Why the Goal and Scope Phase in LCA matters
When conducting a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), the goal and scope definition phase is often underestimated—but it’s the foundation of the entire study. If you’re curious why the Goal & Scope phase is so decisive — and what it has in common with planning a trip — you can find more insights here. We prepared this page to inform our project partners in the EU PLANTOMYC project. To illustrate its importance, let’s compare it to planning a trip.
Destination: Where Do You Want to Go?
Before you pack your bags, you need to know your destination and purpose. Are you heading to the beach, the mountains, or a cultural city tour? Similarly, in LCA, defining the goal clarifies its purpose: Are you comparing products? Developing an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)? Informing design decisions? This sets the direction for everything that follows.
How Will You Get There?
Will you travel by car, train, or plane? Each choice affects how you ideally prepare your luggage—like an easy-to-carry backpack for train trips or carefully separating carry-on versus checked items for flights. In LCA, this translates to key questions and model setup: Which questions must you answer, and how should you structure your model to make this easy?
For example, EPDs demand separate reporting for raw materials, transport, and manufacturing. Setting up your model accordingly while saving you time in the interpretation phase.
What Do You Need to Pack?
Packing for a beach holiday differs vastly from a ski trip—preparing for everything like skiing and snorkelling creates excess luggage and ballast. Likewise, system boundaries define needed data: A cradle-to-gate assessment skips use-phase and end-of-life data, reducing complexity and avoiding unnecessary “data ballast.” Collecting data without a clear plan leads to overload, where focus is lost. If attending an opera requires elegant clothes, LCA allocation choices—like economic allocation— often demand specific data.
Duration and Group Size
How long will you travel and with how many people? This clarifies costs and helps to evaluate different options. In LCA, this is the functional unit, the basis for comparing options—without it, valid comparisons fail.
Accommodation Standards
Camping, hostel, or hotel? Each sets comfort and quality expectations. In LCA, this reflects data quality requirements—decide precision levels upfront. You may not find ideal data, but early definition allows later gap assessment in results interpretation. Skipping these risks overlooking gaps and misinterpreting outcomes.
Booking Ahead
Failing to book transport or accommodation early creates bottlenecks. Similarly, plan critical reviews upfront to avoid delays. Waiting until the end to find a reviewer can stall your project for months, especially if background data updates during the wait. Early planning keeps the study on track.
Why It Matters
Just as a poorly planned trip leads to stress and wasted resources, an LCA without clear goal and scope yields irrelevant data, misaligned results, and costly rework. Investing time here ensures efficiency, credibility, and fitness for purpose—making your LCA a powerful tool for sustainability decisions.
Planing goal and scope is part of ESU’s LCA training programmes
Are you looking to deepen your understanding of Goal & Scope, or aspiring to become one, feel free to explore our training offers.
