Have you heard of social life cycle assessment (social LCA) and would you like to know more? Or have you never heard about it before but are you now intrigued? This guide introduces the basics of social LCA and why it is important in the current sustainability landscape.

Implementing a sustainability programme or choosing a new, sustainable business model can be somewhat of a conundrum. Without data, it’s impossible to choose. But if you do a sustainability assessment, you get so much data that you still can’t choose. Materiality assessments and hotspot analyses can help you move forward.

Manufacturing companies usually look at a product’s toxicity from two points of view: “How sustainable is the product regarding human health and the environment?” and “Does the product pose a risk to specific groups of people, e.g. the workers involved in its production?”

There are many different sustainability tools, ranging from simple to complex and covering the various aspects of sustainability: environmental, social and economic sustainability. The popularity of these tools waxes and wanes.

In a circular economy, the intention is to produce no waste or pollution. Instead, products, parts and materials are used, cared for, repaired, reused and recycled as much as possible. This requires new and innovative approaches to business, and assessment methods such as LCA to measure the effect. In our circular economy miniseries, we’ll address five ways to apply the circular economy in your business. Today: reusing waste.

In a circular economy, the intention is to produce no waste or pollution. Instead, products, parts, and materials are used, cared for, repaired, reused, and recycled as much as possible. This requires new and innovative approaches to business, and assessment methods such as LCA to measure the effect. In our circular economy miniseries, we’ll address five ways to apply the circular economy in your business. Today: sharing in the circular economy.

The International Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) is becoming an important format for the LCA community. This data format allows users to exchange data that was previously thought incompatible, bringing many more datasets, models and methods within reach of LCA practitioners. This is a central issue for the LCA community and increasingly important in the context of the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) initiative. Because the ILCD format is very complex, we will use this article to help you become familiar with the basics of ILCD and how to use it for database development.