Life Cycle Assessments
Energetics has one of Australia's largest and most experienced LCA teams. We have the capacity to develop complex LCAs and deliver them on time. Our energy, carbon and water expertise means that we deliver specialist assessments such as carbon footprinting, water footprinting, supply chain optimisation and carbon neutrality assessments.
Why do LCA, are there benefits?
LCA is a powerful instrument, which is coming into common use to support decision making in different contexts. It has proven its value in product and process design optimisation, policy development, technology selection, product labelling (Environmental Product Declarations) and to underpin marketing claims, such as carbon and water footprint assessments.
LCA encompasses all elements of the life cycle of a product, process or service, from resource extraction, through refining and manufacturing, to application, use and end of life disposal or recycling – a cradle-to-grave assessment. Following a rigorous and scientifically valid process it is the most appropriate way to support the marketing of environmentally sound products or services. It underpins robust carbon neutrality claims, and enables the inclusion of environmental information in design and planning processes.
Life cycle principles
Potential risks associated with current approaches
Australia is facing significant economic restructuring as energy prices increase, carbon pricing is introduced and environmental awareness becomes part of everyday business. Taking decisions in the face of these changes is not trivial. It is imperative that companies include the true energy and carbon implications of decisions, be these related to technology and process selection, or procurement and supply chain management.
In addition, stakeholders are becoming increasingly sceptical about environmental claims made by companies, and are asking more questions about the validity of these claims. This has been highlighted recently by the release of the ACCC guidelines on carbon neutral claims, which identifies potential pitfalls associated with the environmental, and particularly carbon, labelling of products. Companies that do not substantiate carbon claims sufficiently run the risk of legal action under the Trade Practices Act.
Added to this is the recent development of emissions reduction reporting standards by the Carbon Trust and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (initiating the development of carbon neutral standards), which highlight the need for robust assessments. All of these frameworks use LCA as the basic technique to inform their assessment.
What are industry's needs?
Industry needs to be assured that the environmental information, which they both use to support internal decision taking, and publish externally for various purposes (e.g. to support their public environmental claims and to compete in the market), is accurate, defensible and robust. Expertise is required to ensure that these information sets are of adequate quality and therefore credible to stakeholders.
Value of expert knowledge
LCA is underpinned by a set of international standards (ISO14040/14044) to guide its development and use. However, there are numerous value judgements inherent to LCA which require expert input to ensure that they are robust and do not bias results.
Linking LCA to the requirements of carbon neutral frameworks is also not trivial and requires a thorough knowledge of LCA as well as environmental reporting and emissions trading. Often too, assistance is required to ensure adherence to ACCC guidelines and other frameworks. Expertise also means understanding the true value of information and how best to use it.
Energetics offers you a solution
Energetics has two of Australia’s paramount experts in LCA. In addition to this expertise, we have a large group of consultants who are skilled in the development of large and complex inventories. Coupling these two aspects means that Energetics has the most comprehensive LCA team in Australia.
We are able to engage with large and complex LCA assignments and deliver robust outcomes in a shorter space of time. We are also able to deliver expert judgments (peer review, ISO verification) of third party LCAs. We understand how business works, and the real cost and value of information. This means that we deliver outcomes that work for you.
Energetics has also been working as specialist energy and greenhouse consultants for more than two decades. Recently we have also offered specialist water consulting services. These specialisations together with our LCA abilities mean that we can assist you to stream-line reporting programs across different initiatives, and use existing datasets to solve broader problems.
Services
We offer LCA assistance in the following areas:
- Life cycle thinking to support strategy development and implementation;
- Strategic supply chain management;
- LCAs of products, services and processes;
- Carbon labelling, Carbon footprinting and Carbon neutrality;
- Water footprinting; and
- Independent peer review (verification) of third party LCAs.
For further information on how Energetics can help your organisation, please contact Rob Rouwette on 03 9602 5511