What are the benefits of using life cycle assessment to identify environmental hotspots in your supply chain?

I believe applying the LCA has endless benefits like: - Focusing resources effectively on suppliers, processes or materials that contribute most to the environmental footprint. -By understanding cumulative impacts across the value chain, LCA aids in setting priorities for initiatives like reducing logistics emissions or implementing circular economy practices. - Engage suppliers constructively in collaborative projects targeting the most significant impacts. - Assessing lifecycles reveals inefficiencies that innovative technologies or sustainable solutions could disrupt for mutual competitive benefit. - Enhance transparency across the chain and stakeholders.

From my own experience working with companies on sustainability initiatives, those who demonstrate a firm understanding of impacts across their value chain and take meaningful action gain a strong reputation in the market. LCA insights allow companies to pinpoint where reductions are most impactful and engage suppliers in collaborative projects. When properly communicated to stakeholders, this shows a deep commitment to stewardship that builds trust. I've seen how investors especially value supply chain transparency and performance goals derived from LCA. The companies also note competitive advantages as customers increasingly favour brands delivering on their environmental promises.

LCA will become a key tool for the CSRD, since it can provide more reliable data and hard numbers to communicate. It is good for companies showing that they are involving suppliers, but LCA data can help to translate the actual impacts into monetised risks regarding the supply chain, and thus hard data helps to communicate better why a supplier becomes more important than other for a company without the subjective bias when assigning risks values.

It is important to listen to all the stakeholders in the chain, they always know best. Their hands-on experience at their step of the process can be increasingly beneficial. They can be more aware of the obstacles in the process, the extent of change acceptance, how the process can be optimized, etc. This will also add up, as they feel more involved and that their opinions are more valued. This in turn is reflected in their dedication and efforts to sustainability and smooth business operations.

By making the hotspot analysis, you can identify which are the risky suppliers, not only based on purchase volume, cut other indicators. You shall strive to approach to them and work together to reduce impacts and developing them. If that specific supplier has already tried a lot of things to reduce their impacts and yet they are a hotspot in your LCA, it means that the reduction opportunities require even more innovation and rethinking maybe the full business model. That will lead for a collaboration where together you can come with win-win solutions: your supplier might see other opportunities that you have missed due to a tunnel vision on your own business.

By applying LCA, companies gain invaluable insights into where the greatest impacts occur across the full life cycle scope of their products and operations. This supports more informed management and strategic decisions.With objective data on cumulative effects, resources can be prioritized where they make the most difference - whether targeting materials, processes, transportation modes or specific geographies. LCA also evaluates trade-offs so that well-intentioned changes don't inadvertently shift burdens elsewhere. Executives are equipped to selectively engage suppliers for mutual progress, or reformulate offerings with improved eco-profiles. Internally, LCA drives continuous operational efficiency by benchmarking performance over time