According to the European Environment Agency, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a ‘process of evaluating the effects that a product has on the environment over the entire period of its life, thereby increasing resource-use efficiency and decreasing liabilities’1. It is an assessment that calculates the environmental impact of a product through its lifecycle. This calculation enables actions to be taken to reduce the environmental impact the product/service has, which can, in turn, deliver cost savings by identifying wasteful practices within the product life cycle.
Who needs a life cycle assessment?
Ecochain’s data revealed that at least four departments in a typical company could immediately act upon the findings of an LCA2. These LCA stakeholders are:
- Product Management/Research & Development (R&D): to comply with sustainability regulations and develop new products that are low in emissions with materials that influence the environmental impact of the end product
- Supply Chain Management/Procurement: to support decisions in choosing the right supplier
- Marketing & Sales: to communicate the sustainability of your products to your customers
- Executive Level & Strategic Management: to make strategic decisions on how a company can have a more positive impact on the environment
The benefits of a life cycle assessment
The benefits of a life cycle assessment are as follows3:
- Environmental impact reduction
- Resource optimisation and waste reduction
- Sustainable product design and procurement
- Supply chain optimisation
- Cost savings by identifying wasteful practices within the product life cycle
- Transparency and credibility
- Policy making and regulations compliance
- End-of-Life management
Life cycle assessment process
Unipart Consultancy has partnered with Riskoa to conduct comprehensive LCAs on our customers’ products and services. These LCAs quantify the embedded carbon in each product, allowing us to establish a clear carbon reference point for every item assessed.
LCAs are carried out via Riskoa’s Emvide SaaS platform, which uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to rapidly accelerate the LCA process, as well as measure the Scope 3 calculations for embodied emissions for products and services. Emvide facilitates dynamic and accurate assessments by utilising ERP Bill of Materials (BoM), process routing data, or observed process maps to predict likely processes and assess carbon impact.
Emvide utilises a canvas-based platform to model the environmental impact of a product. This involves mapping the various materials and processes used in its manufacturing, use, and end-of-life stages. By visualising these elements, Emvide provides insights into the product’s overall environmental footprint.
How Emvide uses AI in 3 stages of the life cycle assessment
- Data cleaning
- Modelling of the LCA
- Report generation
What is involved in the data cleaning stage?
In the first stage, a name and description of your product are input, attached with any associated bill of materials or production information that denotes how this item is built or made.
Once this information is provided, contextual generative AI is used to provide an enriched comma-separated spreadsheet (CSV) that is used later for the LCA modelling. This spreadsheet gives accurate product descriptions and weights, clarifies process details where this information may be unavailable and provides feedback on the quality index scores of your provided data.
Accurate LCA modelling requires careful data preparation, which can take from 5-10 minutes to an hour depending on the complexity of your data, as the quality of the input directly impacts the reliability of the analysis.
How do you model a life cycle assessment?
After entering basic product details and choosing the appropriate Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) model and method for your desired impact factors, upload the enriched CSV file from the previous step.
Within approximately four minutes, you’ll receive your product’s LCA model, accelerating you to the ‘canvas’ stage. This stage involves modelling all the steps in your product’s life cycle, from raw materials to final processes. The AI’s assumptions can be reviewed and any necessary adjustments to align with your specific environmental indicators can be made. Once you’ve finalised your product model, the AI automatically proceeds to the reporting stage.
How does AI generate a life cycle assessment report?
Within approximately two minutes, you’ll receive your complete Life Cycle Assessment report via email, delivered in both PDF and Word document formats. This comprehensive 30-40 page report and index, compliant with the GHG Product Standard and ISO 14040/44, provides detailed findings and recommendations for your product.
This streamlined LCA process allows you to prioritise value-added work, such as implementing strategies for carbon and impact reduction.
Your journey to supply chain sustainability
If you’re looking for more support with your supply chain’s sustainability journey, get in touch with us at Unipart Consultancy. Contact us here.
See our Sustainability webpage to learn how our approach can be translated into a solution for your organisation, which, supported by our expert consultants, will embed sustainable practice into every aspect of your business.
References