How it works today at many manufacturers
Life cycle management sounds like a project with its own department. At most mid-sized companies it is something else: a series of questions that arrive at different desks and are each answered wherever someone happens to have a suitable file.
Purchasing keeps a materials list, usually exported from the ERP system: "Material_Master_2025.xlsx", with item numbers, suppliers and annual quantities. Whether a material contains recycled content is not in it, at best in a remarks column that is maintained for a few rows. Engineering knows the design life and warranty period of the products, but from the technical data sheets, not from an overview. How easily a device can be repaired is known to customer service, but nobody has written it down.
At the other end of the life cycle sits the waste officer. The waste contractors send their annual volume statements as PDFs, which become "Waste_Balance_2025.xlsx" with waste codes, tonnes and a note on whether the waste was recovered or disposed of. The carbon footprint, in turn, lives in controlling and covers Scope 1 and 2 in full, Scope 3 only with business travel and commuting. Purchased goods, the use of sold products and their disposal are missing, because the data for them sits with other people.
Each of these files is fine on its own. Together they still do not add up to a picture of a product's life cycle, because the link is missing: which material goes into which product, which supplier delivered it, which waste arises in production and at the end of use? The answer exists only when four people sit down together. And even then it only reflects the state of that one meeting: if a supplier changes or a package is redesigned, the picture is already out of date without anyone noticing.
The moment it becomes apparent
The trigger usually comes from outside. A major customer sends its annual supplier questionnaire and this time wants the recycled content per product group, information on repairability and the emissions of the supplied parts. Or the double materiality assessment for the sustainability report rates the sub-topic "resource outflows related to products and services" as material, and exactly these disclosures become mandatory.
Then a collection drive by email begins, with sentences such as "Can you tell me by Friday how much of it is recycled?". The figures arrive, but with different reporting dates, units and reference values. The following year the same search starts over, because nobody recorded where each figure came from.
Pressure is also growing on the regulatory side. The European Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation is set to lay down requirements on durability, repairability and recycled content for more and more product groups. If you keep this information in order today, you answer customer questions and reporting obligations from the same data set.
The analysis
Five Gaps in the Life Cycle That Spreadsheets Cannot Close
They do not arise from a lack of care, but because each department sees only its own section of the life cycle.
View circular economy (E5) in preecoMaterial data without a circularity link
The materials list knows quantities and suppliers, but not the recycled content or whether a substance is one of the EU's critical raw materials. When a customer asks, every row is researched individually.
Product properties buried in data sheets
Service life, warranty and repairability are spread across technical documents. For the report someone has to collect them, and the basis of the repairability rating usually remains unclear.
Scope 3 stops at the factory gate
Purchased goods and the use and disposal of sold products are often the largest emission sources, yet they are missing from the inventory. Whoever estimates them cannot trace the estimate in the following year.
Waste figures from last year
The waste balance is compiled once a year from the contractors' PDF statements. Whether the recovery rate is rising or falling only becomes visible when nothing can be changed anymore.
Targets without a fixed baseline
A target such as "raise recycled content to 30 percent" needs a documented baseline. If it sits only in a spreadsheet, it can be adjusted later, and the progress can no longer be audited.
The target process in six steps
In sustainability reporting, life cycle management does not mean calculating a full life cycle assessment for every product. It means keeping the data along the life cycle so that materials, products, supply chain and waste fit together and can be carried forward year after year.
1. Clarify materiality. The double materiality assessment for the circular economy distinguishes three sub-topics: resource inflows, resource outflows related to products and services, and waste. Only its result determines which life cycle data actually has to be reported. In preeco | sustainability, the activated assessment unlocks the corresponding disclosure requirements.
2. Record material flows. Each key material is recorded with its material type (technical or biological), weight and share of secondary raw materials, and for biological materials also with the sustainably sourced share. A match against the EU Critical Raw Materials Act flags critical and strategic raw materials automatically.
3. Assess products. For each product and reporting period, durability with design life and warranty period, repairability including the rating system, and the recyclability of product and packaging are recorded. The software derives the recyclability rates from the total and recyclable weights.
4. Include the supply chain. Scope 3 is calculated across all 15 categories, from purchased goods to the end-of-life treatment of sold products. Suppliers submit their emissions through a portal without a user account; the share attributable to your purchasing flows into category 1 as a record.
5. Document waste continuously. Waste streams are set up once with a code from the European Waste Catalogue; after that, each disposal creates a record with weight, treatment type and evidence. Total volume and recovery share are available at any time, not only in the following year.
6. Set targets and close the loop. Targets such as recycled content, recovery rate or product circularity are activated with a locked baseline. Actions only count as completed with evidence, and progress is recalculated. With the next reporting period the loop starts again on a documented basis.
Life cycle management and life cycle assessment
A life cycle assessment (LCA) under ISO 14040 and 14044 evaluates the environmental impacts of a single product across many impact categories. It is one tool within life cycle management, not its prerequisite. For reporting under ESRS E5 and most customer requests, reliable data on materials, product properties, supply chain and waste is sufficient. preeco | sustainability does not calculate LCAs; a module for the product carbon footprint under the GHG Protocol Product Standard is planned.
Before and after compared directly
| Criterion | Before: scattered spreadsheets | After: life cycle management in preeco |
|---|---|---|
| Material data | ERP export without recycled content | Material flows with type, weight, secondary raw material share |
| Critical raw materials | Researched per customer request | Automatic match against the EU Critical Raw Materials Act |
| Product properties | Spread across data sheets | Durability, repairability, recyclability per product |
| Supply chain | Scope 3 only partially | All 15 Scope 3 categories, supplier data via a portal |
| Waste | Annual statement from the contractors | Ongoing records with waste code and treatment type |
| Targets | Baseline in a cell | Baseline locked on activation |
| Responsibility | Knowledge held by individuals | One data set for purchasing, engineering, environment and controlling |
| Evidence | Origin of figures unclear | Evidence documents and activity log per record |
In practice
What This Looks Like in preeco | sustainability
The three building blocks that carry life cycle management from raw material to waste.
Circular economy (E5)
Material flows matched against the EU Critical Raw Materials Act, product circularity assessment per product and waste management with 842 codes from the European Waste Catalogue.
Data request on your emissions
Kernbach Automotive Group SE · FY 2025
Scope 3 along the value chain
All 15 Scope 3 categories with eight calculation methods, a screening per reporting period and supplier data via a portal that flows automatically into category 1.
Targets and actions
Circularity targets with eight target metrics, a locked baseline and progress calculation; actions are only completed with an evidence document.
What the switch means in practice
The existing files remain the foundation. The material master, data sheets and contractor statements already contain most of the information; it is transferred once in a structured way and then maintained where it originates. The first pass shows which information is missing, such as the recycled content of purchased plastic parts. These gaps are the actual work order, and it is better to know them now than at the next customer request.
Start with the product groups that carry the most revenue or that customers ask about most often. Life cycle management does not have to cover every product in the first year; it has to grow in a traceable way.
Clarify responsibilities up front: purchasing maintains materials and suppliers, engineering the product properties, the waste officer the disposal data. The sustainability team reviews and reports instead of collecting every figure itself.
Three mistakes that make the start harder
Starting with an LCA for everything. A full life cycle assessment per product ties up time and budget before the basic data is in place. Keeping materials, product properties and waste in order first does more for the report and for customers.
Leaving out the supply chain. For manufacturers, a large share of emissions lies in purchased goods and sold products. Limiting Scope 3 to travel and commuting describes only a small section of the life cycle.
Setting targets without a baseline. A target is only as robust as its starting value. Record it with evidence before you name a target year.
How to tell it is time
- Customers ask about recycled content, repairability or the emissions of your products.
- The materiality assessment rates resource inflows or outflows as material.
- Your Scope 3 inventory contains nothing on purchased goods or sold products.
- Material and waste data sits in more than two departments.
- You cannot document the baseline a circularity target is based on.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions About Life Cycle Management
Life cycle management is a management approach that considers the environmental and social impacts of a product across its entire life cycle: from raw material extraction through manufacturing and use to disposal. It draws on various tools, including life cycle assessments, supply chain data and circularity metrics, and anchors them in targets, responsibilities and regular review.
A life cycle assessment (LCA under ISO 14040 and 14044) calculates the environmental impacts of a product. Life cycle management is the overarching framework that connects such results with data on materials, supply chain and waste, and with targets and actions. preeco | sustainability supports life cycle management but does not calculate LCAs.
The ESRS E5 standard on resource use and circular economy requires, where the topic is material, disclosures on resource inflows, on resource outflows related to products and services, and on waste. In addition, ESRS E1 covers the Scope 3 emissions of the value chain. Which disclosures apply in your case is determined by the double materiality assessment.
Not yet. A module for the product carbon footprint under the GHG Protocol Product Standard, with a product database, material emission factors and supplier PCF collection, is planned. Already available are the corporate inventory across Scope 1, 2 and all 15 Scope 3 categories and the collection of supplier emissions through a portal.
No. It makes sense to start with the products or product groups that matter most for revenue, customer requests or the materiality assessment. In preeco | sustainability, product circularity is recorded per product and reporting period, so the scope can be extended year by year.
Go Through Your Product Life Cycle With Us
Bring your materials list, waste balance or the latest customer questionnaire. In 30 minutes we show how they become continuous life cycle management in preeco | sustainability.