Life Cycle Assessment

A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), known in German as Oekobilanz, is a standardised procedure for compiling and evaluating the potential environmental impacts of a product, process or service over its entire life cycle. It considers every stage, from raw material extraction through manufacturing, transport and use to disposal or recovery (cradle-to-grave). Depending on the question being addressed, narrower system boundaries such as cradle-to-gate (up to the factory gate) or cradle-to-cradle (with full circular reuse) are also common.

Methodologically, the LCA is defined by the standards ISO 14040 (principles and framework) and ISO 14044 (requirements and guidelines). It is structured into four phases: defining the goal and scope, the life cycle inventory (LCI) that records all material and energy flows, the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) that assigns these flows to impact categories such as climate change, acidification, eutrophication or resource use, and finally the interpretation of the results. At European level, the European Commission's Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) method complements these standards with harmonised calculation rules.

In the context of sustainability reporting, the LCA is gaining considerable importance. It provides the robust data basis for product-related environmental claims, for calculating the product carbon footprint, and for disclosures under the ESRS, particularly in the areas of climate change (ESRS E1) and circular economy (ESRS E5). At the same time, the LCA is a key instrument against greenwashing: the proposed EU Green Claims Directive requires scientifically sound, life-cycle-based substantiation for environmental marketing claims, for which the LCA sets the methodological standard.