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    LCALife Cycle Assessment

    Definition

    Life Cycle Assessment — a method for assessing a product's environmental impacts from raw materials to disposal, described in ISO 14040 and ISO 14044.

    Editorial definition: The QHSE Standard, updated 3 October 2026 · https://qhsetech.com/glossary/lca

    Scope: The ISO standards set a framework and phases, not the methods for each phase, so a result holds only for its stated goal, scope and data.

    Sources checked: . Examples are editorial illustrations.

    What ISO 14040, ISO 14044 and EPA say about life cycle assessment

    Life cycle assessment, or LCA, is a method for compiling and evaluating the environmental inputs, outputs and potential impacts of a product or service across its life cycle. Two ISO standards describe it. ISO 14040:2006 sets out the principles and framework, and ISO 14044:2006 specifies requirements and provides guidelines. ISO's pages list the same elements for both: defining the goal and scope, the life cycle inventory phase, the life cycle impact assessment phase and the interpretation phase, together with reporting, critical review, limitations, the relationship between the phases and the conditions for using value choices and optional elements. Both pages say the standards cover LCA studies and life cycle inventory studies.

    ISO's page for the framework standard adds two limits worth keeping in mind. It does not describe the LCA technique in detail or specify methods for each phase, and the intended application of the results is considered when the goal and scope are defined but is itself outside the standard. Both standards are shown as the 2006 editions, last reviewed and confirmed in 2022, so they remain current. ISO lists one amendment of 2020 for the first and two amendments, of 2017 and 2020, for the second, so a study should state which text it follows.

    The US Environmental Protection Agency offers a plainer introduction. Its sustainability tools page lists a document that gives an introductory overview of LCA with its general uses and major components, designed for companies, federal facilities, industry organisations and academia, and showing how to bring life-cycle thinking into decisions. LCA results are only as good as the stated goal, boundary and data. This page is general information and does not state a legal requirement for any product.

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    What an LCA record looks like in software

    • The goal and scope statement: the question, the intended audience, the product system and the reference flow, usually expressed as a functional unit.
    • The system boundary, with the processes included and excluded and the reasons for each exclusion.
    • An inventory of inputs and outputs per process, with units, data sources, years, geography and a data-quality note.
    • The choices made on allocation, recycling and energy mixes, with the alternatives considered.
    • The impact assessment method and its version, with results for each impact category shown separately.
    • The interpretation: sensitivity checks, limitations, and the conclusions the data does and does not support.
    • The review record, if any, with the reviewer, the date and the comments, and the version of the study that was reviewed.

    LCA, carbon footprint and environmental product declaration

    A carbon footprint usually reports a single impact category, climate change, whereas an LCA can assess several categories and can show that an improvement in one raises another. A greenhouse gas inventory of an organisation, as in Scope 1, 2 and 3 reporting, is about a company over a period, not a product over its life. A product declaration or label may be built from an LCA, but it adds its own rules, so a result is only valid for the method and scope it states.

    A hypothetical example: comparing two bottle designs

    This case is invented to illustrate the record and describes no real company. A beverage company compares two bottle designs per 1,000 litres delivered to a retailer, which is the functional unit. Design A gives 45 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent per functional unit and design B gives 38 kg, a difference of 7 kg, or about 16 per cent of design A.

    Looking only at climate change would favour design B. The record also holds water use, where design A uses 120 litres and design B uses 150 litres per functional unit, so B is 30 litres higher. The team writes both results, notes that the difference in the carbon figures depends on an assumed recycling rate, runs a sensitivity check at a lower rate, and does not claim that either design is better overall until the goal is clear about which categories matter. The record also keeps the source and year of both figures, because a result quoted later without them cannot be checked.

    Common misunderstandings about LCA

    • ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 are not the same document. One sets the framework and the other sets requirements and guidelines.
    • The standards do not fix the methods for each phase. ISO's page says ISO 14040 does not specify methodologies for the individual phases, so the choices must be stated.
    • An LCA is not a carbon footprint. It can cover several impact categories, which is why results should be shown by category.
    • A result does not travel between questions. The goal and scope define what a number can be used for.
    • A report is not valid forever, because the data, the product and the method behind it all move over time. Record the date, data versions and method, and revisit when the product, supplier or method changes.

    How LCA relates to other glossary terms

    LCA looks at products, while the neighbouring terms look at organisations and management systems.

    • EMS: the organisational system that may use LCA to judge which impacts matter.
    • ISO 14001: the environmental management standard, a separate document from the LCA standards.
    • Scope 3 emissions: organisation-level value chain emissions, for which product LCA data is one possible input.
    • CBAM: an EU rule on emissions embedded in imported goods, with its own method and data requirements.

    Records and evidence that usually exist for an LCA

    • The goal and scope statement and its approval.
    • The model, with boundary, flows and data sources.
    • Data-quality assessments and assumptions.
    • The impact assessment method, version and results by category.
    • Sensitivity analyses and the interpretation.
    • Any critical review report and the response to it.
    • The data sources used, with their years and geographies.

    What a software tool needs to capture for an LCA

    • A functional unit and system boundary stored as structured fields, not only in a report.
    • Source, year, geography and quality for each inventory flow.
    • The impact assessment method and its version, with results kept by category.
    • Scenario and sensitivity runs saved beside the base case.
    • Version control that links a published figure to the model and data that produced it.
    • Export of the full study for a reviewer, with assumptions and limitations.
    • A note field for each assumption, with the date and the person who made it.

    Catalog profiles documenting carbon inventory or GHG calculation

    Each profile documents a carbon calculation capability in its record. The list does not show that any product performs a life cycle assessment under ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, which should be checked with the supplier.

    Same rule for every product: tagged “Carbon Accounting”, “Carbon Management”, “Scope 3 Emissions”, “Scope 3” or “Emissions Reporting”, with a sourced carbon inventory or GHG calculation capability in its record, or one the vendor stated to us, labelled as vendor-stated. Documented and conditional capabilities qualify; check the linked scope before treating a module as included.

    Tekmon pays for a sponsored placement (above); its place in this list follows the same rule as every entry. How lists are ordered

    All 18 matching profiles are shown. Documentation review, not hands-on testing or a claim of compliance.

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    Frequently asked questions

    What is the difference between ISO 14040 and ISO 14044?

    ISO describes ISO 14040 as setting principles and a framework and ISO 14044 as setting requirements and guidelines. Both cover the same phases of an LCA study.

    Is an LCA required by law?

    The two ISO standards are voluntary. A law, a customer or a labelling scheme may require LCA-based figures and name its own method, so check what applies to your product.

    How long is an LCA valid?

    There is no fixed answer. Record the date, the data versions and the method, and revisit the study when the product, a supplier or the method changes.

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