Dit is een paragraaf. Klik hier om je eigen tekst toe te voegen.
Dit is een paragraaf. Klik hier om je eigen tekst toe te voegen.
Dit is een paragraaf. Klik hier om je eigen tekst toe te voegen.
Dit is een paragraaf. Klik hier om je eigen tekst toe te voegen.
What’s Driving the Energy Transition in Belgium? – Download our latest energy report! 🌍
Empowering investors to enhance the sustainability metrics through an LCA exercise
An SFDR Article 9 investment fund sought support from BrightWolves to conduct a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on a new product from one of their portfolio companies. This LCA was not just a strategic move but a necessity, as both the company and its investors needed quantified data to showcase the product’s superiority in sustainability. The objectives were twofold: (1) to provide crucial insights for an internal review aimed at investors and (2) to benchmark the product’s environmental performance against competitors in the market. As the company positions itself as a leader in the global transition to sustainable food systems, the LCA also served as a critical tool to identify risks and opportunities for process improvements as the company scaled its operations.
A crucial aspect of this project involved the development of a customisable tool that would allow the company to update LCA results as they upgraded their facilities. This tool needed to be user-friendly, enabling the company to input new data internally and receive updated impact assessments for future use.
Challenge
Conducting a comprehensive LCA required detailed process mapping to capture all inputs and outputs, including secondary outputs like water discharge and air emissions. The company’s lack of standardised data collection processes made it difficult to gather complete data across production sites, adding complexity to the project. Without a formal system, data had to be pieced together manually, which increased the risk of inconsistencies and inaccuracies. This also highlighted the need for a dynamic, custom tool that could adapt as the company scaled, while being user-friendly enough for internal teams to use independently for future updates.
The LCA exercise was extremely useful for us to identify the hotspots in our processes and implement the right changes for the scaling of our production at our new plant. We love the tool and find it very easy to use.
Approach
BrightWolves adopted a structured approach to address these challenges:
Process mapping and data collection: a data collection template was created to gather detailed information on ingredients and utilities used at each process step. This template enabled standardised data collection and served as the foundation for accurate LCA modelling.
Tool development: using the collected data, BrightWolves developed a customisable Excel-based LCA tool. This tool was designed to be simple and easy to understand. It included tabs describing assumptions and allowed our client to break down LCA results according to specific process steps. This feature enabled them to pinpoint whether the greatest environmental impact was coming from upstream or downstream operations.
Presentation and analysis: yhe results of the LCA were presented to the client, highlighting the main drivers of environmental impact across the value chain. BrightWolves identified the chemicals and process steps with the highest impact, providing clear guidance on where the company should focus its improvement efforts. The analysis allowed the company to compare their product’s environmental footprint against that of competing products, offering valuable benchmarking insights.
.png)
Impact
The LCA provided the company with critical insights during their pilot phase, revealing that chemical and water usage were significant contributors to their environmental impact. With this knowledge, the company could make informed decisions about where to implement changes in their operations and relook input quantities, such as the amount of fertilisers used. The Excel-based tool delivered by BrightWolves ensured that the company could continue to update and refine their LCA results as they upgraded their facilities, enabling them to maintain a competitive edge in the sustainable food market.
