Leading companies see environmental sustainability not only as an issue of corporate responsibility but as a matter of strategy and an arena of competition. After scoring easy sustainability wins, these companies seek to improve their game with tools that put their sustainability programs on a quantitative, scientific footing.  Rising demands from customers and regulators for improved environmental performance and increased transparency are driving a surge in interest life cycle assessment (LCA) as a tool for continuous improvement and innovation and a way of improving environmental performance while avoiding burden shifting and unintended consequences. Green Research believes that aggressive use of life cycle assessment and life cycle thinking will become table stakes at leading companies, and those that aspire to lead, over the next two to five years.

Key questions answered:

• What is life cycle assessment (LCA) and how does it relate to corporate sustainability?
• How will the LCA market and LCA practices develop over the next two to five years?
• How should corporations prepare now to take advantage of LCA?
• Who are the major LCA tool vendors, and how are they differentiated?
• How should companies select an LCA tool?
• Who are the leading LCA consultants and how should companies choose a consultant?
• How should companies build or boost their life cycle thinking capability?

Who needs this report:

• Sustainability executives
• Senior executives and strategists
• Sustainability consultants
• Environmental and strategy consultants
• Vendors of life cycle assessment tools and databases
• Vendors of CAD, ERP, procurement, carbon accounting and energy management systems
• Industry associations
• Non-governmental environmental organizations
• Universities and sustainability research centers
• Sustainability public relations and marketing agencies

• Life cycle assessment; life cycle costing; eco design; eco labels; environmental product declarations; sustainability
• Profiles of 21 LCA tool vendors
• Taxonomy of LCA consultants
• Proprietary survey of sustainability executives in North America and Europe
• Proprietary survey of LCA research institutions and universities in North America, Europe, Asia Pac and Africa
• Dozens of interviews with executives, practitioners and vendors
• Eight mini case studies

Table of Contents:

• Executive Summary
• Key Questions
• Key Findings
• Landscape
• Outlook
• Mandate
• Companies Mentioned
• Basic Overview of LCA Methodology
• Tool Vendors
• Report Methodology

Table of Figures

• Figure 1 The Product Lifecycle
• Figure 2 Scientific Publications Referencing Life Cycle Assessment
• Figure 3 Downloads from the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
• Figure 4 Department Budget that Funds LCA
• Figure 5 Industries for which Academic Institutions Have Conducted LCAs
• Figure 6 Manufacturers that Have Adopted LCA
• Figure 7 LCA Cost Drivers
• Figure 8 Types of LCAs Performed in the Last 12 Months
• Figure 9 Spending on LCAs over the Last 12 Months
• Figure 10 Future Plans for Using Life Cycle Assessment
• Figure 11 Dynamics Affecting Growth of Life Cycle Assessment
• Figure 12 Barriers to Adoption of LCA
• Figure 13 Business Benefits of LCA
• Figure 14 When to Outsource LCA
• Figure 15 Examples of Strategies for Selecting Products to Study
• Figure 16 Levi Strauss Life Cycle of a Jean Creative
• Figure 17 Apple Life Cycle Creative
• Figure 18 Number of Internal Staff Working on LCA
• Figure 19 LCA Process Diagram
• Figure 20 LCA Tool Vendors with up to 100 Customers
• Figure 21 LCA Tool Vendors with 101 to 1000 Customers
• Figure 22 LCA Tool Vendors with over 1000 Customers

Companies Mentioned

• Alcatel-Lucent
• Alliance Boots Group
• Dell
• Earth Shift
• EPA
• Five Winds
• Ford
• Henkel
• Herman Miller
• Hewlett-Packard
• Ifu Hamburg
• Institute for Environmental Research and Education
• Institute for Sustainable Communication
• Johnson & Johnson
• Johnson Controls
• LANXESS
• Levi Strauss & Co.
• Nokia
• Pacific Northwest National Labs
• PE International
• Pepsico
• Pure Strategies
• Quantis
• Shaw Industries
• Sole Technology
• Southern California Edison
• Sustainability Consortium
• Sustainable Minds
• Trucost
• UL Environment
• Unilever
• World Resources Institute
• WSP Environment and Energy

• AirDye Solutions
• The Aluminum Association
• American Iron and Steel Institute
• Apple
• Armstrong World Industries
• BASF
• Bluehorse Associates
• Bureau Veritas
• Cameron-Cole
• CH2M Hill
• Chalmers University of Technology
• CleanMetrics
• ClimateEarth
• Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials
• Carbon Disclosure Project
• Deloitte Consulting
• DS Solidworks
• E3 Solutions
• Earthster
• ERM
• Four Elements Consulting
• GlaxoSmithKline
• Global Reporting Initiative
• Granta Design
• Intertek
• Marks & Spencer
• Motorola
• The Nickel Institute
• Oeko-Institut
• Pré Consultants
• Procter & Gamble
• PTC
• PwC
• Nike
• Philips
• RDC
• Sinum
• Stonyfield Farm
• Sustainable Packaging Coalition
• Sylvatica
• Tesco
• Timberland
• TOSCA
• Toyota Motor Sales
• UCSB Bren School for Environmental Science
• UL Environment
• University of Applied Sciences of Western-Switzerland
• University of Hamburg
• VTT Research Center, Finland
• Walmart
• World Business Council for Sustainable Development
• Yakima Products