LCAstandardization

LCAstandardization refers to the set of international, regional, and sectoral standards, guidelines, and common practices that govern life cycle assessment (LCA). Its aim is to ensure that LCAs are conducted in a transparent, consistent, and comparable way across products and processes.

Core standards establish the framework and requirements for LCA work. The ISO 14040 family provides the overarching principles and framework, while ISO 14044 expands on the requirements and guidelines for carrying out an LCA, including goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, interpretation, data quality, allocation, and optional critical review. ISO 14042 covers the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) component, and ISO 14046 addresses water footprint assessments. Additional norms such as ISO 14064 relate to greenhouse gas accounting within the broader LCA practice.

Product declarations and cross-product comparability are supported by ISO 14025 and the use of Product Category Rules (PCRs). PCRs specify rules for LCAs within a given product category to ensure consistency and enable meaningful comparisons of environmental product declarations (EPDs).

EU-level guidance and sectoral standards also contribute to standardization. The ILCD Handbook provides detailed guidance for conducting LCAs in the European context, and region-specific frameworks such as EN 15804 for construction products outline how LCA results should be generated and reported within that sector.

Practitioners rely on LCAstandardization to improve transparency, reproducibility, and the credibility of results. Remaining challenges include data availability and quality, regional differences in methods, allocation choices for shared processes, and the interpretation of results across varying goal definitions. Ongoing standardization efforts address data quality, uncertainty, and alignment with broader sustainability frameworks.