What Environmental Sustainability Assessment Does Your Company Need?

Author: Tess Konnovitch, Scientific Marketing Manager

Environmental assessments come in many forms, and the landscape is vast. Not all assessments are created equal—and not all are relevant to your business. This guide walks through the major assessment types and helps you understand which ones matter for your goals.

Where Are You Right Now?

Assessment Categories

Organizational & Strategic Assessments

These establish your environmental baseline and identify where to focus. Start here if you're new to environmental sustainability or building a strategy.

Organizational Life Cycle Assessment (O-LCA): Measures the full environmental impact of your entire organization across all operations and the value chain. This is your baseline. It shows you where the hotspots are and informs which deeper assessments to pursue. Essential for science-based targets and understanding your true environmental footprint.

Materiality Assessment and Double Materiality Assessment: Identifies which environmental and sustainability issues matter most to your business and stakeholders. This should drive your assessment roadmap. Conduct this early to ensure you're measuring what counts, but after the O-LCA or at least one product level LCA so you’re sure to include the environmental impacts.

GHG Emissions Inventory (Scope 1, 2, 3): Measures greenhouse gas emissions across direct operations (Scope 1), purchased energy (Scope 2), and value chain (Scope 3). Most regulators and investors ask for this. Often a starting point, but should be contextualized within a broader O-LCA for full insight—so you don’t swap greenhouse gas emissions for higher water use, for example, when water is likely the next issue to come up in regulation.

Site & Project-Level Assessments

These evaluate environmental impact at the facility or project level before decisions are made. Conduct these before ground is broken or major changes are implemented.

Environmental Impact Statement (EIS): Comprehensive assessment of potential environmental impacts before a project or facility development begins. Typically required for major projects, new facilities, or significant operational changes. Identifies risks and mitigation strategies before investment.

Site-Specific Environmental Assessment: Deep dive into a specific facility or location, including local environmental context, proximity to sensitive ecosystems, regulatory exposure, water/soil conditions, and community concerns. Essential before acquiring land or establishing operations in new regions.

Climate Risk Assessment: Evaluates how climate change affects your business—physical risks (flooding, drought, extreme heat) to your operations and supply chain, and transition risks (regulatory, market, technology). Critical for long-term resilience and financial planning.

Water Risk Assessment: Identifies water-related vulnerabilities in your operations and supply chain (scarcity, contamination, regulatory restrictions, conflicts). Essential if you operate in water-stressed regions or water-intensive industries.

Biodiversity Assessment: Evaluates your impact on ecosystems and species. Increasingly important for companies in agriculture, resource extraction, land development, manufacturing, or supply chain-dependent sectors.

Product & Supply Chain Assessments

These measure environmental impact at the product level and across suppliers. Use these when you need to make decisions about products, suppliers, or customer claims.

Product Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): Comprehensive measure of all environmental impacts of a product from raw material through end-of-life. Answers critical questions: Should we switch suppliers? Which design is better? Where are hidden impacts? What tradeoffs exist? Increasingly required by regulation (CBAM in EU, Mexico's Circular Economy Law). Use this when you need the full picture.

Product GHG Assessment: Focused assessment of greenhouse gas emissions associated with a specific product across its lifecycle. Faster and more targeted than full LCA. Useful when carbon footprint is your primary concern or regulatory requirement.

Environmental Product Declaration (EPD): Third-party verified environmental data for your product, following standardized methodology. Credible, auditable, and good for B2B marketing and regulatory compliance.

Environmental Risk Assessment (Product): Evaluates environmental risks associated with launching a new product or entering a new market. Identifies potential regulatory, supply chain, and reputational risks before launch.

Supplier Environmental Assessment: Evaluates environmental practices and data from supply chain partners. Identifies risk, drives improvement, and supports sourcing decisions. Can include supplier LCAs or simplified environmental audits.

Impact & Opportunity Assessments

These measure positive impact and identify where you can create value. Use these to tell the full sustainability story—not just what you take, but what you give back.

Handprint / Positive Impact Assessment: Instead of footprint (what you take), handprint measures what you give back. Did your solar field support pollinators? Did your sustainable packaging provide consumer education on how plastic leaks into the environment? This assessment helps tell the full story beyond your operational impact.

Environmental Credits Potential: While not all environmental credit systems are robust, those that are provide a financial incentive toward lower emissions products and services. The assessments used for these credits are often LCA based and compare your product or service against a baseline or counterfactual. This can look like avoided emissions, but is really a comparison of two scenarios, with the difference applied to your product.

Beyond These Assessments

This resource focuses on some common environmental sustainability assessments—but once you have data, you need to turn it into action. At EarthShift Global, we help companies move from assessment to impact across the full sustainability journey:

Sustainable Return on Investment (S-ROI): Frameworks and analysis that translate environmental improvements into financial value and adds in societal impacts and risks. Helps justify investments to executives and boards by quantifying cost savings, risk reduction, and revenue opportunities tied to sustainability initiatives.

LCA Software & Tools: Purpose-built software platforms that make LCA modeling faster, more accurate, and easier to update. Enables ongoing LCA practice rather than one-time studies. Useful for companies planning to conduct multiple assessments or track impact over time.

LCA Training & Capacity Building: In-house training so your team understands LCA methodology, can interpret results, and makes data-driven decisions. Builds internal expertise to support your ongoing sustainability roadmap.

Sustainability Consulting & Roadmap Development: Once you understand your environmental hotspots, we help translate assessment results into strategy, set science-based targets, and build phased roadmaps for impact.

Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA): Measures social impacts across your value chain—labor practices, community impact, worker health, and safety. Compliments environmental LCA for holistic sustainability understanding.

These services work together with environmental assessments to build comprehensive sustainability practice—moving from knowing your impact to integrating its benefits into your bottom line.

You Don't Have to Figure This Out Alone

We know this landscape can feel overwhelming. At EarthShift Global, we've helped over 100 companies figure out exactly which assessments matter to their business—and more importantly, which ones will actually drive decisions and create value.

This decision tree is a great starting point, but your next step should be a real conversation. Every company's situation is unique, and talking through your specific business, market, and goals with our team will give you a roadmap that actually works.

Book a Free 30-Minute Conversation