Life Cycle assessment (LCA)

WHAT WE GIVE YOU

1. Life Cycle Assessment Study on your Product/Service;
2. All that you need to obtain EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) Marking: Writing of PCR (Product Category Rules) and of Environmental Declaration;
3. Carbon Footprint Studies;
4. Water Footprint  Studies;
5. Energy Diagnosis;
6. Assistance in relationship with Notified Bodies;
7. Services for Carbon Management;
8. Services for Carbon Finance.

Training - See also Course Catalgue

We offer a Modular ONE day course that can be attended in the classroom or at the customer's office. - See also Course Catalgue.

WHO IS IT FOR

This service addresses all those companies that compete on mature markets and who have decided to orient their strategic choices towards a path for Sustainability.

ADVANTAGES

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): LCA is a tool for the "Compilation and evaluation throughout the life cycle of the incoming and outgoing flows as well as the potential environmental impacts of a product system". It is, more particularly, to an objective procedure for the evaluation of environmental loads related to a product or a service, carried out through the energy identification, of the materials used and wastes released to the environment. "The LCA studies the environmental aspects and potential impacts throughout the entire life of a product (ie from cradle to grave) from the acquisition of raw materials, through manufacturing and use, to disposal." The analysis is performed on the entire life cycle of the product or service and includes the extraction and processing of raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, distribution, use, reuse, recycling and final disposal, showing, step by step, the influence of the various parties involved (designers, suppliers, distributors, consumers, ...).

The benefits for the company:

• managing the environmental impacts associated with the product / service system (the supply of raw materials to final disposal and / or recycling);
• reduction of management costs;
• identification of possible technological improvements and management of a product / service and its suppliers to sustainable development;
• acquisition of data useful for defining corporate strategies and identify the best processes / alternative products;
• improved corporate image and commercial visibility of the product / service to professional users or simple consumer;
• broad compatibility and synergy with the Management Systems.

Environmental Product Declaration (EPD): Environmental Product Declaration (EPD): EPD is applicable to all products regardless of their use or positioning in the production chain. The EPD is for information purposes only and therefore does not provide for minimum levels that the environmental performance of the product or service in question must respect.

The EPD, based always on the LCA, is emerging as an excellent communication of the environmental performance of a product / service tool, thanks to the drafting of a document that can provide objective and comparable information that can be used by the company to enhance the their communication and marketing strategies.

The EPD has to be verified and validated by an accredited independent certification body that guarantees the credibility and veracity of the information contained in the LCA study and in the declaration.

The EPD system is designed to meet the demands for reliable and comprehensive environmental information on products and services, based on the following premises:

• provide qualitatively and quantitatively better environmental information allowing anyone to be able to compare between their products and / or substitute services;
• providing credible information and quality controlled;
• provide easily understandable information for anyone;
• update over time the information on the environmental performance of its products / services.

The advantages for comapanies:

• from the point of view inside the company, the opportunity to examine in detail the environmental profile of its products to embark on a process of continuous improvement;
• from the external point of view, the ability to communicate to the public, in a transparent, credible, objective and comparable, the environmental improvements of their product or service and the actions taken to achieve these improvements;
• It is a great marketing tool, especially given the increased sensitivity of the consumer to the environmental aspects of products and services;
• the ability to export the EPD abroad, because the system is based entirely on ISO standards and also the EPD system itself is moving towards standardization at the European level.

The advantages for the consumer:

To have clear and transparent environmental information on products and services in order also to perform a comparison that will influence subsequent purchasing decisions.

Ecolabel: It is the European mark of environmental certification that aims to promote the market those products which have a lower environmental impact.

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SERVICES

As for the Life Cycle Assessment mtm consulting s.r.l. offers the following services:

• LCA from cradle to grave;
• LCA from gate to gate;
• LCA from cradle to gate ';
• LCA for waste;
• Simplified LCA;
• LCA for the product / service environment;
• studies for environmental impact compensation:

      - events;

      - products;

      - process.

• obtaining environmental labels such as EPD (Environmental Product Declaration or EPD - Environmental Product Declaration), Ecolabel, self-declarations;
• analysis of the processes for the identification of efficiency improvement opportunities also with the support analysis of LCC (Life Cycle Costing);
• LCA and LCC for the identification of the applicable BAT;
• LCA for Green Public Procurement;
• Analysis of Carbon Footprint;
• Analysis of Water Footprint.

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Deepening Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

The increased awareness of the importance of environmental protection and the possible impacts from products manufactured and consumed, and to services has increased the interest in the development of methods to better understand and reduce these impacts. One such technique is the evaluation of the life cycle, or Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).

The LCA is a technique for assessing the environmental aspects and potential environmental impacts associated with a product / service, through:

• compiling an inventory of what the relevant (raw materials, energy, waste, ...) into and out of a product / service system;
• the assessment of potential environmental impacts associated with what comes (raw materials, energy, ...) and what comes out (waste, ...);
• the interpretation of results regarding the inventory Analysis and estimation of the impacts (on the ground, on the ground, on air, ...) in relation to the study objectives.

The LCA studies the environmental aspects and potential impacts throughout the product / service life (ie cradle-to-grave) from raw material acquisition, through manufacturing and use, to disposal. The main categories of environmental impacts to be considered regarding the use of resources, human and ecological health consequences.

The realization of an LCA of a product / service is, in fact, a process with the following features:

• requires the involvement of company management;
• it has specific objectives;
• it is limited in time;
• it is multidisciplinary;
• it requires the creation of a stable working group, and then dedicated resources.

The main milestones of the project are:

• definition of the objective (management team):

        - Product objectives;

        - Strategic planning objectives;

        - Public policy objectives;

        - Commercial and marketing objectives;

        - ...

• definition of the working group and timing of involvement of the various corporate functions involved;
• defining control points and analysis of work progress;
• The Studio Release.

An organization may decide to undertake a LCA project for several reasons:

• identify opportunities for improving the environmental aspects of products / services at different stages of their life cycle;
• make decisions, for example, strategic planning, priority selection, design or re-design of products / services or processes;
• choose relevant indicators of environmental performance with the relative measurement techniques;
• market, for example through an ecological statement, an eco-labeling system, or an assertion of product / ecological services.

All the reasons listed above are still justified in the long-term objectives such as:

• the acquisition and / or maintenance of a competitive advantage in relation to competitors;
• the anticipation of social and / or legislative constraints;
• the company's development;
• the acquisition of distinctive skills in product design (and this leads, if it is consistent with all other strategic choices, to the achievement of competitive advantage);
• customer satisfaction;
• …

In general, the information obtained through a LCA study should be used as part of the organization's strategic decision making process.

The evaluation of the life cycle must include the following steps:

• the definition of the objective and the scope of the study;
• the inventory analysis;
• impact assessment;
• the interpretation of results.

The objective and scope of an LCA application must be clearly defined and be consistent with the intended application.

The goal of an LCA should establish without ambiguity what are the intended application, the motivation to carry out the study and the type of audience that is targeted, that is what people intend to communicate the study findings.

mtm consulting s.r.l. can help you understand what are the advantages for your company resulting from the execution of a Life Cycle Assessment study. We can also support you in the realization of the study.

The Carbon Footprint