Intro to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Navigating the sustainability trade-offs of different packaging materials, processes, and end-of-life scenarios is a complex endeavor. The first step in untangling these trade-offs is conducting a life cycle assessment (LCA), also known as a life cycle analysis.
An LCA is a methodology used to categorize and quantify the environmental impacts of a product, package, or service from raw material extraction (cradle) until disposal / end-of-life (grave). LCAs are used to aid in research and development, sustainability reporting and communications, and to identify impact hotspots in a particular value chain.
In this blog, we will explore the four stages of an ISO 14040 compliant LCA, learn how conducting LCAs can aid in extended producer responsibility laws (EPR) and eco-modulation, and share resources we have that can help you learn how to conduct your own LCAs on your packaging systems.
The Four Stages of an LCA
To ensure comparability and consistency in methodology, many LCAs are conducted under a third-party standard. One of the most prominent LCA standards is ISO 14040 and ISO 14044. Together, these frameworks lay out the foundation for conducting an LCA, breaking down the process into four interconnected stages:
Define Goal and Scope
Life Cycle Inventory (LCI)
Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA)
Interpretation and Analysis
Lets explore these stages in more detail and through the lens of the packaging industry.
Stage 1: Define the Goal and Scope of the LCA
The first step of an ISO compliant LCA is defining the goal and scope of the assessment.
The goal of an LCA refers to the purpose for conducting it. For example, comparing the impact of end-of-life scenarios for two different packaging systems or reporting data to stakeholders.
The scope of an LCA is how you will conduct the assessment; it involves defining the unit of measure (functional unit) and mapping the product system (a chart of all the processes involved in creating your package and other outputs). This stage also includes selecting an LCA model, which is often based on the boundaries you set for your analysis—common models include cradle-to-gate and cradle-to-grave.
A cradle-to-gate LCA quantifies the environmental impacts of a package from the extraction of raw materials (the cradle) to the moment the package exits the factory gate (the gate). A cradle-to-gate LCA does not include transportation to the consumer, the use of the consumer, the end-of-life, etc.
A cradle-to-grave LCA is a more comprehensive assessment, quantifying the impacts of a packaging system from the extraction of raw materials (the cradle) to the point the package is disposed of at the end of its useful life (the grave).
Aside from defining the goal, scope, functional unit, and mapping the product system, this first stage also involves choosing a life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methodology, which will help group impact categories and guide calculations in stage three.
Stage 2: Life Cycle Inventory (LCI)
Following the scope and goal definition stage, an ISO 14040 LCA transitions into stage two, the life cycle inventory (LCI). In this stage, the product system that was mapped in stage one is analyzed further, including creating a list of interactions (elementary flows / externalities) between the product system and the environment.
Data used to build an LCI typically comes in two forms—foreground data and background data.
Foreground data is representative of the technical components of the packaging system mapped in stage one. For example, how many grams of PET are used in the production of a single water bottle.
Background data is related to the environmental impacts of the packaging system mapped in stage one. For example, the amount of emissions and water use associated with the grams of PET needed to produce one bottle. Background data is usually collected through supplier surveys and engagement or through a life cycle inventory database, like Ecoinvent.
The second stage of an LCA ends when all relevant data is collected and entered into an LCA software, connecting the background and foreground data to prepare for calculations in the next stage, the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA).
Stage 3: Life Cycle Impact Assessment
If you are new to LCA, you might be wondering when does the actual “assessment” start in an LCA? It starts in stage three, the life cycle impact assessment—the place where LCA software turns seas of LCI data entered in stage two into meaningful and actionable insights. This all starts with grouping impacts in the product system into impact categories.
Impact categories group various environmental impacts together in order to help interpret LCA data, building the foundation for further calculation and analysis. A common impact category is global warming potential (GWP), which translates all emissions related to the packaging system—such as CO2, SO2, and CH4—into a common unit, typically kg CO2e. This provides a clear understanding of the total global warming impact, instead of analyzing the results of the emissions individually.
Stakeholders who aren’t involved in the LCA process don’t have the time and expertise to make sense of hundreds to thousands of data points in an LCI, making the impact category allocation process a crucial step to simplify the reporting process and identify hotspots.
We mentioned GWP because it is one of the easiest to understand and one of the most widely studied, but GWP is just a small piece of a package's total impact. Check out our recent blog in which we explore the LCA results from Boxed Water, Mondi Group, and Dr. Bronner’s to gain an understanding of which impact categories the industry is focusing on.
You might be wondering . . . how does one form these impact categories in the LCIA stage? We mentioned in stage one that part of that process is selecting an LCIA method. An LCIA method provides the allocation rules and calculation parameters that LCA teams use to define impact categories and analyze LCI data. An example of a commonly used LCIA method is the EU’s Product Environmental Footprint, which includes sixteen different impact categories including:
Resource use, minerals, and metals
Ozone depletion
Human toxicity, cancer
Human toxicity, non-cancer
Particulate matter (PM)
Ionizing radiation
Photochemical ozone formation
Acidification
Eutrophication, marine
Eutrophication, terrestrial
Eutrophication, freshwater
Ecotoxicity, freshwater
Land use
Water use
Resource use, fossils
Resource use, minerals, and metals
As you can see, conducting a full cradle-to-grave LCA with the impact categories above is one of the most effective ways to understand your packaging system’s environmental impact holistically, focusing on impact categories beyond carbon. This makes LCAs an important tool to help organizations avoid “carbon tunnel vision” (a myopic focus on carbon emissions) in their sustainability efforts.
Stage 4: Interpretation and Analysis
Once you have grouped your background data into different impact categories and conducted calculations using an LCA software, the final stage of an ISO 14040 compliant LCA is interpretation and analysis. Part of this process is a critical review of the first three stages, but best practices focus on critically reviewing your LCA throughout the process.
Other components of this stage include trying to answer the questions stated in the goal and scope stage, conducting contribution and sensitivity analyses, creating an LCA background report, and more.
Many LCA tools that focus on packaging, like EcoImpact-COMPASS by Trayak, make reporting complex LCA data accessible through automatically generated reports that include equivalencies, breaking down impact category metrics into insights that broader stakeholder groups can understand. For example, 197.22 tons of CO2e is the same amount of emissions from 42 passenger vehicles driven annually.
An important part of the final stage of an LCA is also to identify impact hotspots—areas in your value chain where you can shift your sustainability team and wider organizations focus to mitigate impacts and find areas to innovate. If you conduct an LCA on your packaging systems and find the end-of-life stage is an impact hotspot, you can prioritize R&D to find new home compostable materials that do not take up space in landfills, have lower toxicity, and do not release high amounts of CO2 upon decomposition.
How LCA Aids in EPR and Eco-Modulation
Aside from the benefits of LCAs for packaging we’ve discussed thus far, LCAs are also a crucial tool to help aid in compliance for EPR and to reduce fees through eco-modulation. Not familiar with the five EPR for packaging programs in Oregon, Maine, California, Colorado, and Minnesota? Check out our research article on these programs, including eco-modulated fees, here.
LCA helps aid in EPR compliance in three main ways:
Understanding Supply Chain and Impact Hotspots
Sustainable Design / Eco-Modulation and R&D
Sustainability and EPR Reporting
Check out how LCAs can help guide sustainable packaging design and help maintain EPR compliance in our research article here.
Packaging LCA Case Studies
If you’re still wondering how brands can use LCAs to evaluate and compare different packaging systems and materials, check out our recent blog exploring how Boxed Water, Mondi Group, and Dr. Bronner’s used LCAs to develop a deep understanding of their packaging systems and navigate sustainability trade-offs here.
Learn more about LCAs for Packaging
At the Packaging School, we understand the importance of LCAs to help packaging and sustainability teams navigate sustainability trade-offs with quantitative data. That’s why we decided to include a training module on LCA software in our online, self-paced Certificate of Sustainable Packaging program. Learn more about the 40-hour program here.
