When businesses set out to improve sustainability, three terms often come up: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), and Life Cycle Costing (LCC). Each plays a different role in measuring and communicating impact, but together they provide a powerful toolkit for making better decisions. Importantly, not every business needs to implement all three — the key is finding the combination that works best for your goals, resources, and products.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
An LCA is a structured method used to measure the environmental impact of a product or service across its entire life cycle. It looks at everything from raw material extraction to production, distribution, use, and disposal, following international standards such as ISO 14040 and ISO 14044.
For businesses, an LCA is most useful when there’s a need to understand the full environmental footprint of a product or service. It can highlight hotspots for improvement, such as energy-intensive processes or high-emission materials. Many companies also use LCA as the foundation for sustainable product design, innovation, and corporate reporting. By quantifying environmental impacts, businesses can make informed choices that reduce emissions, conserve resources, and improve efficiency.
Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)
An EPD is essentially the communication tool that shares the findings of an LCA in a standardised and verified format. It is built on the same data but structured according to Product Category Rules (PCRs) so that results are consistent and comparable across similar products.
EPDs are particularly valuable when meeting regulatory requirements, such as in construction, or when businesses want to publicly demonstrate their environmental performance. Because they are third-party verified, EPDs provide credibility, trust, and transparency, which can help companies strengthen their brand reputation and meet the expectations of increasingly eco-conscious clients. They also allow businesses to benchmark their products against competitors, encouraging continuous improvement and innovation.
Life Cycle Costing (LCC)
While LCA and EPD focus on environmental aspects, LCC takes a financial perspective. It evaluates the total cost of ownership of a product, system, or asset over its entire life cycle — from acquisition and operation through maintenance to disposal.
LCC is most relevant when businesses need to balance environmental and economic considerations. For example, a more energy-efficient product may have a higher upfront cost but lower operational expenses and disposal costs, making it more cost-effective in the long run. LCC helps reveal these hidden opportunities and supports decisions that align sustainability with financial performance. It also encourages organisations to invest in solutions that deliver long-term value rather than short-term savings.
Bringing It All Together
Although each method serves a different purpose, they work best in combination. LCA provides the data on environmental impact, EPD communicates that information in a comparable way, and LCC highlights the financial side of ownership. That said, businesses don’t need to do all three — the focus should be on selecting the tools that make the most sense for your products, resources, and sustainability goals. By using the right combination, businesses gain a holistic view that supports smarter, more sustainable strategies.
Why It Matters
For organisations under pressure to reduce emissions, meet client expectations, or prove sustainability credentials, these tools are becoming essential. They not only provide clarity on environmental performance but also guide better investment, design, and procurement decisions. Ultimately, combining LCA, EPD, and LCC — selectively or fully — allows businesses to align environmental responsibility with economic value, ensuring long-term sustainability and competitiveness in a market that increasingly values transparency and accountability. By leveraging these tools strategically, companies can make confident decisions that benefit the planet, enhance efficiency, and build trust with customers and stakeholders alike.
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