Companies are realizing the benefits of Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) in providing a deep understanding of the environmental impacts of their products. This powerful tool accounts for the inputs and outputs required to make a product and models them across the product’s life cycle phases, from raw material production through end-of-life. LCA results can guide product design choices, quantify a product’s carbon footprint, target supply chain improvements and support product claims.

Pure Strategies has expertise in both GaBi and SimaPro tools commonly used for life-cycle studies. Our projects range from complex, peer-reviewed studies to rapid assessments that involve a more limited data set and are useful in identifying a product’s or category’s environmental hotspots and improvement opportunities.

Hotspot analysis is another powerful tool that reveals the product or category life cycle stages that have the most significant impact for the criteria that are most important to the company. This may include carbon intensity, waste, chemicals, and parameters such as social concerns that are not addressed through life cycle assessments. Mapping selected impacts across product life cycle stages reveals the points in the value chain where targeted mitigation strategies should be considered.

Examples of our work include:

• Peer reviewed LCA for EMD Millipore
• Peer reviewed LCA for RM2
• LCA studies of baby wipes and liquid laundry detergent for Seventh Generation
• LCAs on gear, footwear and apparel for The North Face
• Numerous other projects in the automotive, packaging, food, apparel, toy and biopharmaceutical industries