As stakeholder demand for sustainable practices keeps rising and rising, LCAs (Life Cycle Assessments) are becoming core to product development, sustainability reporting, and wider business planning.
Because when conducted properly, LCAs allow companies to see the real impact of their products, beyond mere factory-stage emissions. And this is the kind of holistic transparency that investors and consumers are starting to expect.
But even as these expectations rise as we move into 2026, many organizations still struggle with LCA-related challenges like data gaps, unclear processes, or even just uncertainty about where to begin.
Thankfully, at Dazzle, we don’t like uncertainty, and we love solving sustainability challenges! So for the fifth edition of our Making Sustainability Work webinar series, we had one of our LCA experts, Nico van Eeden, along with sustainability leaders from Marelli and Van der Valk Solar Systems, share practical insights and solutions to the LCA challenge.
By tapping into these honest lessons — learned from implementing LCAs across real products and supply chains — we aimed to provide our audience with the clarity they need to approach LCAs with confidence in 2026.
Below, we’ve summarised the eight key findings that emerged during the session. We really hope they help!
1. Start small: one product unlocks system-wide learning
A recurring message from all of our panelists was unmissable; choose one product first.
Because running an LCA on a single representative reference product can help your team:
- Understand data requirements.
- Test assumptions.
- Identify internal stakeholders.
- Build confidence before scaling.
All panel members emphasized that starting too big leads to delays and confusion, whereas a focused pilot accelerates learning.
Key takeaway:
- Pick a reference product, learn deeply, then scale with purpose.
2. A clear data strategy is essential
Companies often underestimate the data challenge. The panel agreed that the biggest LCA blockers are organizational, not technical.
Common issues seem to include:
- Inconsistent data ownership.
- Difficulty finding primary supplier data.
- Overlapping ESG and sustainability datasets.
- Unclear assumptions between teams.
Dazzle’s LCA expert, Nico, emphasized the importance of defining a data strategy before modelling begins and aligning it with existing reporting processes to avoid duplication.
Key takeaway:
- Clarify what data you need, who owns it, and how it will be maintained before you build your LCA.
3. LCAs must be aligned with other sustainability initiatives
LCAs often overlap with Scope 1–3 reporting, materiality assessments, eco-design work, and product development. However, many companies run these processes separately, creating inconsistent assumptions and confusing outputs.
During our webinar, the experts highlighted how aligning assumptions across sustainability programmes can improve both internal credibility and operational efficiency.
Key takeaway:
- Treat LCA as part of a connected system, not a standalone exercise.
4. Early stakeholder engagement is non-negotiable
LCAs require assumptions, data, and insights from engineering, procurement, operations, quality, and sometimes sales. If these teams aren’t aligned from the outset, your LCA will inevitably become slow and inaccurate.
During our discussion, our experts shared how early engagement helped embed their LCAs into product strategy, as opposed to just compliance reporting.
Key takeaway:
- Identify your cross-functional stakeholders early and give them clarity on their role in the process.
5. Choose the right software, and the right resourcing model too
While LCA software is necessary, software alone isn’t a complete solution. Nico explained the value of adopting a hybrid or phased resourcing model:
- Outsource the first iterations to build high-quality baselines.
- Develop internal skills and processes as confidence grows.
- Bring modelling partially or fully in-house as maturity increases.
The panel stressed that premature investment in software without internal readiness often leads to frustration.
Key takeaway:
- Build capability step by step: outsource early, internalize when ready.
6. Document assumptions and methodology for transparency
Our panelists also highlighted that LCAs are only as useful as their documentation.
This is because inconsistent or unclear assumptions can lead to confusion between teams, make results difficult to interpret, and undermine credibility with internal or external stakeholders.
By clearly recording assumptions, boundaries, and methodology choices though, teams can ensure that LCA results are repeatable, auditable, and understandable across the organization.
Key takeaway:
- Good documentation is not administrative overhead, it is the foundation of credible, actionable LCA insights.
7. Some of the biggest challenges companies face are predictable and preventable
During the webinar polls and audience Q&A, many of the challenges that appeared repeatedly were not caused by LCA complexity itself:
- Unclear responsibilities between teams.
- Slow internal processes.
- Resource constraints.
- Lack of internal guidance on data collection.
- Inconsistent internal reporting formats.
The panel noted that these issues mainly stem from missing structures and governance rather than the technical difficulty of LCA.
Key takeaway:
- Many LCA pain points disappear when you build clear processes, aligned assumptions, standardized reporting, and cross-functional ownership.
8. LCA expectations in 2026 are increasing, and companies need to prepare
Towards the end of the discussion, we asked our panelists to reflect on how LCAs are evolving as we move into 2026.
The consensus was clear: LCA is shifting from a specialist exercise to a core part of sustainability strategy, driven by regulation, customer expectations, and internal decision-making.
Several trends already shaping LCA practice today include:
- Increased regulatory pressure ahead of 2026, including CSRD, eco-design rules, and product transparency requirements.
- Higher expectations for primary supplier data over generic averages.
- Greater scrutiny of assumptions, system boundaries, and methodological choices.
- LCA playing a more direct role in product strategy, innovation, and decarbonization planning.
These shifts signal a fundamental change in how LCAs are used across organizations.
Key takeaway:
- Companies that invest now in systems, training, and supplier engagement will be better prepared for 2026 and beyond, and able to turn LCAs into a strategic advantage rather than a compliance burden.
Conclusion: LCA success is earned through process, not shortcuts
What this webinar really highlighted is that to be successful with your LCAs, you really need to forget about doing everything at once!
Starting small, and being structured, consistent, and process-driven are the keys to a quality LCA. As when you focus on building repeatable systems around data, assumptions, stakeholder alignment, and governance, LCA work becomes far more manageable and predictable.
Of course, if you want to make sure you get everything right from the beginning, you can always bring someone like Nico on board to guide your LCAs from start to finish.
Reach out today, and we can connect you with either him, or another of our experienced LCA experts within 48 hours.
Allowing you to confidently use LCAs to drive impact, strategy, and transparency in 2026 and beyond.
