The demand for data-driven sustainability solutions is unprecedented

The life cycle assessment field has never been dull. The current rise in demand for LCA-based solutions, however, is unprecedented. Climate change awareness is increasing, and the demand for environmental data has skyrocketed. A combination of factors drives this growth. Companies have become intrinsically motivated to be more sustainable and face huge stakeholder pressure. Consumers are demanding more sustainable products; investors and supply chain partners are requiring environmental information; and policymakers are enforcing local and international regulations for sustainability reporting.

Exciting times for the global LCA community

While this increased interest in environmental metrics is welcomed by the LCA community, it does put tremendous pressure on LCA practitioners worldwide. The scope of their work is changing. Where they used to assess a set of products, now they are asked to assess entire product portfolios. The need for environmental metrics no longer comes from just the sustainability department but from all over the company and even from external stakeholders. Moreover, instead of writing extensive reports on their research findings, LCA practitioners now need to comply with various reporting standards, such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).

This surge in demand for sustainability metrics is a wonderful opportunity for LCA experts to have a broader impact. This is the time to help make more companies aware of the environmental impact of their products, and to identify ways to reduce that impact. These changes will pave the way for mainstreaming the use of sustainability metrics. Whether companies are self-motivated or mostly responding to pressures from legislation or the market, this momentum is critical for the environmental footprint of products to become as important and as common as a price tag. However, this requires changes in the way we apply LCA.

Looking for tools, data and interpretation

The rising demand for companies to show their sustainability data is not without consequences. For instance, companies may struggle to cope with this demand if their usual practices of calculating and reporting sustainability data don’t scale up easily. Often, companies don’t have good input data to work with either, leading them to rely on generic emission factors in their sustainability tools. Results obtained that way represent the industry average, and won’t reflect the company’s effort to perform better than average. Moreover, these tools are often simplistic and don’t offer the in-depth analysis or transparency needed to fully understand the results. This transparency is essential to really act on the data and to ensure that sustainability strategies can be put into action.

LCA solves the depth and transparency problem. However, traditional LCA practices are not designed to meet the need for real-time information. Furthermore, the results are sometimes too complex for non-LCA experts to understand. Some translation is needed to unlock the detailed, robust insights that LCA offers.

From one-off LCA studies to scalable sustainability metrics

So how do we do that translation? How can we present LCA results in a way that is useful and understandable to a broader audience? There is a clear need for flexible and intuitive software that is tailored to the individual needs of different departments within a company. One way to achieve this is by automating the LCA process and integrating the LCA software with other business systems already in use. This is beneficial in two ways: first, companies can use the information they already have to complete their LCA studies. And second, the systems would be able to show the environmental metrics at the right time and in the right context, in the software that people are already using.

Weaving sustainability into daily workflows

To facilitate changemakers during their day-to-day work, sustainability should be integrated into their workflows. The systems that businesses use often already have a lot of the required information for an LCA, such as product volumes, energy consumption, waste generation, and water usage. This is an excellent basis for a continuous flow of footprint data. From real-world experience, we’ve seen that this is how people can best use sustainability metrics to make a real change. This is especially true during the product design phase.

For instance, PRé created a Fusion 360 web application for designers, together with Autodesk and ProtoTech Solutions. The application provides designers with timely environmental insights. This type of integration harnesses the power of traditional life cycle assessment and integrates it with other systems to overcome the most resource-intensive steps of the process. This makes the process much more scalable, too.

Related customer case

Putting sustainability front and center in product design

Realizing the full potential of enterprise data  

There is a wealth of data in enterprise systems. If we successfully integrate this data with LCA software, our clients are empowered to manage how and when their data is used and how the resulting sustainability metrics are incorporated into the enterprise system. This will allow LCA to truly scale up: moving from one-off product LCAs to running calculations for entire product portfolio. This shift would help companies do away with lengthy spreadsheets for input data, instead being able to use user-friendly enterprise systems to fuel the LCA calculation directly.  

This new way of working would offer quick and comprehensive insights to help make decisions that are both economically and environmentally sound, and to create reports that comply with a range of standards. Integrating LCA with enterprise data is not just offering easier presentation opportunities, but also opportunities for automating and scaling the LCA practice in general. However, challenges may arise when connecting LCA software with enterprise systems, as this requires new types of resources and capabilities. 

Collaboration is key in driving sustainable change 

At PRé, we do these types of integration projects in collaboration with system integrators. For example, we collaborate with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The experts at TCS know everything about the enterprise systems their clients have and how the data can be brought together for reporting purposes. The LCA experts at PRé know how to utilize that data to conduct a life cycle assessment.  

Together, we worked on the development of the TCS Product Life Cycle Profiler. In this joint offering, our LCA software SimaPro takes care of the sustainability calculations, enriching the data of TCS clients. An important step is mapping the raw data (about materials used, electricity usage, transportation details, production processes, etc.) to life cycle inventory databases. After this mapping, SimaPro calculates the environmental impact and TCS uses the results to build reporting tools for CSRD and other formats. In this way, TCS helps their clients to identify areas for improvement and make informed decisions that align with their sustainability goals. 

Related customer case

Scalable and dynamic approach to product LCA with TCS Product Life Cycle Profiler

SimaPro: providing the facts for informed changemakers 

SimaPro Synergy is designed to facilitate these kinds of integrations. Based on our three decades of experience in the LCA industry, we built this platform to act at scale. This transparent, reliable calculation engine has capabilities for in-depth analysis of complex products and even entire product portfolios.  

We always ensure full transparency in the results. That is the only way organizations can truly understand what should get their focus – and why – when it comes to reducing their environmental footprint. The SimaPro modeling tools offer full control over the data, allowing companies to improve their data quality incrementally over time, as they get more detailed information. SimaPro also comes with a wide variety of methodologies and impact categories. This allows new clients, who aren’t familiar with LCA, to go beyond the carbon footprint and instead take a wider view of environmental impact. 

Would you like to discuss the possibilities for integrating environmental metrics with your enterprise systems and tools? Get in touch – we’d love to help you make sustainability an integral part of your decision-making.