LCA Suite of Services
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Increasingly, buyers and regulators demand a richer understanding of how products and processes impact our environment throughout the entire life cycle. That includes how resources are extracted and processed, distribution of finished goods and end-of-life management.
Provide a meaningful and transparent perspective to communicate current environmental impact and guide future sustainability objectives. Life cycle assessments (LCAs) conducted by a trusted third party using objective frameworks and methodologies demonstrate accountability and inspire trust in how your products and processes affect the environment.
UL Solutions helps manufacturers navigate the emerging product sustainability landscape. We provide an array of LCA and LCA-adjacent services, performed by regulatory and sustainability experts, to help support voluntary or mandatory reporting, satisfy customer demands, and understand sustainability progress.
What is a life cycle assessment?
LCAs provide a standard methodology based on International Standards Organization (ISO) 14040 and ISO 14044 that enables the evaluation of the cradle-to-grave environmental impact of a product, process or service.
These assessments are increasingly required by certain markets and encouraged by a growing coalition of stakeholders. LCAs support quantitative analysis regarding metrics, including resource consumption, energy use, production practices, waste generation and emissions.
LCAs provide actionable insights and support decision-making, including:
- Identifying locations in need of additional environmental support, attention or remediation
- Informing more sustainable design choices, such as choosing materials that are easier to repurpose or recycle
- Changing production processes to support a reduced environmental footprint
Measure specific environmental factors through an LCA
LCAs can assess a broad range of important metrics that contribute to overall environmental impact, such as:
- Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including CO2 and methane
- Energy and water consumption
- Ozone depletion
- Negative impacts on water, including acidification and eutrophication
- Solid waste production
- Raw materials extraction/harvest
- Chemical runoff or by-products
The six steps of a product lifecycle (from cradle to grave)
In general, the lifecycle of a product includes six steps:
- Raw materials extraction
- Materials processing
- Industrial processing of materials
- Product distribution
- Use of product
- Disposal
Comprehensive life cycle assessment and related services
We offer a wide array of services to support manufacturers who need to provide a transparent look at the environmental impact of products and processes. Our experts bring rich experience that promotes an accurate understanding of actual performance.
Our services include:
- Product category rule (PCR) development following ISO 14025
- LCA development for production processes, individual products or full product portfolios
- Hot spot analysis to identify significant sustainability challenges and alternative inputs, procedures or decisions
- Third-party critical review of an existing LCA
- Comparative LCA following ISO standard comparability criteria to support public comparative assertions
- Certification of environmental product declarations (EPD) for ISO 14025
- Verification of product carbon footprint (PCF) claims to ISO 14067
- Verification of reduction through EPD Optimization or PCF Reduced verification services
- Review of PCF claims against Partnership for Carbon Transparency (PACT), GHG Protocol and ISO 14067 criteria
UL Solutions provides accurate, holistic support for life cycle assessments
We are a respected third party with an extensive history in sustainability leadership. Our rigor and reputation support manufacturers as they work to reduce environmental impact and boost trust and confidence through accurate and reliable LCAs and related environmental claims.
Connect with UL Solutions for product-level LCA evaluations and third-party verification of product-level environmental claims. We are a leader in establishing product category rules (PCRs) that provide the foundation for LCAs across many industries. Our team also has a depth of experience in LCA critical review and verification for PCF and EPDs*.
*All Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) offered through this service are subject to independent third-party verification. The LCA creator and verifier are separate entities to ensure impartiality and compliance with ISO 14040/14044 standards. Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and Product Category Rules (PCRs) are developed and/or verified in accordance with applicable international standards and program operator requirements.
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