By Barbara Nebel, CEO , thinkstep-anz

There is no such thing as a green product, only greener or more sustainable options. However, the differences in impact between products can be significant.

This is an important distinction to make as it recognises that all products have some impact on the environment.

Some common-sense knowledge and an overall understanding of how something is made and what it is made of can help you form ideas around how sustainable your product is.

However, unless these ideas are tested and backed by credible data, they will remain as vague claims.

This is where sustainability tool Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) comes into the picture to quantify a wide range of environmental impacts across a product’s whole life.

In this article, we explore the principles behind LCA, the many uses and benefits of LCA, and how to optimise LCA to create the most sustainable products and services.

Life cycle thinking and LCA

Every product has a life cycle. It starts when the raw materials are harvested or extracted and finishes when the final product is disposed or used at the end of its functional life.

Life cycle thinking — the concept around which LCA is built — understands that each stage of a product’s life cycle contributes to its overall environmental impact.

Life cycle thinking also understands that sustainability is about more than just carbon.

An LCA takes a broad definition of environmental sustainability with a wide range of indicators including carbon footprint, energy use, water consumption.

Finally, life cycle thinking as a principle and LCA as quantitative tool understand that decisions around one area of a product’s sustainability can also affect others.

Part of an LCA’s objective is to consider these trade-offs that can occur to ensure a positive impact in one area does not come with unintended negative consequences in another.

LCA as a biopsy, not a postmortem

LCA studies are becoming increasingly popular for businesses from SMEs like David Trubridge and Futurity to large companies like NZ Post and Tetra Pak Oceania.

While this is encouraging, the next step is for LCA to be considered earlier in the product development phase.

Many of a product’s  environmental impacts are locked in during the design phase. For example, research from the EU suggests that over 80% of all product-related environmental impacts can be influenced at this stage).

This is where LCA can really shine! An LCA study can help to identify environmental hotspots across a product’s whole life cycle — before they are locked in at the manufacturing stage.

Applying life cycle thinking at the beginning of product development also contributes to a better understanding of the full supply chain, including potential risks such as modern slavery, material shortages, and supply chain disruptions.

Rethink design with LCA: David Trubridge

An LCA study is at its most impactful when used at the early stages of product design and planning, but it can also be used to test the performance of existing products.

Award-winning designer David Trubridge used an LCA to better understand the environmental impacts and hotspots of his popular lighting products.

The results revealed that transporting products was an area of concern and led to the redesign of their lighting products with a ‘kitset’ design.

Unlike pre-assembled products, a kitset design can be packaged flat and is assembled by the customer.

Re-thinking the design of products can positively impact sustainability performance along with process efficiencies and productivity.

For David Trubridge’s products, the kitset design enabled them to decrease the volume of packaging required, leading to better packaging efficiency and lower related costs for packaging and transport. It also led to better environmental outcomes for their products, including a significantly lower carbon footprint.

Ensuring sustainability decisions that can stand scrutiny: New Zealand Post

Customers and clients now care more than ever about the environment and the impact what they buy has on the environment. Sometimes people’s environmental concerns about products are shaped by their own perceptions around what is ‘green’ and what is not — even if this may not always be based on the most up-to-date information.

For example, plastic packaging is often seen in a negative light even though — in some cases — it can be the most environmentally friendly option viable.

An LCA study by NZ Post found that recycled plastic performed better in most environmental categories than paper for a courier bag product.

An LCA study provides quantitative data on environmental impacts that can help companies back up their sustainability decisions. It also provides a sound basis for companies to communicate the bigger environmental picture to their stakeholders.

NZ Post’s packaging LCA study enabled them to explain to stakeholders and customers why the company decided to choose a NZ-made courier bag with 80 percent recycled plastic over compostable and paper packaging options.

Don’t leave LCA to the last minute

LCA studies are becoming increasingly common as a product sustainability tool in New Zealand and Australia. While an LCA is beneficial at any stage, the data it provides is most useful right at the beginning of product design. The next step then is to use LCA to guide design, rather than as a ‘postmortem’ when many of the impacts of a product are locked in or hard to change.

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