What Is a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)? Stages, ISO Standards and Examples

As sustainability becomes an increasingly important focus or requirement for businesses and consumers, understanding the full environmental impact of products and services is essential. This blog explores what an LCA is, why it matters to businesses, and its benefits to supporting a more sustainable future.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a method, set out in ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, for measuring the environmental impact of a product or service across its whole life: raw materials, manufacturing, transport, use and end of life. It covers impacts such as climate change, water use and resource depletion, not just carbon.

What is a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)?

A Life Cycle Assessment is used to evaluate the environmental impact of a product, service or process through its entire life cycle. This includes everything from extracting the raw materials to manufacturing, transportation, usage and disposal. LCAs show where environmental impacts occur and how businesses can reduce them.

LCAs help answer important questions like:

• Where in my life cycle is the greatest environmental impact occurring?
• How can these impacts be reduced?
• Are there alternatives to current materials or processes used that could be less harmful?

LCAs are conducted according to the internationally recognised standards ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, ensuring that the measurement process is consistent and comparable across different industries.

By performing an LCA, organisations not only gain a clear understanding of their environmental footprint but also meet growing stakeholder demands for transparency and accountability.

What is ISO 14040 and ISO 14044?

ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 are internationally recognised standards that provide guidelines for conducting LCAs. They ensure consistency and reliability across assessments.

ISO 14040: Focuses on the principles and framework of LCAs, and details how assessments should be structured.

ISO 14044: Offers practical requirements and guidelines for conducting LCAs, such as data collection methods and reporting.

Both standards are key to ensuring that LCAs deliver actionable insights whilst maintaining transparency and credibility.

What’s the difference between a Product Carbon Footprint (PCF), a Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF) and a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)?

A PCF, CCF and an LCA sound similar, right? Whilst they are all used to measure environmental impact, they each focus on different aspects.

PCF

A PCF only looks at the greenhouse gas emissions for a product or a service, from production to disposal.

CCF

A CCF measures the total greenhouse gas emissions of an entire company, including its operations, supply chain and employee activities.

LCA

An LCA assesses the entire environmental impact of a product or service and looks at additional factors such as water or social impact.

You can learn more about Product Carbon Footprint and Corporate Carbon Footprint in our blog.

LCA vs PCF vs EPD

LCA, PCF and EPD are often confused. A PCF is a carbon-only subset of an LCA, and an EPD is a verified, published report based on an LCA.

For a closer look, read our guide to PCF vs LCA, or see how Zevero delivers a Product Carbon Footprint and an Environmental Product Declaration.

Stages of the Product Life Cycle

To provide a full picture of a product’s environmental impact, LCAs assess these key stages:

1. Raw material extraction

This stage involves sourcing the materials needed to create a product, for example mining metals for electronics or farming crops for food products. Environmental impacts here may include deforestation, water consumption or energy use.

2. Design and production

At this stage, the raw materials are processed into finished products. This step often requires significant energy and water input and releases greenhouse gas emissions. For example, the energy required to refine aluminium or the emissions from operating machinery in factories.

3. Packaging and distribution

This stage includes the preparation of products for transportation and delivery to end users or retailers. Emissions come from the production of packaging (such as plastic or cardboard) and the fuel used in distribution.

4. Use and maintenance

This involves the consumption and upkeep of the product by consumers. Emissions may include energy consumption, such as electricity for appliances, and resource use, such as water for cleaning or maintenance. Over time, these emissions can add up significantly depending on the product’s lifespan.

5. End of life

This stage focuses on disposing of or recycling the product at its end of life. Common emission sources include methane from landfills, energy use during the recycling process and pollutants from incineration.

The Life Cycle Assessment Stages

Conducting an LCA involves four key stages, as defined by the ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards:

Common impact categories assessed in the LCIA stage:

• Global warming potential (GWP): The contribution to climate change in CO2 equivalents (CO2e)
• Ozone depletion potential (ODP): The effects of substances that degrade the ozone layer
• Acidification potential: The emissions that contribute to acid rain
• Eutrophication potential: Pollution in water bodies that causes algae blooms, which reduce oxygen in the water and affect the ecosystem
• Human toxicity potential (HTP): The health risks from toxic substance exposure
• Water use impact: The effects of freshwater consumption on local ecosystems
• Land use impact: Environmental harm from land degradation and deforestation
• Resource depletion: The use of non-renewable resources like fossil fuels
• Ecotoxicity: The damage caused by toxic substances to ecosystems
• Particulate matter formation: The respiratory and cardiovascular health issues that arise from air pollution

Why Conduct an LCA?

Life Cycle Assessments are important for businesses aiming to make informed sustainability decisions. The benefits include:

• Identifying environmental hotspots: Pinpoint where in the life cycle the greatest impacts occur, which can help with targeted reductions
• Regulatory compliance: It helps you stay ahead of evolving regulations
• Informed decision-making: It can help identify areas for improvement, such as sourcing renewable materials or reducing emissions during the production stage
• Boost brand credibility: Demonstrating sustainability leadership enhances business reputation with both customers and stakeholders
• Support net-zero goals: LCAs provide the data needed to set realistic and science-based reduction targets
• Drive efficiency: By identifying areas where resources aren’t being used efficiently, LCAs can help to reduce costs and also improve operational performance

Challenges and Benefits of LCAs

Challenges

• Data intensity: Collecting accurate and granular data for all the life cycle stages can be time-consuming and resource-heavy, depending on your product or service
• Complexity: Managing all the variables and impact categories requires expert support
• Cost: Conducting a valuable LCA can be expensive, especially for smaller businesses

Benefits

Even though the challenges can seem overwhelming, here are some key benefits of LCAs:

• Supports decision-making: LCAs support businesses in prioritising sustainability actions with the most impact, both in the design and use of the particular product or system being assessed
• Customer trust: Transparent reporting can improve brand credibility and customer loyalty
• Understand your supply chain: Performing an LCA will give you a good handle on your company’s upstream and downstream supply chain, meaning you’ll have robust Scope 3 calculations
• Regulatory alignment: LCA can support compliance with sustainability regulations, including the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which we discuss below

LCA and EU regulation: CBAM and the Digital Product Passport

The EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) entered its definitive period on 1 January 2026. It currently covers imports of cement, iron and steel, aluminium, fertilisers, hydrogen and electricity. Importers now carry a carbon cost on the emissions embedded in these goods. Certificates for 2026 imports go on sale from February 2027 and must be surrendered by 30 September 2027. Verified product-level emissions data, the kind an LCA or PCF produces, can reduce reliance on default values.

The EU Digital Product Passport (DPP) will require companies to share product-level information, including environmental impact, through a scannable digital record. The first mandatory passport applies from 18 February 2027 to EV, light means of transport and industrial batteries over 2 kWh, under the EU Battery Regulation. Under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), other product groups will follow from 2027 onward, product group by product group, as the rules for each are adopted. Having an LCA in place means the environmental data will be ready when your product group is called.

Key takeaways

• LCA evaluates the environmental impact across the entire life cycle of a product or service
• It follows four ISO 14040/44 stages: goal and scope, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation
• A PCF covers carbon only, while an EPD is a verified, published report based on an LCA
• It helps identify opportunities to reduce resource use and emissions
• It enables informed decision-making for more sustainable product development