Life cycle assessment and carbon footprint of products
Assessing the impact of your activities or products over their full life cycle can reveal value chain opportunities, support strategic development, and provide the foundations for product differentiation and business-critical claims
Understanding and documenting the life cycle impacts of products have become a requirement within several areas of the energy market. For example, the EU taxonomy requires sustainable hydrogen to be produced with GHG emissions lower than 3t CO2e/t H2 produced, and documentation of the GHG emissions from energy production is also required at new offshore wind farms. Similarly, the licensing process in several countries within the EU requires documentation of the life cycle assessment of GHG emissions, documented as for example GHG emissions per kWh produced energy or per MW installed capacity.
DNV offers life cycle assessment (LCA) and carbon footprint of products services to support our energy customers in strategic development of their products or value chains, transparently documenting product claims and meeting new requirements and expectations from stakeholders.
DNV’s approach to LCA and carbon footprint follows the principles of ISO 14040, ISO14044, and ISO 14067. We combine state of the art LCA tools and databases with domain expertise within the specific energy production system. DNV is using SimaPro and the life cycle inventory database EcoInvent as the key tools to perform the services.
At DNV, we work closely with our customers to establish the full value chain of their products. We use a combination of supplier data (primary data), lifecycle inventory databases, peer reviewed literature, and data from renown institutions to map the life cycle impacts and emissions. Sensitivity analyses are performed to document the robustness of the results. All inputs are documented and referenced to ensure transparency.
DNV has performed a wide range of LCA and carbon footprint assessments using both SimaPro and Excel modelling. We have experience within transitional- and new value chains. DNV has also developed an excel tool to document the carbon footprint of offshore wind parks – both bottom fixed and floating wind. The tool can be transferred to our customers and used internally in their organizations.
Our life cycle assessment services include:
- Life cycle assessment following ISO standards
- Carbon footprint assessment
- Early phase LCA/carbon footprint screening and comparative assessments
- Development of life cycle carbon footprint tools for activities or products
- Sustainable end-of-life management of wind farms – using ReWind
- Verification or Critical review of customer claims and documentation.
