May 2026 Brown Bag Webinar Recap

About the Webinar:

The sustainability regulatory landscape has never been more complex — or more global. Across the US, EU, Canada, Mexico, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Australia, major reporting frameworks are being phased in, delayed, or challenged. For companies trying to manage compliance obligations while also running a business, the noise can be paralyzing. But here's what we've learned: companies that continue building their sustainability strategy during this uncertainty don't get left behind. In this webinar, we'll cut through the confusion with the key terms and concepts you actually need to know — demystifying the sustainability jargon and giving you a clear picture of the landscape today.

Then we'll shift to what really matters: strategy. We'll show you how LCA data becomes a competitive advantage — driving smarter business decisions, reducing supply chain risk, and building resilience. Whether you're just starting out or refining your approach, you'll walk away understanding why foundational environmental data is a business asset, not just a compliance requirement.

About the Speaker:

Tess Konnovitch is the Scientific Marketing Manager at EarthShift Global, where she bridges the gap between rigorous environmental science and clear business communication. She joined EarthShift Global in 2022 as a Data Visualization Specialist and was promoted into marketing leadership, blending scientific rigor, visual design, and clear messaging to ensure complex sustainability analyses resonate with decision-makers.

Tess is also a course instructor at EarthShift Global and has spoken on LCA communication and data visualization at ACLCA, ISSST, and the LCA Institute. She holds a B.S. in Environmental Science and Biology and an M.S. in Computational Biology, and brings a background that bridges ecology, quantitative analysis, and science communication.

In this webinar, Tess is joined by a panel of EarthShift Global experts to support the Q&A portion of the webinar: Nathan Ayer, Karen Martinson Fleming, Miguel Hernandez, Amos Ncube, and Mariana Ortega Ramirez.

Key Takeaways

1. The regulatory landscape is complex but directional.

Regulations are shifting globally and unevenly, but the overall direction is clear: transparency and science-based accountability. Rather than waiting for rules to stabilize, forward-thinking companies are building their sustainability strategy now.

2. LCA is business intelligence, not just compliance.

The companies that win aren't treating LCA as a checkbox. They're using it to understand their products, supply chain, costs, and risks at a level their competitors can't. That's where the competitive advantage lies.

3. Data infrastructure takes time to build.

Building systems to collect emissions data across your operations and supply chain isn't quick work. Starting now — before regulations force you to — means you have time to do it strategically and efficiently.

4. Your customers are already asking.

Regulatory uncertainty doesn't mean you can wait. Buyers are already requiring environmental information. The question isn't if customer demand will reach you — it's when.

5. Real business outcomes.

LCA drives tangible results: capital secured, investor confidence, market differentiation, supplier relationships strengthened, cost savings identified. It's not about checking a box. It's about understanding your business better than anyone else.

6. Start where you are.

Whether you're exploring or ready to invest, there's a starting point that works for your organization. A full organizational LCA isn't always the first step. Screening-level analysis, product-specific studies, or internal coaching can be the perfect entry point.

Edited Webinar Transcript:

Opening & Introduction to Webinar

[0:00 - 2:30]

My name is Tess Konnovitch and I'm the Scientific Marketing Manager here at EarthShift Global. I'm so excited to be joined by a panel of our very own EarthShift Global experts.

Today I'll be presenting a talk on "Beyond Compliance: Using LCA to Build Resilience in an Uncertain Regulatory Environment." I'll be presenting, and then I'll ask our panelists to join and turn on their cameras at the end. In the meantime, you can leave all of your questions at the bottom of your screen using the Q&A feature, and I will read them aloud to our panelists.

We have an incredible panel today from EarthShift Global:

• Nathan Ayer, Director of Research — an ACLCA-accredited LCA certified professional with over 15 years of experience conducting life cycle assessments, and also a professor
• Karen Martinson Fleming, Chief Marketing Officer — with over 25 years in sustainable business strategy
• Miguel Hernandez and Amos Ncube, Senior Sustainability Advisers — bringing extensive experience in conducting LCAs and advising clients
• Mariana Ortega Ramirez, Senior Sustainability Analyst — with deep experience in LCA applications from agriculture to textiles and beyond

I started here as a data visualization specialist and moved into the marketing side as well. STEM communications is really where I thrive. I have a bachelor's in environmental science and biology, a minor in education that helps me communicate, and a master's in computational biology from Rutgers. I've attended and presented at a number of conferences, mostly on data visualization and STEM communication.

Why We're Here Today

[3:13 - 5:28]

If you're working in sustainability right now, you might be feeling a little confused or overwhelmed by all of the regulations. Over the past few years, we've watched sustainability reporting requirements become mandatory in more places like the European Union, Canada, and parts of Asia. At the same time, other regulations have been delayed or challenged in courts. That leaves people wondering: What do I actually need to do? What counts? Where do I start?

Today we're going to walk through three main topics that I hope will help you move forward with confidence:

First, what the terms actually mean. I know some of you are experts in the field, but I never like to make the assumption that everyone is an expert here. We have so many acronyms in LCA, so I'm going to start with a quick overview of some common terms.

Second, we'll discuss where the regulations actually stand right now — the real picture of what's going on, what's coming, and what's still uncertain.

Third, and where I really want to focus today, is why building life cycle inventory data and conducting an LCA is a business decision and not just a compliance checkbox. Once you see what LCA data actually tells you, compliance becomes almost a side effect of something much more valuable.

Key Terms, Defined

[6:00 - 10:31]

If you're going to be making smart decisions about sustainability, you need to actually understand what people are talking about when they use terms like LCA, GHG, SOC, OLCA, Scope, and materiality.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 Emissions

This framework comes from the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol and defines how a company accounts for its carbon emissions:

• Scope 1: Direct emissions from sources you own or control — fuel burned in your vehicles or natural gas in your facilities
• Scope 2: Indirect emissions from purchased energy — electricity, steam, heat. You're not burning the fuel directly, but the energy you buy came from somewhere and that somewhere produced emissions
• Scope 3: All other indirect emissions across your value chain — suppliers, raw materials, product use, end of life. Scope 3 is typically the largest category and the most complex to measure

GHG Inventory vs. Life Cycle Assessment

These are two different tools for two different questions.

A GHG inventory answers one specific question: How much carbon does our company emit? It focuses on greenhouse gases specifically and covers Scopes 1, 2, and 3. It measures your company's emissions.

A Life Cycle Assessment answers a broader question: What is the full environmental impact of a product or organization across its entire life cycle? Not just carbon — we're talking water use, land use, air pollution, toxicity, and more. It looks from raw material extraction through end of life.

Here's why it matters: LCA is the more complete tool. They're not in competition, but they're answering different questions. If you only measure carbon, you might improve one thing and inadvertently cause an issue in another. An LCA can easily include Scopes 1, 2, and 3, so many companies opt to do LCAs.

Double Materiality

Double materiality is a simple but powerful idea: understanding what matters for your business and what your business impacts.

On the left side, we have financial materiality — which sustainability issues could affect your company's finances and operations? Think supply chain disruption, regulatory risk, market demand shifts.

On the right side, we have impact materiality — which environmental and social issues does your company impact?

This is important because the European Union introduced double materiality as a requirement in their Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.

Organizational LCA vs. Product LCA

Organizational LCA (O-LCA) measures the environmental footprint of your entire company — all operations, products, and supply chain impacts.

Product LCA looks at a single product from raw material through end of life. It can tell you about design tradeoffs.

You can start with either one. Both are really beneficial depending on where you are and what you're trying to answer.

Finding Your Starting Point

We recently wrote a blog post with a flowchart designed to help you figure out where your company fits. Maybe you're just starting and don't have a formal sustainability goal yet and aren't facing immediate regulatory pressure. Maybe you've already got some data but aren't sure if it's the right data, or you're facing customer demand or regulatory deadlines pushing you to move faster. There's not a right starting point — it comes down to where you are. Once you know where you are on this map, it's easier to move forward.

The Regulatory Landscape

[10:48 - 14:40]

Regulations are changing globally, rapidly, and unevenly, but overall in the same direction. I'm going to breeze through these regions, but I encourage you to check out another blog post we wrote this month that has all the details of every regulation listed here.

United States

The federal picture is complicated right now. But that federal uncertainty is fueling state-level action. California has enacted comprehensive climate disclosure requirements. New York is moving in a similar direction. Beyond traditional disclosure, there are financial incentives like the 45Q tax credit. And there's extended producer responsibility — EPR — laws which are expanding across states.

Even though the federal role is paused, the pressure to build environmental data infrastructure is already happening. It's coming from states, tax incentives, and supply chain requirements.

European Union

The EU has built one of the most comprehensive frameworks. The CSRD — Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive — is now really the global benchmark for what a comprehensive directive looks like.

Double materiality is a major differentiator here. You're reporting not just what climate and environmental issues could hurt your business, but also what your business does to the environment. It goes beyond the company to suppliers. They also have the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, or CBAM. The EU is a major leader right now, and many other countries are referencing their policies and directives.

Asia

Asia is moving fast. Japan is implementing a mandatory carbon pricing mechanism that covers large industrial emitters. South Korea is laying out a mandatory ESG disclosure roadmap. China has issued mandatory sustainability disclosure guidelines for certain companies. Singapore is enforcing mandatory climate reporting. India has the top 1,000 listed companies by market cap and they must report under a mandatory framework.

Many of these frameworks are explicitly referencing international standards, which suggests they're building local rules that connect to the global system. This really is becoming a global direction for most regions.

Other Regions

It's not just the European Union, US, and Asia. The clean fuel regulations have been in effect for years in Canada. Mexico recently established a circular economy law which mandates life cycle assessment specifically. Many of these regions are moving towards mandatory disclosure. Regulatory requirements for environmental data are coming from every direction — federal, state disclosure rules, tax incentives, direct reporting, supply chain mechanisms — and they're happening everywhere on the map.

The Compliance Checkbox Trap

[14:40 - 17:35]

As we move into how companies think about this, the temptation may be to treat this as a compliance problem. Figure out what you're required to disclose. Think about who you sell to, where you operate business, look at what's required, and then just collect the minimum data you need and call it done.

But that is exactly the trap I want to talk about.

There's a really compelling figure from a blog post by our CEO Lise Laurin that shows why smart companies aren't pausing sustainability work. Many companies approach environmental data like this: "When will this apply to us? What's the minimum we need to do?" That feels safe — like you're managing risk in a cost-effective and efficient way.

But as you can see, companies who wait and pause until the regulation arrives typically end up scrambling. You have to backfill years of emissions data. You have deadline pressure. You might have to reorganize your company's priorities to meet these regulations. You might miss supplier conversations that could strengthen your relationships or drive innovation. And you miss the operational insights that actually improve your business.

Now look at companies who started building that environmental data today, before regulation forces them to. They have time. They have time to continue current business priorities in a timely way. They have time to identify hotspots in their operations and supply chain. They have time to understand where costs align with environmental impact. They can have those conversations with suppliers. And when that regulation arrives, they're ready. They're not scrambling. They have years of clean, auditable data. They have internal capability. And they have that story to tell. They understand their business better.

And this is the piece I keep referencing: LCA doesn't just tell you about environmental impact or check that compliance box. It tells you how your business actually works. That's business intelligence and strategy. The companies that treat LCA that way are making different, smarter decisions.

LCA helps you find inefficiencies. You can make product decisions and understand your supply chain — not because you have to, but because it saves you money and reduces risk, in addition to checking that box and doing your part for the planet.

Why Building Data Makes Sense

[17:43 - 20:54]

Here's some evidence from 25 plus years of sustainability work at EarthShift Global.

Data Infrastructure Takes Years to Build

Setting up systems to collect emissions data from across your operations and supply chain is not quick work. Even though the actual LCA may only take 4 to 9 months, the time a sustainability manager spends building that strategy is much longer.

In year one, you might define the scope. In year two, you start collecting data, training teams, and building internal capacity. By year three, you have a really good, thoughtful system with comprehensive data across your organization.

If you wait until a regulation is finalized, you're scrambling to backfill. You have deadline pressure. The process you build might not be efficient. You don't have time to think strategically about what results you want and what questions you want answered.

Your Customers Are Already Asking

While regulators are debating timelines and frameworks, buyers are already requiring environmental information. You might have a customer in the European Union that's regulated, or your customer's customer might be regulated. Those requirements ultimately may fall on you.

We hosted Primient at our Brown Bag webinar last month. Laura Kowalski gave a great talk about what they've seen over the past years — a huge increase in the percentage of requests for PCF (product carbon footprint) or LCA data. They're not waiting for regulations to apply to them. They're responding to customer demand. And customer demand is accelerating.

LCA Data Improves Your Business Beyond Compliance

There are cost reductions, product innovation opportunities, supplier relationships, and overall culture and brand benefits.

I've been talking about our 25 plus years of experience. If you don't believe me, take it from our CEO and founder. The regulations will catch up. They always do. The question is whether you'll be ready when they do or still scrambling to understand your own footprint for the first time.

Real Company Stories

[20:54 - 27:37]

Let me share actual company stories where LCA made real changes to business decisions.

Case Study 1: Biofine

The Question: Biofine developed an advanced biofuel from cellulose waste that could replace conventional home heating oil. They wanted to prove that the carbon reduction benefit was real and significant.

What the LCA Revealed: We conducted a critically reviewed LCA. It confirmed that their biofuel delivered substantial carbon reduction compared to conventional heating oil. The LCA quantified that specific benefit and gave potential investors and supply chain partners the evidence they needed.

How It Changed Business Decisions:

• Confirmed the potential carbon reduction benefits of their heating solution
• Established a distributor relationship with a leading major oil dealer
• Secured capital to build a production facility

Without the LCA, Biofine had an awesome, promising technology. With the LCA, they had a fundable business model. They had evidence to back up their claims. That data transformed investor confidence and enabled them to move from concept to commercial production.

Case Study 2: Navitas

The Question: Navitas developed ultraefficient gallium nitride semiconductors as alternatives to conventional silicon chips. They wanted to quantify the environmental advantage so they could communicate it credibly to investors and customers.

What the LCA Revealed: Their semiconductor had up to 10 times lower CO2 footprint than silicon chips. Products using them reduced end-application footprints. This translated complex technology into concrete environmental and performance benefits.

How It Changed Business Decisions:

• Used LCA results to attract investor and customer interest in their startup
• Positioned their ICs not just as faster and more efficient, but as genuinely greener and more sustainable
• Announced carbon neutrality based on substantiated LCA data
• Broadened market appeal beyond performance engineers to include sustainability-conscious designers and customers

The LCA gave Navitas credibility in a crowded market. The semiconductor market is crowded. It wasn't just a performance story — they could now stand out by having an environmental advantage backed by science. That distinction mattered for investor confidence and customer adoption.

Case Study 3: Bolt Threads

The Question: Bolt Threads developed Mylo, a mycelium or mushroom-based vegan leather alternative. They wanted to demonstrate the environmental case for this new material so they could position it authentically in the market.

What the LCA Revealed: The LCA quantified the environmental impacts of Mylo across its full life cycle, showing how it compared to conventional leather and synthetic alternatives. More importantly, it identified the specific environmental benefits and trade-offs that were most relevant to different audiences.

How It Changed Business Decisions:

• Used LCA insights to position Mylo authentically as a vegan alternative with real environmental benefits
• The CEO did a TED talk on the future of fashion made from mushrooms
• All claims were backed by science
• Generated favorable media coverage in leading publications like Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Teen Vogue
• Avoided greenwashing claims by grounding positioning in rigorous LCA data

LCA enabled Bolt Threads to tell a credible story. Not just "this is new and cool mushroom leather," but "this is new, cool, and backed by environmental data." That authenticity and rigor opened doors with investors, media, and customers who care about both innovation and genuine sustainability.

The Common Thread

We just went through three different companies in three different industries with three different business situations. But they all asked the same fundamental question: What do we actually need to know about our business?

As far as I know, none of them did it because they had to. They did it because the data answered a question that mattered to their business.

In each case, the LCA revealed something useful outside of checking a compliance box. These companies were able to use that data to open doors, secure capital, establish partnerships, generate media attention, and build credibility with customers, suppliers, and investors.

When you can understand your business — really understand it — at the level of life cycle impacts, supply chain flows, and cost correlations, you can make decisions that your competitors can't. You can identify opportunities maybe they're missing. And most importantly, you can tell a real, true, science-backed story about your business and you're doing good by the planet in the process.

The Real Competitive Advantage

[27:44 - 28:53]

The real competitive advantage of LCA is not just checking that compliance checkbox. Yes, there's a ton of regulations coming down the pipeline. But understanding your business, your products, your supply chain, your costs, and your risks — that's what's really important strategically, outside of checking that compliance box.

Practical Next Steps

[28:11 - 29:36]

We know regulations are shifting, timelines are uncertain, rules get challenged and revised, and that's the reality we're all navigating right now.

But here's what I've said over and over in this talk: your business case for understanding your environmental impact is separate and it's solid. The direction, despite all this noise, is clearly the same — transparency, science-based accountability.

The companies that come out ahead aren't waiting for those rules to stabilize. They're using this window now.

This doesn't happen overnight. It takes time. It takes intentionality. It takes building capacity. And it depends on where you are now.

Some of you are ready to start building — you know this matters and you're ready to invest. Some of you are still exploring. We have a blog post that can help you, and we also offer 30-minute consultations to help you every step of your sustainability journey.

Acknowledgments

[29:26 - 30:07]

I want to acknowledge not only my entire wonderful team at EarthShift Global, but all of the sources I pulled from. All of those sources are on the blogs we wrote if you want to look into them, especially the regulations.

My career has been in science communication. While I did do some research in grad school, most of that communication is built off other scientists doing that nitty-gritty research that I'm lucky enough to get to read and summarize and communicate to audiences. So thank you to all of the sources I pulled from, but mostly to my wonderful team at EarthShift Global.

And I'm so excited for our expert panel discussion as we move into the Q&A section.

Expert Panel Q&A

[33:32 - 59:36]

Q: In your case studies, each company used LCA data for a specific business objective. How do you know what objective to focus on first? And how do you prioritize?

Karen Martinsen Fleming (Chief Marketing Officer): We often have clients that come to us because they have a particular business challenge they're trying to solve. What we do in discussion with the client is assess if what they're thinking is actually the solution to the problem they have. So it becomes a dialogue where we help guide what the best approach will be for the LCA or other type of analysis.

Mariana Ortega Ramirez (Senior Sustainability Analyst): Sometimes clients have a very clear idea of what they want to see in different scenarios — like, "What if I change towards a renewable grid completely?" But when we do the model and analyze the different contributors to impact, sometimes we learn things they weren't expecting. Together we come up with additional ideas that could be interesting. Sometimes they decide to put it on hold and go back to improve things first, then publish something after that. We go by layers.

Q: What is the range you've seen in clients' understanding of LCA — what they need and what assessment they need? How do you help them know what their business needs?

Nathan Ayer (Director of Research): We see a wide range, from companies that know very little about how LCA works or could be applied, to organizations that have LCA people on their team who have done LCA but are facing particularly tricky or complicated questions. It's about having those initial discussions, talking through what you're really trying to answer in the short and long term. It's also about developing an understanding of how that product system actually works and understanding the landscape around it. That can be very different when you're talking to a company developing a novel product versus pre-existing products where they're trying to innovate or comply with regulations. So I I think it's it's about discussing objectives and understanding the nature of the product system and then you know hopefully using your experience in LCA to sort of see where things might need to go.

Amos Ncube (Senior Sustainability Advisor): In our experience, we've worked with a wide range of clients with LCA expertise. Sometimes clients have more knowledge on LCA than we do. I remember a specific case where we worked with a sector-specific client who had so much knowledge, some even more experienced in LCA than I, but what they wanted was to find alignment in terms of how to do an LCA within their sector. It's a wide range. In some cases, you meet a client with no knowledge on LCA and you have to guide them in performing it. But sometimes there are clients who have more expertise than us but are looking for guidance in terms of finding alignment.

Miguel Hernandez (Senior Sustainability Adviser & Operations Manager): When we work with clients that don't have much experience with LCA, we tell them: you are the experts in your products or systems, and we are the experts in LCA. We like to have conversations where we show them where the main drivers of impact are, and then they are the ones proposing potential ideas to improve the environmental performance of their system. We like to use our experience to guide those conversations, but the technical validity comes from our clients. We want to be teachers and help them gain insights internally for future work.

Q: What happens once the company receives the LCA results? Is there a way of supporting companies with how they will use their LCA results?

Miguel Hernandez: Yes, there is. We like to have closure meetings at the end of each project where we review the whole process, talk about lessons learned, and discuss potential applications of the results. We also offer the possibility of continuing to work with them through communication advising or marketing services. Since we already have the results and know what they look like, we can help clients build a narrative around the results and create a message to be communicated publicly.

Karen Martinsen Fleming: We help our clients communicate the LCA results internally, because often the teams we work with on the LCA are not the executive teams making decisions about funding. It's really important to communicate this valuable scientific method effectively, but translate it so that people in the C-suite understand the business case advantages and where continued effort can provide the greatest return on investment. Completion of an LCA study is just one step. The question then becomes: What do you do with these insights? Who is best to have this information communicated to them? How do we continue to provide support so clients can build internal capability and understanding?

Tess Konnovitch: There are a number of design and data visualization tactics we can do on our reports to make sure we're presenting results in a way people can understand. We can go a step further with white papers and position papers. Actually, next month's brown bag webinar is featuring a position paper we recently supported. There are many ways to bring LCA results to life.

Q: What are the major differences when working with large and smaller companies? Are LCAs feasible for smaller companies?

Nathan Ayer: The glaring difference between large and small is often on the time and resources side. Smaller companies usually have less resources in terms of people and financial resources. For smaller companies, it's about finding ways to either leverage funding to support an initial effort or finding ways to take on the work in smaller pieces. When I look at the timeline discussed in the webinar, that can be one reason, and it can happen to both small and large. Everyone has limited time and resources, but it can be a little more acute for smaller firms. Sometimes there's a need to stage the work in a way that aligns with what the company has available and what the opportunities are. You've got to approach it in a way that's more practical sometimes for smaller firms to make it feasible to do the work initially.

Miguel Hernandez: Smaller companies usually are starting their journey towards sustainability. In most cases, they don't yet need a full organizational LCA report like a thesis-level LCA study. Something we like to do is start a bit smaller with a screening-level approach — what we call a "quick and dirty" analysis to identify hotspots and main tendencies. Then based on that, we put together improvement scenarios and things they can use to plan internally for sustainability strategies and innovation strategies. This can be a stepping stone in their journey. As they grow and evolve, they can start thinking about more robust analysis.

Amos Ncube: Smaller companies do often struggle to start an LCA, but larger companies also struggle with standardizing an LCA. 

Mariana Ortega Ramirez: When working with startups, they may not have all the data or are exploring which geography to work from, they don't want to invest in a full LCA and are just trying things out. We've built Excel programs for them to try scenarios themselves. We also do coaching for companies who don't want to invest in doing LCAs by an external party but want to do it in-house and build that capacity. There's a variety of ways we work with smaller and larger companies.

Nathan Ayer: For much larger companies that have global offices spanning the globe, standardization becomes important. There may be people working on LCAs in different departments that aren't working together — they're working in silos even though they're under one company heading. This can be a challenge in terms of standardizing how data is gathered and maintained, even just standardizing the tools being used across different divisions. There are lots of examples where that can be a challenge. If you lack consistency across the company, that's going to present communication challenges and confound your efforts. But there's a lot of benefits to getting people on the same page eventually.

Q: How is EarthShift adapting to the evolving use of AI in the LCA field?

Tess Konnovitch: I've been working on a number of research projects looking at how AI can make us more efficient and effective while maintaining the scientific rigor EarthShift is known for. I'm involved in a few of those projects.

Karen Martinsen Fleming: We're looking at AI very closely and determining where it might be appropriate to apply. We're exploring it on our own — several team members have been using different AI platforms to test them out. We'll always be very thoughtful in how we deploy any new technologies into our processes.

Nathan Ayer: I think we're thinking a lot about what are the appropriate applications of any kind of AI-based LCA work in relation to what is the objective or question that's trying to be answered. At this point on the AI development calendar, there are certain applications where we currently use LCA that I would be leery of relying too much on AI for. I think it has the potential to limit some of the deeper learning and engagement we get in doing LCA work the old-fashioned way. But there are emerging places in our work where it probably will make sense to leverage the computing power of those tools.

Where AI technology is taking LCA is towards streamlining — you click a few things, click a button, and you have an LCA output. That might be useful for some applications, but for other more complex applications, it's not a good fit, at least in these earlier days. I would be nervous making a comparative claim in the marketplace based on something too heavily built off AI research and calculations right now. We're trying to be careful about the risks of how you're using it in relation to the objectives you're trying to achieve.

Amos Ncube: The focus would be on AI improving efficiency in our workflows. But we pay attention especially to issues around confidentiality — the data that our clients share with us. We're very careful about that, and that's where we pay much attention in terms of AI adoption. Some data shouldn't just be uploaded anywhere. Confidentiality is important, but we're open to improving efficiency in the work we do — like checking for grammar, that's definitely something we can do. 

Mariana Ortega Ramirez: I want to bring it back to what Tess said: it's not only about having the number for your footprint. It's what happens in the middle of that co-creation. When we work with our clients, we're co-creating that knowledge with the sustainability manager and all the team providing data. A favorite co-benefit of doing LCA is that we get to connect with different parts of the company providing data, and they care about the results because it's coming from their data. We're all learning. It's that co-creation and co-building of strategy and wanting to participate. That's an art that sustainability managers can do when they integrate everything, and we like to be part of that.

Q: How do you make the internal business case for building LCA data when it's not required by regulations yet? What kind of ROI can we expect and communicate to stakeholders?

Karen Martinsen Fleming: This is so client-specific that it's challenging to give a one-size-fits-all answer. What we do really well is help our clients understand where they are in their sustainability path, understand their type of business, understand their sector, and understand how their competitors are moving in the sustainability space. We take all that together, and the gestalt of that is: here's the recommendation of what the core priorities are for you in your particular situation at this particular time. It's a very customized approach that we take to all of the work that we do. 

Miguel Hernandez: From a product design or system design point of view, LCA is a diagnosis tool. We're able to diagnose environmental performance of a system or product and suggest improvement opportunities. If our client decides to act on those improvement opportunities, in the majority of cases that's also going to be reflected in a cost improvement. For example, if you're installing solar panels, yes, you have to make an investment, but in the long term that's going to represent an economic benefit. It's all about acting on those improvement opportunities and then building a project plan and a specific ROI for that initiative. As Karen said, it's very client-specific.

Amos Ncube: In terms of building a business case from internal LCA data, this is where sustainability stops being just for reporting purposes and starts becoming strategy. A lot of companies, if you collect that LCA data, can make that data translate into cost savings, procurement leverage, product differentiation, risk reduction, and revenue opportunities. It just depends on what the client wants to focus on, but you can use that internal LCA data not just for reporting but as strategy.