LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) is a type of analysis that comprehensively examines the environmental impact of any product or service. The product carbon footprint (PCF), as its name implies, is a detailed analysis of the carbon footprint a product or service leaves on the environment.
When looking at these two brief definitions, a question may arise: "Isn't the PCF already part of the LCA?" The answer is "partly yes."
The PCF stems from the LCA concept, both in terms of its standards and its content. However, while the two are very similar as processes, they also have some sharp distinctions.
In this article, we will walk through these two similar — yet distinct — concepts, focusing on their similarities and differences.
What Is an LCA (Life Cycle Assessment)?
As a concept, an LCA is a detailed analysis that reveals the cradle-to-grave environmental impact of a product or service. It is a detailed, metric-based examination of all the negative environmental effects of a product or service from its raw material stage through to its disposal or recycling.
Within an LCA, the life of a product is evaluated across five stages:
- Raw material acquisition
- Production and processing
- Transport and logistics
- Use
- Waste disposal and recycling
While preparing an LCA, these five stages are evaluated comprehensively across a range of categories. These categories are in entirely different domains and are expressed in different units.
- Climate change (Global Warming Potential - GWP)
- Acidification potential
- Eutrophication potential
- Photochemical ozone formation (POCP)
- Impact on human health
These are the most widely used categories and are at the heart of most LCA studies.
In reality, LCA should be described as a concept. However, for it to be reported to stakeholders and authorities, it must be carried out in line with international standards. The standards that must be followed for LCA are ISO 14040 and ISO 14044. In other words, we can think of ISO 14044 as the 'LCA rulebook.'
The ISO 14040/44 Standards
The ISO 14040 standard was published in 1997 under the code ISO 14040:1997, as the name suggests. As the first standard to define LCA, it remained in force until 2006. At that point, because the complexity of LCA work was growing in parallel with the complexity of standardization, the ISO technical committee split ISO 14040 into two separate standards.
- ISO 14040:2006 — Principles and framework
- ISO 14044:2006 — Requirements and guidelines
In this version, ISO 14040 provides a blueprint for LCA studies and the principles that should be optimized across the entire process.
What Is a Product Carbon Footprint (PCF)?
Similar to LCA, the product carbon footprint (PCF) covers the entire cradle-to-grave life of a product. In this sense, it focuses on the same area as the GWP impact category in an LCA. The product carbon footprint analyzes the carbon footprint of all processes in the full life cycle of a product or service, just as a GWP LCA does.
In this respect, while the product carbon footprint is close to GWP LCA studies, it is not exactly the same. The PCF is a more detailed carbon footprint analysis than a GWP LCA.
In other words, every product carbon footprint study is a GWP LCA, but not every GWP LCA is a product carbon footprint study.
Just as LCA calculations are based on the ISO 14040/44 standards, product carbon footprint calculations are prepared within the framework of the ISO 14067 standard.
The ISO 14067 Standard
The ISO 14067 standard provides a framework for calculating and reporting a product carbon footprint. It was first published in 2013, based on the ISO 14040:2006 standards. It was later revised in 2018 and became the current ISO 14067:2018.
ISO 14067 is rooted in LCA but focuses only on the carbon footprint. In other words, ISO 14067 can be thought of as a version of ISO 14040/44 specifically developed to calculate the carbon footprint of products and tailored for climate change mitigation.
LCA and the Product Carbon Footprint: Application Areas
In the previous sections, we covered LCA and the product carbon footprint. These two concepts are clearly similar. To summarize their differences: an LCA examines the environmental impact of a product or service across a range of categories, while a product carbon footprint looks only at the greenhouse gas emissions of a product or service, in more depth than an LCA.
The close relationship between LCA and the product carbon footprint naturally raises an important question: "Which study is conducted for which purpose?"
LCA Use Cases
LCA studies are chosen by companies and organizations looking at the big picture, with their broad set of impact categories. Given its comprehensive structure, LCA is used across a wide range of areas.
- Product development and design: Provides R&D input for improving products and processes.
- Corporate sustainability: Useful for portfolio analysis, risk management, and similar areas.
- Environmental declarations: Required for statements such as Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs).
- Policy-making: Can be used to define public or corporate environmental standards.
- Academic and technical research: Widely used for studies at universities and research institutions.
Product Carbon Footprint Use Cases
The product carbon footprint also has its own use cases because it has a narrower scope than LCA and analyzes product greenhouse gas emissions in detail.
- Carbon labeling: Used to inform consumers and build brand credibility.
- Regulations: Helps with compliance for frameworks like CBAM or carbon tax.
- Carbon-neutral product claims: Used for various product-level claims.
- Supply chain management: Serves as a data source for assessing the greenhouse gas impact of raw material sourcing and logistics.
- Carbon reporting: Supports contributions to platforms such as CDP.
LCA and the Product Carbon Footprint: Summary
With its multi-dimensional, detailed environmental analysis, LCA answers the question, "How can this product be produced more sustainably?"
The product carbon footprint, through a study focused exclusively on carbon, answers, "How much greenhouse gas is emitted in producing this product, and how do I document it?"
For more detailed information about LCA and the product carbon footprint, visit CarbonSmart!
