With increasing environmental regulations and a growing consumer demand for transparency, the tools available to measure and communicate sustainability efforts have never been more critical. Two of the most effective tools in the sustainability toolkit are Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs).
Frequently Asked Questions about Life Cycle Assessments (LCA)
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? We’re using a familiar analogy, making soup, to explain three key sustainability tools to help you better understand how these tools are essential for measuring, communicating, and improving environmental performance.
The 3 Most Common Types of Life Cycle Assessments
Key Terms to Navigate LCA and EPDs
Sustainability conversations can get technical — fast. With so many acronyms and specialized terms, it’s easy to feel lost or overwhelmed. Whether you're conducting a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) or preparing an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), this glossary will help you decode key concepts and confidently lead the conversation.
Sustainability Alphabet Soup: LCA, PCF, and EPD Explained
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?
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): From Farm to Table
A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) evaluates the entire journey of a can of soup, from farm to table (and beyond). It’s a comprehensive method for assessing the environmental impacts of a product at every stage of its life cycle.
LCA Measures Emissions, Water, Waste, and Other Impacts Across Every Stage of a Product’s Life Cycle:
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, and packaging the soup.
Distribution – Getting the packaged soup to retailers and customers.
Use Phase – Heating the soup (energy and water use counts!).
Disposal – Disposing of any uneaten soup and soup packaging.
Types of Environmental Impacts Measured in an LCA
An LCA evaluates every stage of a product's life to measure various environmental impacts. It doesn’t typically focus on just one impact category, because trade-offs are inevitable. For example, choosing broccoli over chicken might increase fiber intake but also raise carbohydrate content—each choice comes with different nutritional effects. Similarly, sautéing vegetables alters flavor and fat content compared to boiling. An LCA captures the environmental consequences of all these types of decisions, right down to the method used to heat the final product—like microwaving versus stovetop cooking.
Because an LCA evaluates a wide range of sustainability indicators—from greenhouse gas emissions to water consumption and resource depletion—it helps capture the full spectrum of a product’s environmental performance.
Environmental impacts are typically grouped into the following categories:
AIR
Global Warming Potential: the carbon and greenhouse gas emissions emitted
Acidification: the increase of acidity in water and soil systems that come from air emissions like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide
Smog (also called Photochemical oxidant creation potential): air emissions trapped at ground level, where in the presence of sunlight can create a haze in the air. Smog (also called Photochemical oxidant creation potential): air emissions trapped at ground level, where in the presence of sunlight can create a haze in the air.
WATER
Eutrophication: the measure of too many nutrients in water, often caused by fertilizers or other water run-off. Too many nutrients create algae blooms that cover water bodies, which then take away too much oxygen from other aquatic life and leaves dead zones.
Water Use: The measure of total water consumption in each stage of a product
HEALTH-RELATED
(often not publicly disclosed)
Carcinogens: The measure of emissions and flows that contribute towards cancer risks
Non-Carcinogens: The measure of emissions and flows that contribute towards health impacts not related to cancer, like autoimmune, reproductive or neurological issues.
Respiratory Effects: The measure of emissions and flows that contribute towards health impacts like asthma, or lung diseases
Non-Carcinogens: The measure of emissions and flows that contribute towards health impacts not related to cancer, like autoimmune, reproductive or neurological issues.
Respiratory Effects: The measure of emissions and flows that contribute towards health impacts like asthma, or lung diseases
RESOURCE CONSUMPTION
Fossil Fuel Consumption: The measure of total fossil-based energy consumption in each stage of a product. This can include and or report out fossil fuels used as part of the material itself, like how plastics are derived from oil and gas.
Abiotic Depletion (fossil and non-fossil): The measure of all non-living resources split out between fossil-based resources and minerals.
Waste Generation: The total amount of waste and what types of waste (recycling, hazardous, landfill waste, etc.) generated in each life cycle stage
Environmental Product Declaration (EPD): The Nutrition Label
An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is almost like the nutrition label on a can of soup, but for sustainability. It presents quantified environmental data by life stage 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 (Environmental Product Declarations) are third-party verified documents that remain valid for five years, offering a credible tool to communicate a product’s environmental performance to customers, investors, and regulators. Typically presented as multipage documents, EPDs include detailed and comprehensive information about the product's life cycle impacts. See an example from our client PEPA (previously known as Vinyl Siding Institute) here.
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 retailers 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!).
Sustainable Solutions Corporation helps 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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