Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a method to analyse environmental impacts associated with all stages of a product or service from raw material extraction through materials processing, manufacture (“cradle to gate”), distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and end of life (“cradle-to-grave”); with the aim of creating transparency around the impacts associated with these areas. Life cycle assessment (LCA) methods and life cycle thinking are becoming increasingly important tools for environmental accounting.
Giraffe use LCA to compare the environmental effects associated with products and services so that they can be improved or benchmarked and to help organisations to make informed decisions based on robust evidence. LCAs are principally a fair, holistic assessments, that include all intervening process and transportation, both direct and indirect, associated the product or service. LCA procedures are governed as part of the ISO 14000 environmental management standards (ISO 14040:2006 and 14044:2006, and PAS 2050 for carbon footprints). The benefits of LCA include:
- Creating an inventory of relevant energy and material inputs and environmental releases;
- Evaluating the potential impacts associated with identified inputs and releases;
- Determine which life cycle phases have the greatest environmental impact (hotspots)
- Analysing specific process steps in more detail
- Interpreting the results to help you make a more informed decision
- Identifying environmental and cost benefits
Optimising an organisation’s environmental performance requires solutions that are tailored to the specific requirements of various products and industries. Giraffe have extensive experience in conducting LCAs and carbon footprint assessments for a wide range of clients and industries to provide bespoke solutions. We are supported by internationally leading software tools and databases. To date we have helped 100s of organisations from the UK, France, Switzerland, the US, and Hong-Kong to improve their environmental performance, save resources and reduce costs.