Life Cycle Assessment – LCA

To carry out an LCA is to conduct an informed and relevant environmental approach thanks to the quantification and evaluation of the impacts of the entire life cycle of a product. Thanks to the identification of the product life stages that have a strong impact on the environment, you can act accordingly to reduce your environmental footprint.

Life cycle assessment is an analysis that quantifies the impacts of the product studied on 19 indicators based on European standards (PEF), including global warming potential, depletion of natural resources, acidification, ozone depletion, eutrophication, water consumption, etc.

There are four main steps in conducting a life cycle assessment (LCA):

1. Definition of the objects and the field of study
2. Life cycle inventory (LCI)
3. Impact assessment
4. Interpreting the results

Several software programs exist. Altyor is equipped with EIME software, a secure web application specialised in quantifying the environmental impact of products. Thanks to this tool and a specialised team within Altyor, we are able to carry out life cycle assessments of electronic products.

The life cycle corresponds to all the stages in the life of a product:

• the manufacture of all parts of a product
• transport, which is used to move these parts (both individual parts and the finished product) from the extraction of raw materials to the manufacturing process (plastic injection, moulding, etc.)
• use, what the product consumes during its use by the consumer in terms of energy (electricity, batteries, etc.)
• the end of life of the product: the impacts linked to waste management (recycling, re-use, incineration, etc.)

In the context of the development of a new product, the LCA is an analysis to be carried out during the design phase, during the various prototyping phases, in order to influence the choice of materials, processes, manufacturing sites, etc. The analysis will make it possible to minimise the impacts as soon as possible.

In the context of a product already in production, LCA makes it possible to understand the eco-responsible actions that have a real impact on the environment. A common misconception is that transport plays a major role, which is not always the case. So before changing your entire production scheme, carry out your life cycle analysis, which will enable you to implement relevant improvements in version 2.