Life Cycle Assessment

Future-Proof Your Business with OneCert International’s Comprehensive Lifecycle Assessment Services: A Step towards a Greener Future

With sustainabilitytaking centre stage across industries, OneCert International is leading the charge, providing businesses with the insights they need to understand, minimize and ultimately transform their environmental footprint. If you’re looking to future- proof your operations while embracing sustainability, LCA is the game changer your business needs.

But first let us understand What is LCA?

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a systematic method used to assess the environmental impacts of a product or service across its entire life cycle, from raw material extraction to end-of-life disposal. This includes everything from production, distribution, and use to the final disposal or recycling. The goal is to measure the energy consumption, resource usage, and emissions generated at each stage, providing businesses with valuable insights into areas where they can reduce their carbon footprint and improve efficiency.

For instance, it could involve comparing the environmental impact of a reusable water bottle with a single-use plastic bottle by evaluating the energy required for production, their transportation, and their disposal methods at the end of life.

The LCA process is broken down into four key phases, each offering valuable insights into how we can make more sustainable choices. Here’s a closer look at each one:

1. Goal and Scope Definition
   • This phase is all about getting clear on what you want to learn. You define the purpose of your assessment, whether it’s comparing products, understanding your environmental footprint, or improving a process. It’s also where you decide the boundaries of your study—what parts of the product’s life cycle will be included and which ones won’t. This phase sets the stage for everything that comes next.
2. Inventory Analysis (LCI)
   • Now, it’s time to gather data. In the Inventory Analysis phase, you take stock of all the resources that go into the product—raw materials, energy, and water used during production, transportation, and more. You also account for the emissions and waste created during each stage of its life. Essentially, you’re building a “map” of all the environmental flows associated with your product. The goal here is to gather as much accurate data as possible to paint a clear picture of the product’s environmental impacts.
3. Impact Assessment (LCIA) & Environmental Product Declarations (EPD)
   • The Impact Assessment phase takes the data from the inventory and categorizes it to understand the environmental impacts—such as carbon emissions, water use, and resource depletion. You’ll analyze how the product or service affects areas like global warming, human health, and ecosystems. This phase helps you identify “hotspots” where the environmental impact is particularly high, so you can focus on reducing them.
     • Where Does Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) Fit In?
   • An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is a verified, transparent report that communicates the environmental impact of a product based on its LCA. It falls under the Impact Assessment phase, as it presents the findings in a structured format that businesses, regulators, and consumers can use for decision-making.
   • Why EPD Matters?
     • Credibility – Third-party verified, ensuring trust.
     • Comparability – Standardized format for fair product comparisons.
     • Market Access – Increasingly required for green building certifications and sustainable procurement.
4. Interpretation
   • The final phase is all about making sense of everything you’ve learned and using it to make informed decisions. In the Interpretation phase, you look at the results of your LCA, check the assumptions you made earlier, and identify areas where improvements can be made. The goal is to ensure that your conclusions are robust, transparent, and provide clear insights that can guide decision-making. This phase helps you figure out how to make your product or service more sustainable by highlighting areas for improvement.

In the face of increasing environmental regulations, ethical consumerism, and a greater push for sustainability across industries, businesses need effective solutions to assess their environmental performance. That’s where LCA comes in. By implementing LCA, OneCert International empowers businesses to:

1. Identify Environmental Hotspots: LCA identifies stages of a product’s life cycle that contribute the most to environmental impacts. These insights help businesses target specific areas for improvement, whether it’s minimizing waste in production or reducing energy use during transportation.
2. Reduce Costs: By optimizing processes based on LCA findings, companies can streamline operations, reduce energy consumption, and cut costs associated with waste management or raw material procurement.
3. Enhance Brand Image: As more consumers and stakeholders demand sustainable products and practices, businesses that adopt LCA are better positioned to market themselves as responsible, eco-conscious brands. This can improve customer loyalty, attract new clients, and foster a positive public image.
4. Comply with Regulations: Governments are increasingly introducing strict environmental standards. With LCA, companies ensure that they remain compliant with these regulations, avoiding penalties and gaining access to new markets that prioritize sustainability.
5. Support Circular Economy Models: By understanding the life cycle of products, businesses can explore new business models, such as recycling, reusing, or remanufacturing, that contribute to a circular economy. LCA helps businesses design products that are easier to disassemble and recycle, reducing waste and promoting sustainability.

Under Principle 2 of the BRSR, which encourages companies to provide products and services that are safe and support sustainability over the course of their life cycles, SEBI highlights the significance of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA is an analytical process that assesses a product or service’s possible effects on the environment or society over the course of its whole life. Businesses are urged to carry out life cycle assessments (LCAs) in order to find ways to improve sustainability and lessen adverse effects. An LCA’s scope might vary and include:

• Cradle-to-Grave: Evaluating the product’s life cycle from resource extraction (the “cradle”) to disposal (the “grave”) is known as “cradle-to-grave.”
• Cradle-to-Cradle: A particular cradle-to-grave evaluation that encourages a circular economy by substituting a recycling process for end-of-life disposal.
• Cradle-to-Gate: Assessing the product’s life cycle from the extraction of resources to the factory gate, prior to the consumer receiving it.

Companies must include information about their sustainability efforts, including the scope and results of any LCAs they have carried out, in their BRSR submissions. This contains details on the assessment’s limitations, such as whether it covers all life phases or just a few.

What services do we provide?

1. Environmental and Social LCA: Holistic assessments of environmental impacts, such as carbon footprint and resource use, and social impacts like labor practices and community well-being.
2. Carbon and GHG Accounting: Detailed emissions inventories across all scopes, with strategies for reduction and achieving net-zero goals.
3. Sustainability Optimization: Recommendations for product design, supply chain efficiency, and operational improvements to lower carbon impact.
4. Regulatory Compliance: Ensuring alignment with standards like ISO 14040/14044 and GHG Protocol, while preparing transparent reports for stakeholders. The European Union generally aligns with the ISO 14040 series for LCA practices, often incorporating them into relevant regulations and promoting their use.,

Why Choose Us?

1. Customized Assessment for Every Company: We tailor LCA approach to suit the specific challenges and goals of your company. We dive deep into the lifecycle of your products, offering insights that are relevant and actionable for your business.
2. Experienced and Dedicated Team: Our team is equipped with the knowledge and experience to guide you through every stage of the LCA process. From data collection and impact assessment to interpreting results and implementing changes, we’re with you every step of the way.
3. Local Expertise with Global Reach: As a Jaipur-based company, OneCert International understands the regional challenges faced by businesses in India and across the globe. Our local expertise combined with a broad understanding of international standards and regulations allows us to provide solutions that are both relevant and globally competitive.

We recognize the need to go beyond conventional practices like trading carbon credits. Instead, we advocate for actively offsetting our own carbon emissions. This approach not only reinforces our commitment to sustainability but also provides tangible benefits for product visibility, marketing differentiation, and financial growth.

Direct carbon offset initiatives offer significant benefits, including enhanced product visibility by highlighting environmental stewardship through certifications and labels that appeal to eco-conscious consumers, setting products apart in competitive markets. Our expertise in LCA and carbon management makes us forerunners in the field. We empower clients to lead in sustainability, innovate with low-carbon products, and capture new market opportunities while achieving measurable environmental benefits. By adopting these practices early businesses can position themselves as industry leaders and build stakeholder trust.

Financially, these efforts reduce reliance on external carbon credits, mitigating long-term costs and market volatility, while investments in renewable energy, soil carbon sequestration, and reforestation drive operational efficiencies, boost profitability, and strengthen brand loyalty. We make our clients aware so they don’t fall prey to the latest market trends of carbon trading. Our approach goes beyond compliance—we work with clients to enhance the sustainability of their processes, organizations, supply chains, and allied activities.