In the 1970s, automakers began using Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) to respond to the global fuel crisis and reduce overall costs and consumption. They used LCAs to analyze how much total energy a vehicle would consume from the time it was manufactured, transported, driven, maintained and scrapped.
The insights from their LCAs helped determine which material was more energy-intensive: steel, aluminum or plastic. They revealed how much energy was consumed while assembling a vehicle, and how much fuel an average driver might use over the car’s lifespan. The result was a comprehensive vehicle energy profile.
Today, LCAs are taking companies further down the road by providing a view into their entire supply chains.
In his book, Sustainable Success: How Businesses Win as a Force for Good, Sphera CEO Paul Marushka explains how and why manufacturers use comprehensive LCAs to examine materials, processes and decisions across their entire value chain. This approach reveals both the environmental and business impact of their choices.
Why LCAs matter
LCAs can do more than safeguard against regulatory or reputational risks. They examine every stage of product development, from raw material extraction and manufacturing to distribution, product use and end-of-life, for a complete, quantifiable picture of environmental performance.
LCAs, Marushka explains, serve as a critical bridge into a company’s broader ecosystem, enabling informed, strategic decisions that improve both sustainability performance and business resilience.
These assessments often have their greatest influence during the design phase. They help engineers select materials and technologies that reduce emissions and improve resource efficiency. By grounding decisions in data, LCAs allow companies to compare and improve existing products, evaluate new designs and better understand their impact on the world in which they operate.
Early LCAs and the shift to systems thinking
Traditionally, companies focused primarily on what happened within their own walls. Materials entered, products exited and metrics revolved around cost, productivity and efficiency. Upstream or downstream activities were largely invisible.
LCAs changed that mindset by adding texture and multidimensionality to supply chain data, prompting leaders to to look beyond their immediate operations. Looking closely at emissions, labor conditions, waste management and resource use may reveal challenging truths. Yet, Marushka points out that as sustainability becomes more central to business strategy, “any argument that ‘ignorance is bliss’ will lose its appeal.”
A properly executed LCA examines questions such as:
- How are raw materials extracted and processed?
- What energy and resources are consumed across design, manufacturing and distribution?
- What working conditions exist within the supply chain?
- What emissions or waste result from product use and disposal?
- How can materials be recycled or returned to the value chain?
These insights often reveal new opportunities for operational improvement. Through LCAs, companies frequently discover cost savings through resource efficiency, waste reduction, improved procurement decisions or new circularity strategies. They also become more resilient to fluctuations in energy or water prices and emerging regulatory pressures.
LCA findings strengthen brands and build trust
LCAs also play a powerful role in brand differentiation. Many consumer products highlight sustainability credentials through packaging labels, certifications and efficiency ratings. B2B businesses increasingly showcase LCA-backed metrics in annual reports, customer communications and marketing materials. This data offers credible, quantitative evidence that strengthens stakeholder trust.
LCAs help companies provide that evidence in a transparent, defensible way.
As global expectations rise, labeling requirements in regions such as Europe and Japan are accelerating demand for product-level sustainability data. It is not difficult to imagine a near future in which all products include standardized environmental and social scores based on lifecycle performance.
Making LCAs work
The power of an LCA lies in clear boundaries and thoughtful execution. Companies should begin by defining whether the assessment will be:
- Gate to gate – manufacturing impacts only
- Cradle to gate – raw materials through production
- Cradle to grave – full life cycle, including end-of-life
Broadening the boundary increases insight. But companies must also consider indirect impacts such as energy sources, transportation or the societal effects of upstream activities like mining.
Supplier and customer data collection is often the most challenging step. Consistency, transparency and geographic and temporal specificity are essential for high-quality results. Many organizations rely on purpose-built sustainability software and robust LCA databases to manage data complexity and facilitate accurate modeling.
Once results are compiled, they must be interpreted through the lens of the assessment goals, then communicated clearly and credibly. LCAs are more effective when embedded early into design and development, enabling innovation and delivering quantifiable improvements across the product portfolio.
As Marushka writes, “LCAs demand rigor. They can certainly cause a degree of positive disruption in the business. But they don’t need to break the bank. The results are valuable.”
LCAs help uncover the complexities and opportunities within a company’s ecosystem. Future-focused organizations recognize that sustainability issues are inseparable from business issues, and that the strategic choices they make today shape their trajectory for years to come.
