Organizational Life Cycle Assessment: A Strategic Tool for Corporate Sustainability
Organizational Life Cycle Assessment: A Strategic Tool for Corporate Sustainability
At the upcoming ACLCA 2025 conference, Miguel Hernandez and Sarah Donovan will lead a session to introduce Organizational Life Cycle Assessment (O-LCA) as a framework for building corporate sustainability strategies that go beyond carbon accounting.
As sustainability challenges become more complex, organizations need tools that capture more than just greenhouse gas emissions. O-LCA takes a systems-level view of environmental performance across the entire value chain, giving decision-makers the insight needed to set priorities and take meaningful action to reduce environmental impacts.
What O-LCA Brings to the Table
Unlike product-level LCA, O-LCA evaluates the environmental footprint of an entire organization from cradle to grave at a given point in time. This broader lens makes it possible to:
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Track environmental performance trends year over year.
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Set and measure progress toward impact reduction goals across multiple impact categories.
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Identify and prioritize actions in operations and supply chains.
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Communicate results clearly to stakeholders, from investors and regulators to employees and customers.
Because O-LCA covers a wide range of environmental impacts—not only climate change but also categories such as water use, acidification, eutrophication, and resource depletion—it can be tailored to different organizational contexts. This makes it especially relevant for companies aiming to align with emerging regulations, investor expectations, and multi-impact sustainability agendas that demand more than a single-metric view.
Our Agenda
During the session, Miguel and Sarah will share three case studies where O-LCA was applied to inform decision-making, drive performance improvements, and support broader organizational strategies. These examples will highlight how O-LCA has been used across industries and at different organizational scales. One case study highlights an O-LCA reviewed under ISO 14072, demonstrating how methodological rigor and standardization can enhance both credibility and impact. Taken together, these examples show how O-LCA can turn complexity into clarity—supporting organizations in making credible, data-driven sustainability decisions.
Our Speakers
Miguel Hernandez is an experienced project leader in LCA and consumer packaged goods R&D. He has experience conducting and reviewing LCAs across several industries and worked for six years at Detergentes LTDA in Bogotá, where he helped develop TOP Terra, Colombia’s first eco-friendly home care products brand, oversaw recovery and management of over 50 tons of packaging, and generated millions of dollars in annual savings through improvements in formulation, packaging, and processes. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, and a master’s degree in Environmental Management from the same university’s Business School, where he now teaches LCA and industrial ecology. Miguel is based in Bogota, Colombia.
Sarah Donovan brings both academic and applied LCA expertise, with experience conducting GHG assessments and LCAs for products and organizations across several industries. She has developed regulatory reports on low-carbon fuels in Canada and conducted research on the climate impacts of beef in Nova Scotia and air transport in the Canadian lobster industry. Her work emphasizes drawing actionable insights for companies and policymakers to reduce environmental impacts. Sarah holds a bachelor’s in Biology and Environmental Studies from Davidson College and a master’s in Resource and Environmental Management from Dalhousie University. Sarah is based in Halifax, Canada.
Both Sarah and Miguel bring extensive experience conducting O-LCAs and will share their insights in presentations at ACLCA 2025.
Join Us at ACLCA 2025
We’re excited to share these insights at ACLCA and to explore how O-LCA can help organizations address today’s sustainability challenges—and prepare for tomorrow’s.
To learn more about O-LCA, join us at the technical session on Tuesday, September 16th, from 1:00–2:30pm, or at the LCA Institute session on Thursday, September 18th, from 9:00–10:00am.