LCA & EPD EXPLAINED
Just starting on your LCA & EPD journey?
Here’s an explanation of elements involved in the process.
LCA | Life-cycle assessment
A methodology for assessing environmental impacts associated with all the stages of the life cycle of a commercial product, process, or service.
Environmental impacts are assessed from raw material extraction and processing (cradle), through the product’s manufacture, distribution and use, to the recycling or final disposal of the materials composing it (grave).
The LCA follows a systematic approach that involves four main components:
- Goal definition and scoping
- Inventory analysis
Involves breaking down a product system and collecting data on all of its elements.
This includes the materials and energy used in raw material extraction, manufacturing, distribution, use, maintenance, and disposal. - Impact assessment
Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) evaluates the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle. - Results, reporting
The final stage of the LCA process, where the findings are interpreted.
The focus is on ensuring that the analysis is reliable and draws meaningful conclusions.
LCA is the assessment methodology
this can be a stand-alone study
This is a method for calculating embodied carbon in building services. A dedicated lighting version, TM65.2 is being written by CIBSE; SLL.
It covers the whole life cycle, excluding operational aspects and the potential recovery, reuse or recycling of materials.
TM65 is different from LCA as it only considers embodied carbon, whereas an LCA considers other environmental impacts like land use, water use and eutrophication, for example.
Product Category Rules
This provides the rules, requirements, and guidelines for developing an EPD for a specific product category.
For electrical & electronic products, the PCR were developed by PEP Ecopassport® ‘Product category rules for electrical, electronic and HVAC-R Products’ – this is referred to as PCR-ed4-EN-2021 09 06.
There are also product specific rules (PSR) which provide more technical guidance for specific products. PEP Ecopassport® have published a PSR for luminaires.
This is referred to as PSR-0014-ed2.0-EN-2023 07 13, commonly known as PSR-0014.
If all LCAs follow the Product Category Rules, two products serving the
same purpose can be compared for their environmental impacts.
Product Life Cycle
The WHOLE product lifecycle MUST be included in a Life Cycle Assessment.
Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA)
As part of the LCA, the environmental impact assessment groups different emissions into one effect on the environment. Different emissions that cause the same impact- are converted into one unit that translates into one impact category.
For example, the impact category ‘climate change’ is expressed in kg CO₂ equivalents (kg CO₂-eq). However, other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions also cause climate change, such as methane (CH₄).
By expressing all GHG emissions with different measuring units in kg CO₂ equivalents. An impact category makes it possible to come to a single metric for climate change.
Environmental impact categories
(Nearly) ALL environmental impacts MUST be reported in a Life Cycle Assessment,
The LCA gives you the results of all categories, the complete environmental footprint, measured by your assessment method.
This allows you to find out which categories need your attention most. Also, an LCA warns you of environmental tradeoffs (e.g. a design measure that decreases climate impacts but increases toxicity impacts) in advance.
This way, you can still choose to prioritize climate impact, while also being aware of the impact on other categories.
How the Environmental Impact categories are measured
- Climate change – total, fossil, biogenic, and land use | kg CO2-eq
Potential global warming due to emissions of greenhouse gases to the air.
Divided into three subcategories based on the emission source:
1 fossil resources,
2 bio-based resources, and
3 land use change. - Ozone depletion | kg CFC-11-eq
Emissions to air that causes the destruction of the stratospheric ozone layer. - Acidification | kg mol H+
Potential acidification of soils and water due to the release of gases such as nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides. - Eutrophication – freshwater | kg PO4-eq
Enrichment of the freshwater ecosystem with nutritional elements, due to the emission of nitrogen or phosphor-containing compounds. - Eutrophication – marine | Kg N-eq
Indicator of the enrichment of the marine ecosystem with nutritional elements, due to the emission of nitrogen-containing compounds. - Eutrophication, land | mol N-eq
Indicator of the enrichment of the terrestrial ecosystem with nutritional elements, due to the emission of nitrogen-containing compounds. - Photochemical ozone formation | kg NMVOC-eq
Indicators of emissions of gases that affect the creation of photochemical ozone in the lower atmosphere catalysed by sunlight. - Depletion of abiotic resources – minerals and metals | kg Sb-eq
Indicator of the depletion of natural non-fossil resources. - Depletion of abiotic resources – fossil fuels | MJ Net calorific value
Indicator of the depletion of natural fossil fuel resources. - Human toxicity – cancer, non-cancer | CTUh
Impact on humans of toxic substances emitted to the environment. Divided into non-cancer and cancer-related toxic substances. - Eco-toxicity, freshwater CTUe
Impact on freshwater organisms of toxic substances emitted to the environment. - Water use | m3 world eq. deprived
Indicator of the relative amount of water used, based on regionalised water scarcity factors. - Land use | Dimensionless
Measure of the changes in soil quality (Biotic production, Erosion resistance, Mechanical filtration). - Ionizing radiation, human health | kBq U-235
Damage to human health and ecosystems linked to the emissions of radionuclides. - Particulate matter emissions | Disease incidence
Indicator of the potential incidence of disease due to particulate matter emissions.
From LCA to EPD
Environmental Product Declaration
An EPD is defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14025 as a Type III declaration that
“quantifies environmental information on the life cycle of a product to enable comparisons between products fulfilling the same function.”
The EPD methodology is based on the LCA tool that follows ISO series 14040.
LCA
- Assessment of total environmental impact of a product or service.
- Flexible scope of study.
- Results aren’t publicly available.
EPD
- Transparent summary of a product’s environmental impact
- Must follow PCR to be valid
- Third part verified
- Final report in public domain
The EPD consists of two key documents:
- The underlying Life Cycle Assessment report
This is a systematic and comprehensive summary of the LCA project to support the third-party verifying the EPD.
It is not part of the public communication. - Public EPD document
Documenting the LCA results and other EPD content.
