Welcome to our LCA Whitepaper Series, each dedicated to a specific aspect of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). As a critical tool in the field of sustainability, LCA provides a comprehensive view of the environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product's life, from raw material extraction through materials processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and disposal or recycling. This series aims to delve into the intricate aspects of LCA, shedding light on the various methodologies, standards, and frameworks that guide its application.
In each whitepaper, we will focus on a specific topic, be it ISO standards that govern LCA, industry-specific standards such as Global Feed LCA Institute (GFLI), various allocation methods, ReCiPe method vs. Product Environmental Footprint (PEF), and many more. Our goal is to provide a clear, comprehensive, and accessible understanding of these complex topics, enabling you to apply this knowledge in your sustainability journey.
Whether you are a seasoned professional in the field of sustainability or a newcomer looking to understand the intricacies of LCA, these whitepapers will serve as a valuable resource. We invite you to join us in this exploration of LCA, as we strive to contribute to a more sustainable future.
Whitepaper 1: Unveiling ISO standards & GFLI
Dive into the world of Life Cycle Assessments (LCA): Unveiling ISO standards and GFLI. Enhance your understanding of LCAs with a focus on international and industry-specific standards: how do they work and should I get my assessments certified? Download now to boost your sustainability practices!
Whitepaper 2: Product Environment Footprint (PEF) and ReCiPe.
In the second whitepaper on the topic of Life Cycle Assessments, we explore two prominent LCA methodologies: the Product Environment Footprint (PEF) and ReCiPe. We try to give a tangible overview of how such as LCA can be structured, which insights can be derived based on the two methodologies and what the impact is and will be when their usage increases and spillover effects become visible to other sustainability initiatives and standards.
Whitepaper 3: Allocation Methods
In the two previous papers of the series on Life Cycle Assessments, we guided you through the fundamentals of an LCA, introduced you to two well-known methodologies to perform such assessments, and presented you with a very relevant organization, GFLI, that could figure as an example for other industries to follow. In this paper, we will dive into a more technical aspect of LCAs, namely allocation. This phenomenon refers to the procedure used to allocate the environmental impacts in systems where multiple products or functions share common processes, i.e. when you have multiple output processes. We will discuss why allocation is so important in certain cases and what types of allocation exist to allocate certain burdens associated with a process among various outputs.
