Solution: LCA Tool: calculation model for LCA and EPD
Solution: LCA Tool: calculation model for LCA and EPD
Carbon Footprint
In which region do you need this solution?
Carbon Footprint
We develop a tailored LCA Tool to make the calculation of environmental impacts for your products scalable, simplifying EPD production.
- Quickly calculate the environmental impacts of product families and new variants
- Reduce the repeated costs of traditional LCA analyses
- Respond faster to public tenders and international client requests
LCA Tool Development: technical support
A LCA Tool it is a bespoke instrument that allows automatically calculate environmental impacts of products based on a validated LCA model.
This type of solution is particularly useful for companies with large product families or many variants, where performing a complete LCA for each configuration is expensive and difficult to scale.
The tool is developed starting from a reference LCA study. For the tool to be utilised to produce EPD certifications, it must be validated. Ollum offers technical support to companies for:
- Development of LCA Tool tailored for an entire product family
- Using the tool for Comparative LCA
- Support in production and EPD preparation
- Training from the company team to use the tool independently
When is it worth developing an LCA tool?
Many companies encounter difficulties in managing LCA analysis when the the number of products or variants is growing quickly. To address these complexities, an LCA Tool allows structure and automate the calculation, with benefits such as:
Greater speed and efficiency, with lower costs
When a company produces many product variants, performing a new LCA for each configuration can become slow and expensive. An LCA Tool allows for the rapid calculation of environmental impacts for entire product families, starting from a validated LCA model and significantly reducing time and costs compared to traditional LCA analyses.
Respond quickly to market demands
Increasingly, clients, public tenders, and foreign markets are requesting environmental data or Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). Having an in-house LCA tool allows for the rapid generation of necessary LCA results, avoiding delays in responding to strategic clients and increasing competitiveness in more demanding markets.
Autonomy for internal analysis and R&D
Once developed, the tool can be used directly by the company to calculate new LCA scenarios, support product development, and conduct comparative studies between materials or design solutions, without needing to initiate a new LCA study each time.
Which steps does the development of an LCA Tool require?
The development of an automated calculation model for LCA and EPD (LCA Tool) follows these steps:
1. Development of the LCA model and Tool
We develop a complete LCA study of the product family, analyzing all possible variables (raw materials, production processes, configurations) within the same reference PCR. This study forms the basis for developing anLCA Tool, which allows you to calculate the environmental impacts as the product characteristics vary.
2. Development and verification of the pilot EPD
Using the newly developed tool, let’s create a LCA study for a pilot EPD, which is then subjected to’Verification Body (OdV). In this phase, the study’s compliance with PCR requirements and applicable ISO standards is verified.
3. Tool Qualifications
Once the pilot EPD has been verified, it is qualified also the tool with which it was produced. The Tool thus becomes pre-checked, and can be used to produce the LCA data necessary for subsequent EPDs of the same product family.
4. Tool Training and Usage
We provide training to the company team on how to correctly use the Tool. This will allow the company to independently calculate the environmental impacts of different product variants and use the Tool output for generating new EPDs, which can be verified more quickly and easily.
Which programme operators recognise the LCA Tool?
The LCA Tool is also recognised within the main programmes of Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). For example, the programme EPD International use the term pre-verified tools, while EPD Italy speak more often of Qualified tools or LCA Tool.
In this context, we are also talking about EPD tool or EPD generator, tools that, in addition to LCA calculation, allow to automate the generation of the EPD declaration from the input data.
