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Life Cycle Assessments

We want to improve well-being while reducing the environmental footprint. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the only verified tool where you measure the total environmental impact of a product’s life cycle. By integrating LCAs into our innovation work, we can minimize waste in our products, beginning with smarter design and superior materials, through to more resource-efficient production and transports, and finally the usage phase and circularity after use.

“The biggest environmental impact is coming from the production of raw materials, and secondly from the post-consumer phase. That means we have to think about having smarter design with superior materials but using less of them.”

Susan Iliefski Janols, VP Sustainability Products & Services , Global Brand, Innovation and Sustainability

Our key to a smaller carbon footprint

In the video above, Susan Iliefski Janols, VP of Sustainability Products & Services, discusses our work with Life Cycle Assessments – from how it began in the early 90s to what it means for our daily and long-term operations. 
 
Here are a few key takeaways: 
 
  • A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the only tool where you measure the total environmental impact of a product throughout its entire life cycle: from production of materials and products, to transports, usage, and circularity after use.  
  • An LCA for an innovation is based on the same science and standards as for an assortment, but an assortment LCA covers all products sold in a region over a period of time. This means that you include innovations together with step by step improvements in daily production. 
  • LCAs allow us to think about how we design and develop quality products with a minimal carbon footprint – for instance by developing smarter designs, using superior materials and minimizing waste. 
  • The result of an LCA can be communicated through an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) – an independent verification showing environmental information about a product, based on its complete life cycle.  EPDs for most TENA products can be found at the EPD International website.