Conducting a comprehensive scope 3 emissions inventory is an important first step. This involves identifying all sources of scope 3 emissions across your value chain and collecting detailed activity data and emission factors to calculate total emissions. Life Cycle Assessments are the best way to measure the Scope 3 emissions as they give a full view of the product life cycle and emissions associated with the journey of the product. 

One major challenge in interpreting life cycle assessment (LCA) results is that the assessments are not always directly comparable due to differences in system boundaries. The system boundary defines what parts of the product's lifecycle are accounted for in the LCA. Since companies can choose different boundaries for their LCAs, the results may not be comparable across assessments. For example, one LCA may include raw material extraction, manufacturing, and end-of-life stages while another may only look at end of life. LCAs can only be compared if they use the same boundaries and assumptions. However, boundary standards differ significantly between countries, making cross-study comparisons difficult.

Fig 1: Case Example: Leg Bag's System Boundary: Cradle to Grave

Methodology

It is suggested to consider cradle-to-grave methodology to be able to compare different Life Cycle Assessments. There are multiple methods that allow you to do crade to grave LCAs such as ReCiPe, EU PCF, and TRACI. Let’s talk about the most popular option right now - ReCiPe

The primary objective of the ReCiPe method is to transform the long list of life cycle inventory results into a limited number of indicator scores. These indicator scores express the relative severity on an environmental impact category. In ReCiPe we determine indicators at two levels:

1. 18 Midpoint indicators

2. Endpoint indicators

1. Midpoint: They help us to understand the direct environment impacts. These are more  focused to technical aspects of environmental performance .Examples include:

   1. Global warming potential (measured in kg CO2 equivalents)

   2. Acidification potential (measured in kg SO2 equivalents)

   3. Eutrophication potential (measured in kg phosphate equivalents)

2. Endpoint: These indicators represent the broader or overall consequences of the midpoint impacts and how they affect human health, ecosystems, and resources. They are further along the cause-effect chain and are more relatable to the actual effects experienced by humans and ecosystems.Examples include:

   1. Human health damage potential

   2. Ecosystem quality damage potential

   3. Resources depletion potential

   
   

Factors to be considered while doing LCA

System Definition:

1. Functional Unit: Clearly define what you're analyzing, like producing a specific amount of a product or providing a particular service.

2. System Boundaries: Define the scope of your study, including all stages from resource extraction (cradle) to disposal or recycling (grave).

Life Cycle Inventory (LCI):

1. Data Collection: Gather data on inputs and outputs at each stage, including materials, energy, and emissions. Use reliable sources such as databases, literature, or industry data.

2. Allocation: If several products share the same processes or resources, fairly distribute environmental impacts among them using allocation methods.

Impact Assessment:

1. Impact Categories: Choose relevant environmental impacts to measure, like climate change, human health, or resource depletion, aligning with your study's goals.

2. Assessment Method: Select an appropriate method (e.g., ReCiPe, TRACI) considering its suitability and relevance to your study's context.

Accuracy

Ecomedic has made it easy to do cradle to grave LCA using ReCiPe assessment method to ensure all the LCAs are comparable giving you the most accurate data. Our AI tool just requires bill of materials of the product to get started. It will then take you through the entire journey of the product, giving you the emissions as well as reduction scenarios. 

Please note that accuracy of LCAs is dependent on multiple factors such as supplier data, geo-political issues, and process changes. Hence, it is very difficult to get 100% accurate data. However, LCAs allows you to arrive at the most accurate emissions data by including all inputs starting from raw material acquisition to end of life stage.