Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) measures a product’s total environmental footprint, from materials to disposal. Pickler’s Fast-Track LCA applies the same ISO standards as traditional LCAs but focuses on the most impactful factors, combining primary, secondary, and default data.
The result: fast, transparent, and compliant impact calculations that companies can trust and scale across their entire packaging portfolio.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) explained
Eco-labels like recyclable, biodegradable, compostable, or plastic-free sound useful, but they only describe one part of a product’s lifecycle. They highlight a single benefit without showing the full impact.
A biodegradable bag may use more material or travel farther. A compostable cup can require significant land, water, or energy. A recyclable tray may not be recycled if local systems don't accept it.
These labels tell you one detail, not what actually happens in real life.
LCA looks at every stage:
Raw materials – extraction of resources
Processing – converting materials into products
Transport – movement of materials and goods
End of life – what happens after use
And it considers all major impact areas, not just CO₂:
Global warming – greenhouse gas emissions
Nature – biodiversity loss, land and water use
Human health – air quality and toxic emissions
Material scarcity – use of limited or non-renewable resources
By combining lifecycle stages and impact areas, LCA provides the only science-based, internationally accepted view of a product’s true footprint.
What is Pickler's Fast-Track LCA?
Traditional LCAs are thorough but slow, expensive, and hard to scale across large packaging portfolios.
Pickler’s Fast-Track LCA provides reliable, comparable, and transparent results at scale. Built on the same scientific foundation as traditional LCAs, it focuses on the factors that matter most — materials, energy, and transport — enabling accurate results for thousands of products in days instead of months.
The methodology is independently verified by Normec Verifavia, confirming full alignment with ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards.
Pickler combines three data types:
Primary data – Product-specific data collected directly from the product’s lifecycle (for example supplier data), e.g. material composition and transport distance.
Secondary data – Environmental, industry-average data (e.g. materials, energy use, and processes) sourced from the IDEMAT database.
Default values – Conservative fallback values used when primary and secondary data are missing, filling essential data gaps.
Together, they ensure traceable, ISO-compliant results even when input data is incomplete.
The data you get from Pickler’s calculations
Pickler provides clear, comparable data to help you understand, improve, and communicate your product’s environmental impact. Each calculation includes:
Eco-Costs – a single value representing total environmental impact
Carbon Footprint – CO₂-equivalent emissions
Eco-Score – A+ to G rating derived from eco-costs
True Costs – combined financial and environmental cost
ESRS E1–E5 data – CSRD-aligned environmental metrics
Comparable results across suppliers and packaging types
Pickler applies one verified methodology with transparent data sources and independent calculations. This makes results from different products and suppliers directly comparable, giving the value chain a shared, unbiased way to assess sustainability performance.