Sustainability Toolkit Resource: Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs)

To enhance the Animal Food Industry Sustainability Toolkit, the Institute for Feed Education and Research (IFEEDER) worked with The Context Network (Context) to better understand the current state of the industry regarding Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Inventory (LCI). The results of the analysis delivered a collective of resources to advance the use of LCAs in the animal feed and pet food industry and support accurate accounting of the industry’s footprint to better compete in domestic and global markets.

What Is An LCA?

An LCA is a systematic analysis of the environmental impacts associated with all stages of a product’s life. An LCA can be used for product development or improvement, identifying high level ‘hot spots’ for innovation, benchmarking performance, product labels and marketing, strategic planning or to inform public policy.

Potential Outcomes of an LCA

What Did the Project Entail?

To develop the LCA resources, Context:

1. performed a landscape assessment of the LCA environment including LCA, International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards, LCI, LCA tools, and the interrelationships between public and private sectors.
2. interviewed American Feed Industry Association and Animal Nutrition Association of Canada members regarding the LCA environment, their current and future LCA engagement, and how IFEEDER can support their needs.
3. developed an LCA resource for the North American feed industry.

What Resources Are Now Available in the Toolkit?

The collection of items developed for the Animal Food Industry Sustainability Toolkit can support animal feed and pet food members in exploring and navigating the LCA space. In addition to the ‘LCA Resource Overview’, which describes the resource and provides insight into how it can be used by industry members, five resources are available.

Learn More and Download Resources