How can you tell which products are really good for the environment? It’s easy to know that wasting water is bad. But what about the harder questions? Is buying a new washing machine better than keeping your old one, which uses a lot of water? When does a hybrid car’s better gas mileage make up for the pollution from making it? How do companies even know what their products do to the environment?

The answers can be found in Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) reports that many companies now offer to back up their product and packaging sustainability claims. And the good news is that you can use these reports to make better buying choices.

What Is Life Cycle Analysis?

An LCA is a way to learn how products affect the environment before, during, and after you use them. These reports look at everything from the extraction of the raw materials to throwing the product away. Often, the various impacts of an LCA are converted into carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2-eq) for ease of comparison.

The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) describes the four main components of an LCA: 1.) the goal and scope definition, 2.) an inventory analysis, 3.) an impact assessment, and 4.) interpretation. These standardized phases ensure that LCAs provide reliable, comparable data that consumers can trust when making purchasing decisions.

An LCA counts all the energy and materials used to make, ship, use, and get rid of a product. It also tracks all the pollution and waste created at each step. Because climate change is such a significant problem, many LCAs focus on a product’s carbon footprint, or the amount of greenhouse gas pollution it creates.

LCAs Are Growing Fast

At the beginning of 2023, approximately 17,000 EPDs had been published globally, which represents massive growth in recent years. Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are summary reports based on LCAs that are easier to read and compare. The enormous growth in LCA and EPD availability shows that more companies are concerned about and studying their products’ environmental impact than ever before.

A 2025 study by One Click LCA reveals progress in reducing embodied carbon in construction by 10% to 30% due to the use of LCAs. Over 60% of AEC respondents report at least a 10% embodied carbon reduction using LCA, with a third achieving up to 20% improvements. LCAs play a crucial role in helping companies develop cleaner products.

Most companies that are willing to take on the expensive and time-consuming process of conducting LCAs do so to gain vital knowledge to improve their processes.

How You Can Use Your Buying Power

When people care about the environment, companies listen. According to a 2022 report from First Insight and the Baker Retailing Center at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, 68% of consumers who responded to a survey indicated a willingness to pay more for sustainable products. More than 81% of consumers feel that companies should help improve the environment, but translating this sentiment into purchasing behavior requires access to credible environmental data.

You can use the power of your wallet by asking for and using LCA information before you buy things.

Where to Find Environmental Reports

Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs): These are the best reports for regular people to use. They’re based on LCAs but written in a way that’s easier to understand.

Major EPD databases where you can search for products include:

• International EPD System: The global programme for Environmental Product Declarations, operated by EPD International AB
• UL SPOT: Specializes in building materials and consumer goods
• EPD North America: Find third-party verified Environmental Product Declarations

Direct from Manufacturers: Many companies now publish LCA summaries or full EPDs on their websites. Construction materials, electronics, and automotive companies are leading the charge. Examples include:

Industry Associations: Trade groups often commission industry-wide LCAs that provide baseline environmental performance data for entire product categories. For example, nine industry associations recently commissioned an LCA study on cement co-processing that found up to 1 ton of CO2 savings per ton of composite waste. The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association provides LCA reports for concrete products, and the Aluminum Association has developed comprehensive automotive LCA guidelines to ensure accurate comparisons between materials.

How to Ask for Environmental Information

When you can’t find LCA information easily, you can ask for it:

For Big Purchases: When buying appliances, cars, or home systems, ask: “Do you have an Environmental Product Declaration for this product?” This simple question shows companies that people want to know about environmental impact.

For Business Buying: If you buy things for work, ask suppliers to provide EPDs or similar environmental reports. Over 80% of all respondents to a OneClick LCA survey said that environmental product declarations (EPDs) influence their material purchasing decisions in building projects.

For Building Materials: 83% of construction professionals say they rely on EPDs to select low-carbon materials for building projects. Asking for EPDs from building supply stores is now the new normal.

Understanding What’s Included in LCAs

Not all LCAs look at the same things, and knowing the differences helps you make better choices.

Cradle-to-gate means the study only looks at making the product, stopping at distribution, and excluding the impact of product use after purchase. Unfortunately, it can also be a sneaky way to distract from a product’s actual impact, for example, by highlighting the sustainable production of a product that creates a lot of pollution during its useful life. This is a greenwashing strategy known as the “Lesser of Two Evils.” Fortunately, this misuse of life cycle analysis is rare.

Cradle-to-grave looks at the whole life of the product from resource extraction to manufacturing, usage, and maintenance, all the way through to its disposal phase. Cradle-to-cradle includes recycling the product into something new.

Understanding these differences helps you ask good questions: “Does this report include the impact of using the product?” “What did the report assume about how long the product lasts?” “Does it include what happens when you throw it away?“

How to Read Environmental Reports

Learning to read these reports takes practice, but you can start with the essential parts.

Summary and Biggest Problems: Most reports begin by outlining the product’s most significant environmental impacts. For example, a 38-page EPD for a Brilla pasta product contains sections on the brand and product, environmental performance calculations, information on sustainable wheat cultivation, milling, packaging production, pasta production, distribution, cooking, packaging end-of-life, and summary tables for environmental impact in different markets.

Types of Environmental Impact: Reports usually measure several steps in the production, transportation, use, and disposal or recycling steps in a product’s life:

• Carbon footprint (greenhouse gases)
• Water use
• Energy use
• Air and water pollution
• Waste creation

Understanding what the study included helps you know if it’s complete. Some companies might only study the “clean“ parts of making their product while leaving out the dirty parts.

Learning from Examples

Begin by reviewing reports for products you are familiar with. Construction materials often come with good, detailed reports that show how the LCA works. You can also look at reports for electronics, food, and other everyday products.

Look for reports that:

• Are checked by independent experts
• Look at the whole life of the product
• Use recent information, no older than five years
• Clearly explain the most significant environmental impacts

Understanding Limits and Comparisons

You can’t always compare reports from different companies directly because they might use different criteria or make different assumptions that underlie the analysis. However, these reports are still useful; you need to read them carefully.

For example, studies of cloth vs. disposable diapers give different answers depending on how much water they assume is used for washing cloth diapers and how they presume disposable ones are handled after use. Studies of coffee show that how you make your coffee matters as much as which coffee you buy. And while every study of beef gives a different number for the carbon footprint of a product, they all agree that beef and lamb create more CO2 than almost any other food.

Supporting Honest Companies

When you buy from companies that share detailed environmental information, you’re telling the market that honesty matters. Your spending can encourage more companies to study their environmental impact and work to reduce it. Share what you learn from environmental reports with friends and family. Support policies that require companies to share environmental information. Ask for better environmental labeling on products.

Environmental reports often don’t provide simple yes-or-no answers about products. But they help you understand environmental impacts and find ways to make better choices. When shoppers actively look for and use LCA information, they encourage companies to:

• Do more complete environmental studies
• Find and reduce their environmental impact
• Invest in cleaner ways to make things
• Design products that can be recycled or reused

Life cycle analysis is the best way we have to understand environmental impacts. But it only works when people like you actively look for and use this information.

Editor’s Note: Originally published on September 23, 2021, this article was substantially updated and revised based on new LCA developments in September 2025.