Contact

What are you looking for?

Life Cycle Assessment

Prove the sustainability of your products and achieve environmental quality standards with SGS.

Sustainability is an increasingly important factor in your products. As a result, you need to provide your clients and end users with objective environmental information on your products. Our life cycle assessment (LCA) services enable you to prove the sustainability of your products and achieve national and international quality standards.

What is a life cycle assessment?

Our LCA services provide you with an independent analysis of your products, along with comprehensive consultancy on sustainability, enabling you to:

  • Achieve national and international environmental quality standards to communicate the environmental quality of your product
  • Assess all stages in the life cycle and measure their impact on the environmental quality of your product
  • Provide your clients and end users with an independent assessment of the environmental impact of your products
  • Use the results of the assessment for product innovation, production process optimization and to maximize re-use and recycling

Unrivaled experience in life cycle assessment

Our highly specialized consultants offer you over 20 years’ experience in this field. That is why we are the first choice for developers and government organizations across the globe. Plus, we keep up to date with the latest environmental and sustainability regulations and LCA methods, so you can rest assured that your products are in-line with the latest changes.

Our LCA services include:

  • Comparison of your product to similar products on the market
  • Environmental care
  • Environmental product declaration (EPD)
  • Environmental product information (MRPI®)
  • Re-use and recycling optimization
  • Policy studies
  • Product and process innovation

Contact us today to find out how our services can prove the sustainability of your products and help you achieve environmental quality standards

Life Cycle Assessment for Products and Services
Prove the sustainability of products and achieve national and international quality standards.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

An LCA consists of four stages: Goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation.

In the goal and scope definition stage, questions such as, “How should we use the results of the LCA?”, “What requirements should the assessment fulfill?” and “How many and which products should be part of the life cycle evaluation?” are answered. This is also the stage where we determine what the functional unit (the unit and degree of functionality to be analyzed) should be.

In the inventory analysis stage, all necessary data is gathered. This includes information such as material quantities and specifications, energy demands and information on packaging. The gathered information is then modeled using LCA databases and software.

The life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) stage is the stage in which results are calculated.

Finally, results are analyzed in the interpretation stage. This is when we determine which material or which production step created the most environmental impact. A sensitivity analysis is used to test the robustness of the LCA and its assumptions.

During a life cycle impact assessment, the total amount of elementary flows and emissions into air, soil and water is calculated. The long list of results is then grouped into impact categories, which are determined by the impact assessment method of choice. For example, emissions related to global warming can be grouped and converted to the same unit, such as kg CO2. The list of calculated impact categories is the final result of the life cycle analysis.

From kick-off to completion, a life cycle assessment can take between three and six months. This may vary due to availability of data, complexity of the product or speed at which the review can take place.

Find out more

James Hardie Case Study

Case Study: Fermacell Confirms Low Environmental Impact with a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Four Steps of an LCA

The Four Steps of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Related Services

More Services

News & Insights

  • SGS Industries and Environment Services

1 Place des Alpes,

P.O. Box 2152,

1211, Geneva, Switzerland