How to conduct a corporate LCA?

Ryan -

Glad to hear your company is interested in LCA. If you do not have someone on staff who is versed in LCA, you may need to connect with a consultant for your first study. You’ll need to define the scope and boundaries of what you want to cover, select your functional unit, etc. Since you are not manufacturing a specific product that already has a set of product category rules to guide the LCA development, this might be a little challenging (e.g. do you want to understand impact by area built, hours worked, etc.). There is also specialized software that is normally used in building the model, so there is definitely a learning curve.

There are a lot of resources out on the web that can give you an overview of the process. This one
(https://p2infohouse.org/ref/37/36385.pdf) looks like a nice process overview, but the software list at the end is very dated. The ACLCA is the professional association for LCA practitioners in the US, so if you are looking for a consultant, their listing of certified practitioners is a good place to start (https://aclca.org/directory-of-lca-certified-professionals/).

Good luck and interested to hear how it turns out. I’m not seeing much for LCA of general contracting operations out on the web, so you may be breaking new ground. Hope the effort involved has not scared you off.

Cheryl Smith
Program Leader | Owens Corning

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