Understanding sustainability requires more than just knowing the latest buzzwords. Acronyms like LCA, EPD, and PCF are everywhere, but what do they mean, and why do they matter? At Sustainable Solutions Corporation (SSC), we specialize in turning complex sustainability concepts into actionable strategies that drive real impact.
Here we’re using a familiar analogy, making soup, to explain three key sustainability tools— Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), and Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) to help you better understand how these tools are essential for measuring, communicating, and improving environmental performance.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): The Full Recipe
A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) evaluates the entire journey of a can of soup, from farm to spoon (and beyond). It’s a comprehensive method for assessing the environmental impacts of a product at every stage of its life cycle.
LCA Evaluates ghg emissions, water, waste & other flows for all of the following life cycle steps:
Raw Material Extraction – Harvesting and processing the ingredients (vegetables, grains, spices) and producing the packaging materials.
Transportation – Shipping raw ingredients to the soup manufacturing facility.
Manufacturing – Cooking, canning, or packaging the soup.
Distribution – Getting the packaged soup to stores and customers.
Use Phase – Heating the soup (energy use counts!).
Disposal – Disposing of any uneaten soup and soup packaging.
Since an LCA measures Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, water use, waste, and other environmental impacts, it provides a full picture of sustainability performance.
Environmental Product Declaration (EPD): The Nutrition Facts
An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is almost like the nutrition facts on a can of soup, but for sustainability. It presents quantified environmental data based on an LCA and follows internationally recognized standards (ISO 14025 and product category rules).
what information is represented in an epd?
Global warming potential (GHG emissions)
Acidification (contribution to acid rain)
Eutrophication (impact on water bodies)
Ozone depletion
Smog formation
Fossil fuel depletion
Water use
Waste generation
EPDs are third-party verified and valid for five years, making them a credible tool for communicating environmental performance to customers, investors, and regulators.
Product Carbon Footprint (PCF): Counting the Carbon Calories
A Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) is like tracking only the calories in your soup. It focuses exclusively on GHG emissions throughout a product’s life cycle. Essentially, it follows the same journey as an LCA but accounts for carbon emissions only.
PCF exclusively Evaluates ghg emissions for all of the following life cycle steps:
Raw Material Extraction – Harvesting and processing the ingredients (vegetables, grains, spices) and producing the packaging materials.
Transportation – Shipping raw ingredients to the soup manufacturing facility.
Manufacturing – Cooking, canning, or packaging the soup.
Distribution – Getting the packaged soup to stores and customers.
Use Phase – Heating the soup (energy use counts!).
Disposal – Disposing of any uneaten soup and soup packaging.
By focusing on carbon emissions, PCFs help businesses identify opportunities to reduce their climate impact.
Cooking Up Sustainable Solutions
While our soup metaphor simplifies things, conducting LCAs, developing EPDs, and calculating PCFs is a complex, data-intensive process best handled by experts (like us!).
At Sustainable Solutions Corporation (SSC), we help companies assess, communicate, and improve their environmental impact, one (metaphorical) bowl of soup at a time.
Want to learn more about how these tools can help your business cook up a more sustainable and profitable business? Let’s talk!
About the Author
Cara Vought, LCACP
Senior Technical Consultant
Cara has over 13 years of experience in product stewardship and corporate sustainability strategy. She specializes in developing life cycle assessments (LCAs) and product carbon footprints, conducting independent LCA reviews to ISO standards, supporting industry associations and collaboratives in program development, and facilitating audits for sustainable manufacturing initiatives and LEED certifications.
She earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware, with minors in Sustainable Energy Technology and Environmental Engineering. Cara also served as an adjunct professor at Jefferson University, where she taught architecture and design students how to think about materials sustainably. She believes that sustainability is an ever-evolving field that requires continuous learning and adaptation. With a passion for education, she works closely with SSC’s clients to help them expand their knowledge and integrate sustainability into their business practices.
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