On this page
- What a product life cycle assessment answers
- The four phases of an LCA under ISO 14040 and ISO 14044
- Critical review and comparative assertions
- Using LCA for ecodesign
- LCA for international buyers with suppliers in Turkey
- Standards and methods we work with
- How an LCA project runs
- What we need from you
- What you receive
Our LCA consultants carry out product life cycle assessments to ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 for manufacturers in Turkey and for international companies with products or suppliers there. A life cycle assessment quantifies the environmental impacts of a product from raw material extraction to end of life, and we use it for EPDs, ecodesign decisions, buyer data requests and comparative studies that need a critical review.
What a product life cycle assessment answers
A product life cycle assessment tells you where the impacts of a product sit and how large they are. It covers more than carbon. A typical study reports climate change alongside acidification, eutrophication, resource depletion, water use and other categories, so you can see whether a change that cuts CO₂ shifts the burden somewhere else.
Clients usually come to us with one of four questions. Which life cycle stage or input drives the footprint of our product? Is design A better than design B? What figures can we give a buyer who asked for LCA data? What do we need before we can publish an EPD?
The four phases of an LCA under ISO 14040 and ISO 14044
ISO 14040 sets out the principles and framework, and ISO 14044 the requirements. Both date from 2006 and have been amended since (ISO 14040 in 2020, ISO 14044 in 2017 and 2020). Every study we run follows their four phases, and the work loops back between them as results come in.
Goal and scope definition
We fix the intended application, the audience, and whether results will support a comparative assertion disclosed to the public. Then we set the functional or declared unit (for example 1 m² of floor covering over 50 years, or 1 tonne of cement), the system boundary, allocation rules, cut-off criteria, data quality requirements and impact categories. Getting this phase right saves most of the rework later.
Life cycle inventory analysis
The inventory (LCI) lists every relevant input and output per functional unit, including materials, energy, water, emissions, waste and transport. Foreground data comes from your plant and key suppliers. Background data, such as electricity grids, fuels, chemicals and transport, comes from licensed databases like ecoinvent or Sphera's managed LCA content, or from sector datasets published by industry associations.
Life cycle impact assessment
Impact assessment (LCIA) converts the inventory into indicator results using characterisation factors. The method depends on the purpose of the study.
| LCIA method | Typical use |
|---|---|
| EU Environmental Footprint (EF 3.0 or 3.1) | EN 15804+A2 EPDs, PEF studies, EU-facing work |
| IPCC GWP100 factors | Product carbon footprints to ISO 14067 |
| ReCiPe 2016 | Ecodesign and internal studies needing midpoint and endpoint views |
| CML-IA baseline | Updating or comparing with older EN 15804+A1 EPDs |
| TRACI 2.1 | Studies and EPDs for the North American market |
Normalisation and weighting are optional elements under ISO 14044. They help internal decisions, but weighting must not be used in comparative assertions disclosed to the public.
Interpretation
We identify the significant issues, run completeness, sensitivity and consistency checks, and state the limitations plainly. Sensitivity work matters most for assumptions you cannot measure, such as end-of-life routes in export markets or the electricity mix of a supplier.
Critical review and comparative assertions
If you plan to claim publicly that your product is better than a competitor's or than an alternative, ISO 14044 requires a critical review by a panel of interested parties, and the study must meet extra requirements on data, equivalence of systems and impact categories. ISO/TS 14071 describes how such reviews are run. A panel review adds time, typically 6 to 12 weeks, and the panel's comments go into the final report.
We prepare the study and the review package, propose independent reviewers, and handle the comments. We do not act as reviewers of our own work. For a B2C claim in the EU, also bear in mind Directive (EU) 2024/825, which applies from 27 September 2026 and tightens the rules on generic environmental claims.
Using LCA for ecodesign
An LCA is most useful before a product is fixed. We run scenario models that show how a change in recipe, recycled content, supplier, energy source or packaging changes each indicator, so engineering and purchasing teams can rank options on real numbers. For a cement plant that may be the clinker ratio and fuel mix. For an aluminium extruder it is usually the share and origin of recycled billet.
This work also prepares you for product rules that are coming. The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 allows delegated acts to set information requirements, including environmental footprint data, that will be carried in a digital product passport. Iron and steel and aluminium are among the first product groups in the Commission's working plan, though no product-group delegated act had been adopted at the time of writing.
LCA for international buyers with suppliers in Turkey
A growing share of our LCA work comes from companies outside Turkey whose own product footprint depends on a Turkish supplier: a German window maker buying extruded profiles, a Scandinavian retailer sourcing textiles, a contractor using Turkish rebar. Their LCA practitioners need primary data from the supplier, and generic database values for Turkey are often old or too coarse to reflect a specific plant.
We collect and check that data on site, in Turkish, and deliver it in the format your LCA team needs, either as a documented inventory for your model or as a supplier-specific LCA result. Confidential plant data can stay with us, with only aggregated results passed on, which makes suppliers far more willing to share. The same approach works for PEF studies, where the category rules (PEFCRs) ask for company-specific data on the most relevant processes.
Standards and methods we work with
- ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 for any product LCA
- ISO 14025, EN 15804+A2 and ISO 21930 when the LCA feeds an EPD
- ISO 14067 for product carbon footprints
- The EU Product Environmental Footprint method in Commission Recommendation (EU) 2021/2279 and its category rules (PEFCRs)
- ISO/TS 14071 for critical review
We model in commercial LCA software with licensed background databases and document every dataset choice, so the model can be handed to a verifier or reviewer without gaps.
How an LCA project runs
- Goal and scope workshop (1 week). We agree the questions the study must answer, the functional unit, boundary and method, and write them into a short scope document you approve.
- Data collection (2 to 5 weeks). We send a structured questionnaire and work through it with your production, energy and purchasing staff.
- Modelling and impact assessment (2 to 4 weeks). We build the model, check mass and energy balances and run first results.
- Interpretation and draft report (1 to 2 weeks). We test the main assumptions and present hotspots and options in a working session.
- Final report and review (1 to 12 weeks). One week for an internal study, longer when a critical review or EPD verification follows.
What we need from you
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Product definition | Technical data sheet, composition, mass per unit, reference service life if known |
| Bill of materials | Inputs per unit or per batch, with supplier and country of origin |
| Production data | 12 consecutive months of output, energy use by carrier, water, waste and emissions |
| Logistics | Inbound and outbound distances, transport modes, packaging |
| Use and end of life | Maintenance needs, energy use in operation, known recycling or disposal routes |
| Existing studies | GHG inventories, supplier EPDs, previous LCA or carbon footprint reports |
What you receive
You receive an ISO 14044 report with goal and scope, inventory, impact results, interpretation and data quality assessment, plus an editable results summary for sales and engineering teams. On request we provide the model in a format your verifier or reviewer can audit, and a short note on which claims the study can and cannot support.
When the goal is an EPD, the LCA becomes the project report behind it. See our EPD consultancy and development services and, for building products, EN 15804+A2 EPDs for construction products. If a buyer only needs a carbon figure, a product carbon footprint to ISO 14067 is faster. Our article on LCA vs EPD vs product carbon footprint sets out the differences.