Services

Life Cycle Assessment

Why You Need LCA

LCA is an emerging trend in the sustainability marketplace. With more and more organizations, including Wal-Mart, utilizing life cycle assessment to evaluate products and suppliers, there is increasing pressure to evaluate one's products over the entire life cycle.

There are many uses for LCA data, both internally and publicly. LCA data has been utilized by our clients to assess both environmental and capital costs of their products, and presents opportunities to reduce both. Publishing your Life Cycle Assessment can change negative opinions of your product by showing a comparison of impacts from extraction to end of life between your product and substitute goods.

Why We Do What We Do

For decades, our society has been using a Take-Make-Waste system. We take natural resources, make a product, and then it becomes waste at the end of life. This system is inefficient and unsustainable. In order to change the way our products are made, it is necessary to evaluate where our current manufacturing operations stand. LCA provides organizations a holistic view of their product or service and illuminates opportunities to improve their operations to reduce life cycle impacts and create a more sustainable process that ensures the survival of the business.

How We Do What We Do

Life Cycle Assessments are conducted per ISO-14040/44 Standards and are comprised of 4 phases: goal and scope definition, life cycle inventory, life cycle impact assessment, and interpretation. LCA is an iterative process and requires an understanding of all inputs and outputs throughout the life cycle.

Why Clients Choose Us

Life Cycle Assessment is also becoming a major component of green building standards and green construction codes. SSC has extensive experience with conducting LCAs and working with clients to establish product stewardship and sustainable product design programs.

Benefits of LCA

LCA provides clients with a range of benefits:

• Satisfy your clients' sustainable supply chain requirements
• Improve environmental performance of products and services
• Evaluate organization's risks related to raw material dependencies in supply chain
• Satisfy green building standards (LEED, NAHB)
• LCA provides a basis for developing product stewardship and sustainable product development programs

Client Specific Case Study:

Life Cycle Assessment

SSC conducted detailed Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) for multiple products and processes to determine the environmental impact of the products across all life cycle stages. This research examined all energy and material inputs and outputs for the product from raw material extraction, transportation, production, intended use, through end of life disposal.