More and more businesses are joining the sustainable movement, as consumers are becoming ever more aware of the environmental impact the products they use. In order to reduce their impact, it is crucial for these businesses to look into their product design and supply chains, and find opportunities to cut carbon emissions, decrease pollution and waste, and reduce water footprint.
At the same time, a surge of climate claims and greenwashing is making it difficult to differentiate between good environmental practices and misleading statements. In fact, many businesses are not disclosing information on their environmental footprint. The reality is, sustainability progress must be warranted with transparency.
Most importantly, one needs to know where they stand to be able to move forward. Measuring the progress of your sustainability initiatives and efforts helps you understand what has been achieved in your sustainability strategy, enabling you to figure out how much you still need to do and how much more you can do. If you are wondering how much positive impact your sustainable products have, how to improve the resource efficiency of your supply chains or even what impact reduction goals your brand should have, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can definitely help you answer these questions and give valuable insights into your supply chains.
Performing an LCA means generating accurate environmental data on your products and supply chains, ensuring your sustainability claims are bullet-proof. To learn more about LCA, check out our blog “Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) explained” here.
What are the benefits of life cycle assessment?
1. An LCA study is the quantitative basis for your sustainability strategy and helps you make tactical sustainability decisions
LCAs measure the amount of raw materials, energy and water consumed as well as carbon and waste generated in the manufacturing of your products. Through this holistic view, you will be able to identify where in the life cycle of your product is the most resource-, energy- and impact-intensive. This helps you uncover the hotspots for product design to make improvements, for sourcing to look for alternatives, and for management to evaluate the needs to make changes in your operations or supply chains. In addition, an LCA study can support you to establish and optimize your sustainability goals such as carbon reduction and energy efficiency.
2. LCA results offer you great insights to innovate with intention
Evaluating the supply chains of your materials helps you discover which materials have the highest potential to make a positive environmental impact. For products with a blend combination of several materials, an LCA study allows you to compare and test out alternatives. It is also an incentive for you to reach out to your suppliers and work together with them on R&D to increase the environmental benefits of your innovation.
3. An LCA provides you with credible data to justify your sustainable claims
As more and more regulations arise to combat greenwashing, you need credible environmental data to substantiate the external claims you make about your products being sustainable. Accounting for energy and emissions along the life cycle of a product is necessary to determine if it is truly environmentally sustainable. Environmental data based on an LCA study not only validates and strengthens your sustainability credentials; it also garners credibility with your stakeholders and customers.
4. An LCA enhances your brand value and gives you a competitive advantage in your industry
Performing an LCA shows that your brand has the authenticity, integrity, and credibility in the world. Data-driven transparency sets you apart from other brands. LCA gives you bullet-proof supply chain data to communicate the positive environmental attributes of your products, elevating your product pitch to customers and building trust.
5. An LCA enables you to forge collaborative relationships with your suppliers and partners
LCA studies require collaboration between brands and suppliers. In order to conduct an LCA, brands need several inputs from each phase of their supply chains. Gathering this data can be difficult without strong relationships with your suppliers. However, undergoing this process with suppliers can help strengthen the relationship and foster a partnership. Most importantly, LCA studies as such help push for greater transparency of supply chains in the industry.
6. An LCA allows for a more meaningful connection with your consumers
LCA studies help brands educate internally about supply chains and product sustainability from a life cycle perspective. This gives your marketing and PR team science-based information to communicate your sustainability progress. LCA can be used to create green storytelling about the positive impacts your products make and help communicate your sustainability achievements to consumers and retailers as well. It adds transparency to your brand value while building trust with your consumers and stakeholders. Giving the consumers concrete data to see why your products are environmentally friendly also helps them see why they are making the right choice.