Life Cycle Assessment

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) provides valuable information about the environmental impacts of products, services, or systems during their life cycle. This information can be utilized in various ways to improve your company's operations, such as in research and development work, as supporting material for funding applications, to differentiate from competitors, as well as in communications and marketing. In addition to LCA studies, we conduct critical reviews of LCA and carbon footprint studies and prepare Environmental Product Declarations (EPD).

Life Cycle Assessment identifies the environmental impacts throughout the life cycle

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a systematic and established method for assessing the environmental impacts of a product, system, or service. LCA allows the evaluation of various environmental impacts, such as climate change (carbon footprint), acidification, eutrophication, water footprint, and depletion of natural resources.

Our LCA studies are based on international standards ISO 14040 and 14044, and we evaluate the environmental impacts across the entire life cycle – from cradle to grave – enabling us to identify the most significant life cycle stages. Depending on your needs, other LCA-based calculation rules and guidelines, such as PEF/PEFCR, can also be applied during the assessment.

LCA offers excellent opportunities to improve environmental performance by identifying actual and potential areas for development and the most relevant factors contributing to environmental impacts. The results can be utilized for various purposes:

Product development as part of research and development
Differentiation from competitors
Communication and marketing strategies

Our experts have accumulated their expertise and knowledge to the top level by conducting LCA and carbon footprint studies of various scopes and industries. We have carried out both studies used for customer's internal specific purposes (e.g., technology comparison) and assessments for public stakeholder communication.

Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) provides comparable information about environmental performance

An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is a standardized document used in both B2B and B2C communication that extensively presents the environmental impacts of a product throughout its life cycle. EPDs are always based on a LCA study and prepared according to product category rules (PCR). This ensures that the results presented in the EPD are comparable to other EPD documents prepared using the same calculation rules. Additionally, EPDs are always verified by a third party.

In addition to producing EPD documentation, we strive to enhance your understanding of your product's environmental performance by clearly explaining the background of the results and the significant factors affecting the environmental impacts.

Critical review ensures the quality of LCA or carbon footprint studies

Critical review provides quality assurance for LCA or carbon footprint studies by ensuring compliance with standards, consistency, and transparency. Our critical review process ensures that the study has been conducted in accordance with guidelines and standards, and that the methods used are justified based on the study's objectives.

The outcome of our critical review is a report and statement containing valuable feedback and improvement suggestions to enhance the study's quality. We perform critical reviews according to international standards ISO 14044 and ISO/TS 14071. We critically review our own studies and those conducted by other entities. When conducting a critical review of our own study, we always ensure the independence and impartiality of the reviewer.

Partner with Etteplan to unlock environmental insights, drive sustainable development, and showcase your commitment to a greener future. Contact us today to learn more about our Life Cycle Assessment services and how we can help you make a lasting impact.