The market has “dragged” many companies which weren’t entirely convinced into the world of environmental sustainability. This is why there are so many products which are falsely eco-friendly and there is still so much “green washing”.

The easiest thing to do is make a manufacturing process or a product’s feature “green”, hiding or creating negative environmental impacts during other processing or disposal stages or in the less visible aspects of the product.

For this reason, serious companies complete a LCA, which is a Life Cycle Assessment (analysis of the life cycle) of their products or sectors, whether it is to achieve an EPD or other certification, or whether they simply wish to know how improve. We asked Professor Giuseppe Vignali of the Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Parma, to explain to us how to complete a LCA, also by giving us practical examples.