The strategic context for life cycle assessment has fundamentally shifted. What was once primarily an image-building exercise has become a hard compliance factor determining market access. The Digital Product Passport, mandatory for batteries from 2026 with textiles following shortly after, requires comprehensive LCA data as its foundational dataset. Without robust life cycle assessment capabilities, companies in these sectors will simply lack the documentation to sell in EU markets.
This regulatory pressure coincides with a sobering planetary reality: we've now exceeded 7 of 9 planetary boundaries, including the newly breached ocean acidification threshold. Life cycle thinking is no longer just about optimising operations—it's about understanding which environmental impacts pose existential risks to your supply chain and identifying areas where resource constraints will materialise first.
The Green Claims Directive, fully enforceable since 2025, has dramatically raised the bar for environmental data used in marketing. Generic database averages—once the standard approach for product carbon footprint calculations—are increasingly insufficient for public environmental claims. Companies now need primary data from their actual operations to substantiate environmental product declarations and carbon emissions statements.
This shift makes the choice of LCA software and its data management capabilities strategically significant. Tools that can seamlessly integrate real production data rather than relying solely on generic datasets provide both compliance security and competitive advantage.
Every LCA study, regardless of complexity, follows four distinct stages standardised under ISO 14040 and 14044:
1. Goal and Scope Definition
The foundation of any thorough analysis begins with defining what you're actually measuring. Are you assessing a product's life cycle from cradle-to-grave? Comparing alternative raw materials? Optimising a specific production process? The scope determines system boundaries, functional units, and which environmental impact categories to include.
2. Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) – Data Collection
This stage involves quantifying all inputs (energy, water, raw materials, land use) and outputs (emissions, waste, products) across life cycle stages. Modern LCA software dramatically reduces the time-consuming nature of this phase by automating data collected from ERP systems and supply chain databases.
The data quality hierarchy matters significantly:
Primary data: Actual measurements from your operations (required for Green Claims compliance)
Secondary data: Industry averages from databases like Ecoinvent
Proxy data: Estimates or similar product data (least preferred)
3. Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA)
The LCI data gets translated into actual environmental impacts across categories like global warming, acidification, eutrophication, water usage, and resource depletion. This is where LCA software shows its value—automated calculations across multiple environmental performance indicators that would take weeks manually.
4. Interpretation and Improvement
Results identify hotspots—points in the life cycle with disproportionate environmental impacts. For example, the sustainability initiatives might reveal that raw materials extraction accounts for 70% of total global warming potential, fundamentally reshaping your improvement strategy.
The May 2025 release of finalised PEFCRs for apparel and footwear represents a methodological milestone. These Product Environmental Footprint rules provide sector-specific guidance that eliminates the "methodology wildness" that previously plagued comparative studies. Companies in textiles now have binding specifications for which environmental impact categories to measure and how to calculate them.
This PEFCR standardisation is gradually rolling out to other sectors, creating a more structured framework for conducting life cycle assessments across different user groups and industries.
The life cycle assessment software market has consolidated into three distinct tiers, each serving different user groups with specific capabilities and cost structures.
LCA for Experts (formerly GaBi)
The gold standard for complex industrial process chains, LCA for Experts remains the tool of choice for companies requiring extreme modelling precision. Its advanced features include:
Comprehensive environmental data libraries covering 16,000+ processes
Detailed material flow analysis for building materials and chemical products
Integration capabilities with engineering software for building projects
Extensive support for conducting life cycle assessments in regulated industries
The tool excels at scenario analysis for capital-intensive decisions—for instance, evaluating alternative manufacturing processes where equipment investments exceed €10 million. However, its complexity makes it primarily suitable for LCA experts rather than LCA beginners.
SimaPro
Dominant in academic research and consultancy applications, SimaPro offers unmatched transparency in calculation methods. Its user-friendly interface relative to other expert tools makes it popular among sustainability consultants building custom LCA models for clients.
SimaPro's strength lies in its flexibility for creating entirely new product systems and conducting comparative analyses across different methodologies. The trade-off is a steeper learning curve for organisations without dedicated LCA specialists.
Ecochain & Cozero
These platforms emerged as category leaders for companies requiring "bulk LCA"—simultaneously managing life cycle assessment software calculations for hundreds or thousands of products. Their business model targets organisations that need to:
Create product carbon footprint calculations for entire product catalogues
Integrate LCA results directly into PLM or ERP systems
Enable continuous improvement through automated recalculation as production data changes
Generate environmental product declarations at scale
The cloud-based software architecture allows teams across different locations to conduct life cycle assessments collaboratively. This is particularly valuable for companies with decentralised operations needing consistent sustainability metrics.
Ecochain specifically has built strong capabilities around supply chain transparency, automatically mapping environmental impacts across tier-1 and tier-2 suppliers.
The 2025 Innovation: Generative AI for Data Gaps
New entrants leveraging artificial intelligence represent the most significant LCA innovation in 2025. These tools address the perennial challenge of incomplete LCI data—the gaps where specific environmental data simply doesn't exist in standard databases.
AI-powered LCA solutions use machine learning models trained on existing Ecoinvent and industry datasets to intelligently estimate missing values. Early benchmarks suggest this "gap filling" reduces the time-consuming data collection phase by up to 60% whilst maintaining acceptable accuracy for screening-level assessments.
The technology particularly benefits companies in emerging sectors (alternative proteins, novel materials) where established LCA databases lack relevant processes. However, results require careful validation and typically aren't suitable for public environmental claims without supplementary primary data.
ClickLCA and OpenLCA
Worth noting as accessible entry points, ClickLCA targets LCA beginners with simplified workflows and lower cost structures. OpenLCA remains the leading open-source option, offering core functionality without licensing fees—though requiring more technical expertise to configure effectively.
Whilst greenhouse gas emissions dominate public discourse, comprehensive life cycle assessment software evaluates multiple environmental impact categories:
Climate change: Contribution to global warming through carbon emissions
Acidification: SOx and NOx emissions causing acid rain
Eutrophication: Nitrogen and phosphorus loading in water bodies
Water usage: Both consumption and quality degradation
Land use: Direct occupation and transformation impacts
Resource depletion: Abiotic materials and fossil fuel extraction
Ecotoxicity: Release of substances harmful to ecosystems
Particulate matter: Air quality and human health effects
Modern LCA tools generate impact profiles across these categories simultaneously, enabling companies to gain insights into trade-offs. An operation might reduce carbon footprint through biofuels whilst increasing land use and eutrophication—requiring strategic choices about which impacts to prioritise.
Hotspot analysis reveals where disproportionate environmental damage occurs. For manufactured products, common patterns include:
Raw materials: Often 40-70% of total impact in consumer goods
Energy-intensive manufacturing: Particularly relevant for metals and ceramics
Transportation: Significant for products with global supply chains
Use phase: Dominant for appliances and vehicles
End-of-life: Critical for products without established recycling pathways
The Product Carbon Footprint analysis typically focuses narrowly on greenhouse gas emissions, whilst full LCA software provides the broader context needed for informed business decisions that don't inadvertently shift burdens between environmental problems.
Released in late 2025, Ecoinvent v3.11 brought substantial improvements in two strategically critical sectors:
Battery Technologies: The update includes refined data for lithium-ion chemistries (NMC532, NMC622, NMC811, LFP) reflecting current manufacturing processes. This is essential for companies in electric vehicle supply chains conducting life cycle assessments that need to reflect actual 2025 production methods rather than historical data from early battery generations.
Agricultural Systems: Updated crop models incorporate regional variations in farming practices, particularly relevant for companies with complex food supply chains. The improved agriculture data enables more accurate assessment of scope 3 emissions from agricultural inputs.
Agribalyse: The French agricultural database has become the European reference for food products, particularly for companies needing to comply with national environmental labelling schemes.
Plastics Europe: Provides industry-average data for polymer production, though the Green Claims Directive increasingly pushes companies toward documenting their actual resin suppliers rather than using these generic values.
GaBi Databases: Integrated with LCA for Experts software, offering particularly detailed data for chemical products and building materials.
The shift toward mandatory primary data collection represents a significant change in LCA practice. Companies can no longer rely exclusively on database averages for:
Environmental product declarations (EPDs) intended for B2B sales
Marketing claims about environmental performance
Carbon footprint statements in consumer-facing communications
This requires LCA software with robust data management capabilities that can handle both primary operational data and secondary database information—creating verified, auditable calculations that withstand third-party scrutiny.
For Startups and LCA Beginners
Early-stage companies typically need rapid screening assessments rather than exhaustive analysis. Cloud-based software like ClickLCA or simplified modules within larger platforms provide sufficient detail for:
Internal decision-making between design alternatives
Investor presentations highlighting sustainability goals
Initial materiality assessments for future compliance planning
The priority is gaining insights quickly without the overhead of expert-level tools. Many startups effectively use simplified LCA tools for initial analysis, then engage consultants with professional-grade software for formal EPD software production when market requirements demand it.
For Mid-Market Companies
Medium-sized manufacturers face a different challenge: they need scalable processes for ongoing product sustainability tracking, but lack dedicated LCA experts. The SaaS platforms (Ecochain, Cozero) align well with this segment through:
Workflow automation reducing the time-consuming manual calculation work
Template-based assessments for product families
Integration with existing ERP systems for real-time data
Collaborative features for cross-functional sustainability teams
The subscription pricing models also match better with mid-market budgets than large upfront software investments.
For Enterprises with Complex Operations
Large corporations requiring regulatory compliance across multiple jurisdictions typically need the comprehensive capabilities of expert LCA software. Investment in SimaPro or LCA for Experts makes sense when:
Operating in sectors with mandatory EPD requirements (construction products, electronics)
Managing thousands of SKUs requiring individual carbon footprint calculations
Facing stakeholder demands for detailed environmental performance documentation
Building in-house LCA expertise to reduce consulting dependencies
The advanced features justify higher costs through workflow efficiency gains and reduced reliance on external consultants.
Modern LCA software doesn't operate in isolation. Strategic implementation requires integration with:
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Systems: Automated data flow from PLM into LCA calculations ensures environmental assessments stay current as designs evolve.
CSRD Reporting Frameworks: Product-level LCA data feeds into corporate sustainability reporting, particularly for ESRS E1 climate disclosures.
Scope 3 Emissions Accounting: LCA methodologies and Scope 3 carbon accounting overlap significantly, with tools increasingly offering both capabilities.
The Digital Product Passport represents the regulatory inflection point making robust life cycle assessment capabilities non-negotiable. Starting with batteries in 2026, the DPP requires manufacturers to provide:
Carbon footprint across life cycle stages
Material composition and recyclability data
Durability and reparability information
Environmental impact indicators beyond just carbon emissions
This data must be accessible via digital interfaces—QR codes or RFID tags—throughout the product's life. Companies without systems to generate and manage this environmental data will simply be locked out of EU markets for covered product categories.
The textile, electronics, and construction sectors follow after batteries. Companies that build LCA infrastructure now gain first-mover advantage as competitors scramble for compliance.
Whilst often framed as regulatory burden, the DPP creates opportunities for companies with superior environmental performance. When every product must disclose its environmental impact, genuinely greener products can differentiate based on verified data rather than marketing claims.
This shifts competitive dynamics in B2B markets particularly. Procurement teams increasingly use LCA-derived metrics in supplier selection, creating demand pull for products with documented lower environmental impacts.
Impact investors and ESG-focused VCs increasingly incorporate LCA considerations into technical due diligence. Portfolio companies claiming environmental benefits need substantiation—and LCA software provides the verification infrastructure.
For Climate Tech startups, demonstrating avoided emissions requires comparing your solution against incumbent technologies. Rigorous life cycle assessment provides the credibility that marketing claims alone cannot. VCs look favourably on companies that have already invested in proper LCA infrastructure rather than relying on back-of-envelope calculations.
Article 8 and 9 funds need aggregated impact metrics across portfolio companies. Standardised LCA approaches—particularly when portfolio companies use compatible LCA software—enable meaningful aggregation and comparison.
Several VC firms have implemented standardised LCA frameworks across their portfolios, requiring companies to use specific LCA tools or methodologies. This ensures consistency in impact reporting to limited partners and regulators.
The forward-looking trend is VCs co-investing in LCA software subscriptions for their portfolio, recognising that standardised environmental data infrastructure benefits the entire portfolio's valuation potential.
LCA software costs vary dramatically by tier:
Expert suites: €5,000-€25,000 annual licenses per user
Cloud-based platforms: €500-€5,000 monthly subscriptions (volume-dependent)
AI-powered screening tools: €200-€1,000 monthly for SME tiers
Open-source options: Free software licenses, but requiring internal technical expertise
The cost equation must include training time. Expert tools require 2-3 months of intensive training for competent use; cloud platforms can be productive within weeks.
Direct financial returns from LCA investments include:
Regulatory Compliance: Avoiding market access barriers and fines (penalties for Green Claims violations can reach 4% of annual turnover)
Product Optimisation: Identifying efficiency opportunities that reduce both environmental impact and cost—energy-intensive processes are common targets
Market Positioning: Premium pricing for products with verified environmental credentials, particularly in B2B markets with ESG procurement requirements
Less tangible but strategically significant benefits include de-risking supply chains by understanding resource dependencies and building competitive moats in markets moving toward mandatory environmental disclosure.
Rather than comprehensive rollout, begin with pilot projects:
Select 3-5 representative products spanning your range
Conduct initial assessments using simplified tools or consultants
Identify major data gaps in your current systems
Evaluate software options based on actual workflow needs
This approach allows informed tool selection based on your specific requirements rather than feature lists.
With tool selection made, focus on data infrastructure:
Map data flows from ERP, PLM, and supply chain systems
Establish data collection protocols for primary data
Create templates for standardised assessments across product families
Train core sustainability team on chosen LCA software
Operational maturity involves:
Automated data feeds replacing manual inputs
Integration with Digital Product Passport systems
Expanded team capabilities for independent assessments
Continuous improvement processes driven by LCA insights
The cutting edge of LCA practice involves digital twins—virtual replicas of physical production systems that simulate environmental performance in real-time. Rather than retrospective analysis, companies can model environmental impacts of proposed changes before implementation.
This convergence of LCA software with operational technology creates opportunities for dynamic optimisation—adjusting production parameters to minimise environmental impact whilst maintaining quality and efficiency targets.
Emerging solutions combine LCA tools with blockchain-based supply chain tracking, creating auditable environmental impact trails from raw materials through to end-of-life. This addresses a perennial LCA challenge: verifying environmental data from multi-tier suppliers.
The LCA software market is likely to see consolidation, with leading platforms acquiring specialised capabilities (AI engines, database providers, EPD software) to offer end-to-end environmental compliance solutions. For corporate buyers, this simplifies the technology stack whilst potentially reducing flexibility.
What's the difference between LCA software and simple carbon calculators?
Carbon calculators provide single-metric assessments (greenhouse gas emissions only), whilst LCA software evaluates comprehensive environmental impact across multiple categories. For regulatory compliance like the Digital Product Passport or detailed Environmental Product Declarations, full LCA capabilities are necessary. Simple carbon footprint tools remain useful for initial screening or internal decision-making.
Can AI-powered LCA tools replace expert consultants?
AI tools excel at accelerating routine calculations and filling data gaps, but strategic interpretation still requires human expertise. Think of AI as enhancing productivity rather than replacing judgment. Complex methodological decisions—system boundary definition, allocation choices, uncertainty analysis—benefit from experienced LCA experts who understand the business context and regulatory requirements.
How do I choose between different LCA software options?
Start with your core need: detailed analysis for regulatory submissions (expert tools), scalable assessment across product lines (cloud-based platforms), or rapid screening for internal decisions (simplified tools). Consider your team's technical capabilities—sophisticated software requires dedicated expertise. Most importantly, evaluate integration with existing systems; manual data entry creates unsustainable bottlenecks as LCA requirements expand.
What's the minimum investment to get meaningful LCA insights?
For startups and SMEs, budget €5,000-€15,000 for initial screening-level assessments using cloud-based software or external consultants. Building in-house capability with expert tools requires €25,000-€50,000 in first-year costs (software, training, dedicated staff time). However, companies facing imminent DPP requirements should view this as compliance infrastructure rather than optional spending.
How does LCA software support CSRD compliance?
Product-level LCA data feeds directly into ESRS E1 (climate change) and increasingly E2 (pollution) disclosures. Many CSRD-compliant companies use LCA software to substantiate their environmental impact assessments and demonstrate continuous improvement. The software provides the audit trail that validators require, particularly for Scope 3 emissions calculations derived from product lifecycle data.
What happens when database data doesn't match our actual operations?
This is where primary data collection becomes critical. Modern LCA software allows hybrid approaches—using your actual energy consumption, water usage, and material inputs whilst relying on database values for upstream supply chain processes where primary data isn't accessible. The Green Claims Directive specifically requires this for public environmental statements; database averages alone aren't sufficient anymore.
Life cycle assessment software has evolved from niche environmental analysis tools into essential compliance infrastructure for companies operating in regulated markets. The convergence of mandatory Digital Product Passports, strengthened Green Claims enforcement, and 7 planetary boundaries breached creates compelling strategic imperatives for robust LCA capabilities.
The choice isn't whether to invest in life cycle assessment, but which approach aligns with your compliance timeline, operational complexity, and strategic ambitions. Companies building LCA infrastructure now position themselves for competitive advantage as environmental disclosure requirements expand and customers increasingly demand verified sustainability credentials.
Whether you're a startup proving impact to investors, a mid-market manufacturer facing DPP requirements, or an enterprise optimising complex supply chains, the appropriate LCA software and data infrastructure exists. The critical success factor is moving from viewing environmental assessment as a compliance burden to recognising it as the foundation for informed business decisions in resource-constrained markets.
Ready to understand your environmental impact with strategic clarity? Explore how Fiegenbaum Solutions combines LCA expertise with business strategy to transform compliance requirements into competitive advantages.
Sources
Stockholm Resilience Centre (2023). "Planetary Boundaries Update"
European Commission (2025). "Digital Product Passport Implementation Roadmap"
Ecoinvent Centre (2025). "Ecoinvent Database v3.11 Release Notes"
European Commission (2025). "Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules - Apparel and Footwear"
Green Claims Directive (EU) 2024/825