quantifies the environmental impacts of a product across its entire life, from raw materials through manufacturing, distribution, and use, to disposal or recycling. It covers far more than carbon: water use, land use, ecotoxicity, acidification, and more.

Governed by ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, it's the methodology behind Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), carbon footprint labels, and comparative environmental claims. Unlike an organisational carbon footprint, an LCA follows a specific product's material and energy flows wherever they lead in the supply chain.

Lifecycle analysis data and product assessment
Our Approach

Rigorous science, practical outputs.

We conduct ISO-compliant LCAs that go beyond box-ticking to give you insights you can actually act on. And communicate with confidence.

Cradle-to-Grave & Cradle-to-Gate

We scope each LCA to your specific needs. Cradle-to-Grave: raw material extraction, manufacturing, packaging, distribution, consumer use, and end-of-life. Cradle-to-Gate: production to point of sale (for B2B products where downstream use varies).

Hotspot Identification & Design Guidance

The impact score of an LCA is not the main output. The crucial output is understanding which stages and materials have the most impact. When you can pinpoint the greatest environmental burdens of your product, you can focus R&D investment where it will make the biggest difference.

Claims-Ready Reporting

Our LCA reports are structured for multiple audiences and purposes. For regulatory compliance and third-party verification, we deliver technically rigorous documentation meeting ISO 14044 requirements. For marketing teams, clear summary outputs and guidance on which claims are substantiated. For procurement and investor queries, executive summaries that communicate environmental credentials without the technical complexity.

How We Work

Four phases to a complete LCA.

Our process follows the ISO 14040/44 framework and is designed to minimise disruption to your teams while delivering maximum insight.

Goal & Scope Definition

We work with you to define the purpose of the LCA, the product system boundary, the functional unit (the basis for all comparisons), and the intended audience. We'll quickly identify any critical data gaps and design a data collection plan to address them efficiently.

Life Cycle Inventory (LCI)

We compile a comprehensive inventory of all material and energy flows entering and leaving the product system (raw material quantities, supplier energy use, packaging weights, transport distances, waste volumes). We combine primary data from your operations with secondary data from industry-leading LCI databases.

Impact Assessment (LCIA)

Using established impact assessment methods (ReCiPe, CML, or ILCD as appropriate), we translate the inventory data into quantified environmental impacts across categories including global warming potential, water scarcity, land use, particulate matter formation, human toxicity, and fossil resource depletion.

Interpretation & Recommendations

We provide a clear set of actionable recommendations ranked by impact reduction potential and feasibility, so your team knows exactly where to focus next. Findings are always interpreted in the context of your business goals: substantiating marketing claims, finding reduction opportunities, or preparing for an Environmental Product Declaration.

Who This Is For

When an LCA makes commercial sense.

Consumer Brands

If you sell directly to consumers and make environmental claims about your products, an LCA is the foundation of credible, defensible communication. Whether you are achieving B Corp status, responding to retailer questionnaires or devising a new advertising campaign, an LCA gives you the evidence base to do so with confidence. Win your customers over with the truth.

Product Designers & Manufacturers

LCA is most powerful when used early in the design process. By assessing the environmental profile of different material choices, manufacturing routes, or end-of-life scenarios before committing to production, your R&D team can build sustainability into the product from the ground up. Avoid costly redesigns and future-proof against tightening regulations.

Retailers & Procurement Teams

An LCA provides the independent, standardised evidence needed to satisfy sustainability questionnaires, enter preferred supplier schemes, and demonstrate alignment with retailer net zero commitments. Data to reduce supply chain risk and environmental liability.

Ready to understand your product's true impact?

Book a free scoping call and we will outline the right LCA approach for your product, estimated timelines, and what data we need to get started.

Let's talk
FAQs

Common questions about lifecycle analysis.

An organisational carbon footprint measures greenhouse gas emissions from your business operations across Scopes 1, 2, and 3. A lifecycle assessment (LCA) is product-focused and examines a wider range of environmental impacts beyond carbon. An LCA answers the question "what is the environmental impact of this product?" while a carbon footprint answers "what are the emissions from my organisation?".
A streamlined screening LCA can be completed in 4 to 6 weeks. A full ISO-compliant LCA with critical review typically takes 8 to 16 weeks depending on product complexity, data availability, and whether an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is required. We always provide a detailed project plan at the start of an engagement and can prioritise delivery where you have a commercial deadline.
It depends on your goal. A screening LCA uses secondary data and simplified modelling to quickly identify the key environmental hotspots in your product. Ideal for internal decision-making, product design, or initial assessment before investing in a full study. A full ISO 14044-compliant LCA with critical review is required if you intend to use the results in public-facing environmental claims, an Environmental Product Declaration, or comparative assertions against a competitor's product.
An EPD is a standardised, third-party verified document that communicates the quantified environmental performance of a product based on LCA data. EPDs are increasingly required in construction and manufacturing sectors for green building schemes (such as BREEAM and LEED), public procurement, and supply chain due diligence.
An LCA can quantify the carbon footprint of a product from cradle to grave, which is a necessary prerequisite for any net zero or carbon neutral product claim. However, making such a claim also requires a credible reduction pathway and, for carbon neutral claims, a rigorous approach to residual offset procurement. We will guide you through the full process and ensure any claim you make is substantiated, compliant with the UK Green Claims Code, and robust enough to withstand scrutiny from regulators, media, and consumers.
Related Services

What works alongside LCA.

Lifecycle analysis pairs naturally with these services to build a complete sustainability picture.

Turn product claims into competitive advantage.

Stop guessing about your product's impact. Start with the science, communicate with confidence, and get ahead of the regulations that are coming.

Let's talk