Life Cycle Thinking

Life cycle thinking is the foundation of our work. It allows us to provide gold-standard sustainability services across a wide range of projects and industries. From general target setting and sustainability strategy consulting to technical eco-design recommendations and environmental reporting documentation, Informed Sustainability Consulting is committed to helping you meet your sustainability goals. Whether you are a ten-person startup or a company in five states, we can fit a project to meet your needs - and your budget.

What is LCA?

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an ISO-standardized method for measuring the total environmental impacts of a product or process.  A full LCA includes all stages of the supply chain from “cradle to grave.” That is, from extraction of raw materials through manufacturing to disposal or recycling. Narrower LCAs may focus on the production process (“cradle to factory,” “cradle to farm”) or production and distribution (“cradle to consumer”).

Life cycle assessments provide two main advantages over narrower environmental accounting methods. First, they reduce the risk of “burden shifting,” or moving negative impacts from one organization or manufacturing stage to another. Second, by providing a detailed picture of the environmental risks of an entire supply chain, LCAs give facility managers and executives the tools they need to target environmental hot spots and meet their sustainability goals.