How Leading LCA Standards Address Renewable Carbon: An RCI Study.
New study by the Renewable Carbon Initiative (RCI) analyses key Life Cycle Assessment and Carbon Footprint Standards and their implications for Renewable Carbon-based Products
The Renewable Carbon Initiative (RCI) has released a comprehensive study analysing the provisions of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and carbon footprint standards in relation to renewable carbon sources, i.e. carbon from biomass, carbon capture or recycling.
Conducted by nova-Institute on behalf of RCI, the study provides a comparative evaluation of how major sustainability frameworks approach methodological choices, highlighting key areas of agreement and divergence.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is widely recognised as the standard methodology for evaluating the environmental impact of products and materials.
However, its complexity and methodological variability pose challenges for policy implementation and industrial application.
With renewable carbon-based solutions emerging as a key alternative to fossil-based materials, understanding the provisions of existing LCA frameworks is essential to ensure fair and transparent sustainability assessments.
This is of particular relevance for innovative solutions competing with established systems like it is often the case for renewable carbon-based products in competition to their fossil counterparts – for example because of higher scrutiny on new solutions, methodological aspects that have not been considered or established yet, different levels of data quality and economies of scale.
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The study is published in three reports: report 1 (146 pages) evaluates methodological choices which impact LCAs for products containing renewable carbon in existing LCA frameworks and guidelines. In report 2 (36 pages), a special focus is given to renewable carbon in recycling situations and challenges for LCA and carbon footprint studies. Report 3, a non-technical summary (15 pages), highlights the main insights of the project results and states key take-aways for policy-makers.