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Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a methodology for estimating the climate or total environmental impact of a product or service across every stage of its existence. Målbar uses LCA as the foundation for all product climate footprint calculations, giving you a structured, evidence-based view of where impact occurs — and where you can reduce it.

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How a product life cycle works

Every product starts as raw materials extracted from nature. Those materials are processed, assembled into a product, packaged, distributed, sold, used, possibly reused, and eventually disposed of. At each stage, the product interacts with the environment in different ways.
These interactions are measured across so-called impact categories — climate change, water resource use, soil fertility, human health effects, and more.
An LCA that complies with the EU’s Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) rules considers all 16 impact categories throughout the full life cycle, giving you a complete picture of a product’s total environmental impact — not just its carbon footprint.

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System boundaries

A critical concept in any LCA is the system boundary: which life cycle stages are actually included in the calculation. Three terms are widely used:
Covers all life cycle stages, including end-of-life recycling back into a new product life cycle. This is the most comprehensive boundary and reflects true circular economy thinking.
Covers all stages from raw material extraction through to final disposal. It includes use and end-of-life, but does not credit recycling into a new cycle.
Covers only the stages up to the factory gate — raw material extraction and production. It excludes packaging, distribution, use, and end-of-life. This is a narrower boundary often used for business-to-business reporting.
When you see a climate impact number for a product, always ask: “How did you get this result?” Different system boundaries produce very different numbers — and comparing them directly is misleading.

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Why system boundaries matter

Two companies can publish very different CO₂eq figures for similar products simply because one uses Cradle to Gate and the other uses Cradle to Grave. Understanding the system boundary is the first step to interpreting — and trusting — any LCA result.
In Målbar, your calculations follow PEF methodology with a full lifecycle approach by default, so you always know what is and is not included in your result.

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Download the illustration

The Målbar LCA illustration walks through each life cycle stage visually, including end-of-life scenarios.

Life Cycle Assessment illustration (PDF)

Download the full LCA visual explainer from Målbar Academy.