Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a methodology used to evaluate the environmental impacts of a product across its lifecycle, from raw material extraction to end of life.

Lifecycle thinking has long been part of EU product policy. With the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), this approach is now translated into structured, product-level requirements.

At the same time, the Digital Product Passport (DPP) is introduced as a system to make product information accessible across the value chain.

Understanding how LCA connects to the DPP is therefore essential. LCA generates environmental data, while the DPP structures and distributes selected product information within the market.

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What is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Life Cycle Assessment is a standardized methodology defined under international standards ISO 14040 and ISO 14044.

It assesses environmental impacts across all stages of a product’s lifecycle, including raw material extraction, manufacturing, transport, use, and end of life.

LCA produces environmental indicators such as emissions, energy use, and resource consumption. These results depend on system boundaries and assumptions, which makes comparability a known challenge.

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How LCA is used in EU product regulation

The EU uses lifecycle-based approaches to define product requirements.

The Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) method builds on LCA to improve comparability across products.

Under the ESPR, lifecycle considerations are explicitly embedded in regulation.

According to Article 5, Ecodesign requirements must take into account environmental impacts across the lifecycle, including durability, reparability, and resource use.

Importantly, regulation does not require full LCA studies to be disclosed. Instead, lifecycle thinking is translated into specific product requirements.

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LCA and the Digital Product Passport

The Digital Product Passport is introduced under the ESPR as a system to provide product-specific information across the lifecycle.

• Article 9 establishes the DPP as a tool to make product information available
  
• Article 10 defines requirements for access, structure, and data carrier

The DPP does not require full lifecycle studies to be shared.

Instead:

• LCA supports the generation of environmental data
  
• the DPP structures selected product information required under regulation

Product-specific rules define which information must be included, depending on the category.

For example, in the case of apparel and textiles, recent work from the Joint Research Centre (JRC) during the third milestone of the textile preparatory study (December 2025), outlines different possible approaches to environmental information within the DPP. 

These include:

• scenarios where only selected indicators such as carbon footprint are required
  
• scenarios where a broader set of environmental indicators is included
  
• a phased approach, where certain data requirements may initially be introduced on a voluntary basis before becoming mandatory

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From lifecycle data to product-level requirements

LCA results are often complex and not directly usable outside technical contexts.

This is where systems like Renoon become relevant.

Renoon enables companies to:

• calculate and structure product-level impact data
  
  
• connect this data to the correct product across internal systems
  
  
• make it accessible through Digital Product Passports, both online and via physical touchpoints such as QR codes
  
  

In this way, lifecycle data moves from analysis to operational product information, aligned with how products are sold, used, and verified in the market. The Digital Product Passport enables this by connecting product data to a consistent system.

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Implications for brands

For companies, the challenge is no longer only to conduct LCA studies.

It is to make lifecycle-related data usable at product level and aligned with upcoming EU requirements.

In practice, this means:

• identifying which data points derived from LCA or internal assessments are relevant for regulation (e.g. material composition, durability-related parameters)
  
  
• connecting this data to specific products rather than keeping it in reports or internal documents
  
  
• structuring product information across systems (ERP, PLM, supplier data) so it can be consistently used for compliance and disclosure
  
  
• preparing for product-specific requirements defined under ESPR delegated acts
  
  

This reflects a broader shift: product information is no longer managed only at company level, but must be organised at product level, in a structured and accessible way.

With the Digital Product Passport becoming mandatory under ESPR, this data will need to be directly linked to each product and made accessible through a standardised system.

Companies that structure this data early are better positioned to meet DPP requirements without reworking existing systems later.

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Conclusion

Life Cycle Assessment remains essential for understanding product impacts. 

In this context, it supports the generation of relevant data, but it is the Digital Product Passport that makes this information usable within the market.

At Renoon, we help companies in structuring product and supply chain data into verifiable, product-level information required by EU regulation.

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