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A Product Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the best way to look at how much carbon a product emits from start to finish. Imagine following a product's journey from when its ingredients are grown, through packaging, processing, and point-of-sale, all the way through it's disposed of after use. Read on to understand why you might choose a life cycle assessment for your products and how it can help inform your decision-making.
Q: How does a product LCA differ from a corporate GHG inventory?
A: Think of a product LCA as a close-up of one single product's carbon story. It doesn't care much about the company's office lights or their staff's work trips. The corporate GHG inventory looks at the big picture. It's a comprehensive calculation of a company's entire carbon footprint, including everything they do, sell, and even their staff's commutes.
Q: So, once I've got my product's LCA, what can I do with it?
A: Quite a bit! With an LCA, you can spruce up your product's label with its carbon footprint (eco-savvy customers love this transparency). Plus, if you're all about innovating, an LCA can guide you in creating even lower emissions products in the future. You can use to build emissions reduction plans and create new efficiencies or resilience in your supply chain.
Q: I'm in the food business. After an LCA, what changes might I consider?
A: Based on your product's LCA, you could reformat packaging to include carbon labels to show customers the carbon impact of their favorite products, similar to a nutrition facts panel. At Planet FWD, you could also share details on other environmental impacts such as water usage. Some companies use the LCA as a roadmap for where they can swap out high-emission ingredients for lower-impact alternatives such as regeneratively grown or plant-based ingredients.
Q: If I decide to conduct Product LCAs, what should I look for in a solution?
A: You'd want a solution that's backed by rigorous, standards-aligned science and well-versed in the food industry. Food products have unique complexities in their supply chains, so if a solution can model your supply chain all the way to the farm, that’s a plus. The more detailed the ingredient information they can analyze (like where and how it's grown or how it's processed), the better.
Q: Is there a difference between “cradle-to-gate” LCAs and "cradle-to-grave" LCAs?
A: “Cradle-to-gate” LCAs look at the carbon impact of a product from when it’s grown and produced until it enters the store. "Cradle-to-grave" LCAs go all the way through the end of a product’s life - from the farm until it’s disposed of after consumer use. Going this route ensures you get the whole picture, allowing you to make more informed decisions across every part of your supply chain.
Head of marketing
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<strong>Naomi</strong>
Head of marketing
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- For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing.
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How to customize formatting for each heading
Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.
