Environmental footprinting & Life Cycle Assessment
Quantifying environmental impact
Each product has an impact on the environment, such as CO2, land use and use of resources. Environmental footprinting, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Carbon Footprinting are methods to investigate the environmental performance of products and supply chains. It allows to compare the environmental performance of different products, including information on CO2 emissions, land use and the identification of 'hotspots'. Furthermore, these methods give insights in possible (environmental) improvements in the supply chain.
Over the years we've supported many companies and organizations with LCAs and Carbon Footprints. We can help you with the full path of an LCA or Carbon Footprint, from drafting towards interpreting the LCAs and Carbon Footprints of your products.
How we can help you
Life Cycle Assessment
Product Environmental Footprint
Environmental footprint training
LCA is a technique to evaluate the environmental impact associated with the life of a product or service from cradle to grave.
Quantifying the environmental impact
Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) and Carbon Footprints are research methods to gain insight in the full life cycle of a product. It quantifies all inputs and outputs. This means all phases of a product are taken into account and analysed, from raw materials, packaging, transport, retail and consumer towards disposal or recycling. This means a product will be studied from cradle-to-grave. An LCA shows where the environmental impact in the supply chain takes place. Hotspots are the locations in the supply chain with the highest environmental impact. Disclosure of these hotspots is an opportunity to improve a certain process or product. Eventually, this will lead towards savings in for instance raw materials, energy use and cost and a more sustainable product. In some cases the environmental advantages can also be used as selling point.
Sound basis to monitor environmental performance
Life Cycle Assessments and Carbon Footprints give insights in the environmental impacts in the supply chain of a product. This forms a sound basis for companies and organisations which aim to monitor their environmental performance and develop strategies to reduce their impact. Life Cycle Assessments and Carbon Footprints are executed according to standardised and internationally recognised methods, such as ISO ISO14040/44. Besides that, it is important to use reliable data, in order to reach consistent and transparent results.
Why quantify the environmental impact?
Investigating the impact of a product or process had many advantages. It is an opportunity to tackle various sustainability issues.
- Insights in saving options
You aim to get insights in saving options for energy and materials which are used in the production process.
- Increase market value
You want to increase market value, for instance by communication about the sustainability of your products.
- Insights in the environmental impact
Your clients or investors want insights in the environmental impact of your products or production process.
- Substantiate a strategic decision
You want to make certain strategic decisions, which need supporting information.
- Development of innovations
You want to know the environmental advantages of certain innovation ideas.
Different types of LCAs and Carbon footprints
|Screening LCA||Internal||Internal review||Company specific||Report and/or presentation||Appr. 1,5 month|
|Product LCA||External||Independent review (1 expert)||Company specific & supply chain specific||Report and presentation||Appr. 2,5 months|
|Comparative LCA||External||Independent external review (3 experts)||Company specific & supply chain specific||Report and presentation||Appr. 5 months|
Examples of our LCA and carbon footprint work
Carbon footprint of Nature's Pride
Blonk carried out a CO2 baseline measurement (carbon footprint) for Nature's Pride, a company based in the Netherlands. Nature's Pride supplies 230 different fruit and vegetable products from 59 countries, including avocados, berries, ginger, and papayas. One of their aims is to make the world healthier and more sustainable. In pursuit of this aim, the company runs various projects on food packaging and food loss reduction. Nature's Pride also supports projects to improve living conditions in communities where they source their products. The results of our baseline study will help Nature's Pride understand how they can best reduce their CO2 emissions and set goals to achieve this.
Get in touch
Please get in touch with Jasper if you would like to learn more about our Environmental Footprinting and LCA services.