Advancing the LCA Ecosystem - 10/25/2023

In this report, the CLF lays out a vision and steps towards an ideal LCA ecosystem optimized for use as a tool for policy and private sector decarbonization action (focusing on the United States and Canada). This report aims to:
- De-mystify the standards, data sources, tools, and actors that make up the current LCA ecosystem.
- Propose a roadmap to maximize the potential of LCA of products and projects as a tool for effective policy.
-Highlight existing initiatives to reduce redundancy and accelerate action.
Policy action on embodied carbon is growing quickly. 2021-2023 has seen an unprecedented number of introduced and passed policies targeting embodied carbon reductions in the building and infrastructure sectors in the US, Canada, and internationally. Policies aimed at reducing the embodied carbon of building and infrastructure projects and construction materials typically leverage life cycle assessment (LCA) as a methodology to measure the impacts of a product or project and compare them against a percentage reduction target or embodied carbon performance standard (i.e., global warming potential (GWP) limit).