Life cycle assessment (LCA)
Definition
A life cycle assessment (LCA) measures the environmental impacts of a product or service across its whole life, from raw material extraction to manufacturing, transport, use and end of life, on several indicators at once.
The method is set by ISO 14040 and ISO 14044. An LCA covers several impact categories, not only climate change: water use, resource depletion, acidification, particulate matter and others. The European Commission's Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) method builds on it.
A corporate carbon footprint looks at a whole company over a year; an LCA looks at one product over its whole life. LCAs back eco-design decisions and specific environmental claims, which EU law now requires to be substantiated.