What is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)?

Every industry, every product makes an impact on the environment. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a method to quantitatively analyze that impact throughout a product life cycle. It is a very valuable tool to, for example, support brands in choosing responsible materials like leather. At the same time an LCA is a complex matter, of which it is important to know the possibilities and benefits but also the pitfalls.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a methodological tool used to quantitatively analyze the environmental impacts of products/services throughout their life cycle.

For this purpose, specific calculation tools are being applied that should conform the standards ISO 14040 “Environmental management – Life cycle assessment – Principles and Framework” and ISO 14044 “Environmental management – Life cycle assessment- Requirements and guidelines”. In LCA, the total life cycle of a product or activity is considered; from the acquisition of resource materials onto the waste and waste treatment stage, also referred to from Cradle to Grave.

Reliability of the results from LCA studies strongly depends on the extent to which data quality requirements are met. The following parameters should be considered: Time-related coverage, Geographical coverage, Technology coverage, Precision, completeness and representativeness of the data, Consistency and reproducibility of the methods used throughout the data collection, Uncertainty of the information and data gaps. Defining the right assumptions in each of the above 4 steps are considerably influential to the result.