The stages of a product's life cycle

Once the product life cycle of a product has been precisely determined, a crucial step remains: a thorough analysis. This vital process is known as Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA).  Born and formalized in the 1990s amidst growing ecological and climate concerns, this approach has become the predominant method for evaluating the environmental impacts associated with the production of products, goods, and services.  Understanding the product life cycle is key for any business aiming to meet customer needs responsibly. 

As defined by the ADEME, an LCA "categorizes and quantifies, throughout the entire life span of a product, the physical flows of materials and energy linked to human activities."  

Essentially, the goal is to comprehensively track the environmental impact of a product – from its inception to its ultimate disposal, encompassing the entire journey from "cradle to grave." This "cradle to grave" analysis examines both the inputs and outputs associated with the product.  Inflows include the consumption of resources like water, oil, gas, wood, ores, and electricity, all necessary for the product's creation. Outflows, conversely, include the release of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, liquid discharges, synthetic materials, and harmful substances, all potential consequences of the product's existence. 

The LCA serves as a valuable tool for decision-making by key players in various production sectors.  The results of an LCA inform and enable the implementation of measures aimed at mitigating or eliminating the negative environmental impacts stemming from their activities.  Once these primary environmental pressures are identified, a range of solutions can be explored, including decarbonizing the goods transport plan, redesigning the product to enhance its repairability or recyclability (through eco-design principles), increasing the use of renewable energy sources in production facilities and warehouses, and exploring alternative materials.  

Furthermore, while initially conceived for purely environmental considerations, life-cycle assessment is increasingly being applied to other significant pillars of sustainable development, namely social and economic factors.  This expanded approach aims to evaluate the impacts of a product throughout its time on the market, using qualitative criteria such as working conditions and the health and safety of both workers and customers; the quality and sustainability of jobs created; the actual use of the product and its perceived value for money; and the fairness of compensation associated with its production, transport, and sale.  

Understanding the product's journey through its life cycle, including potential periods of decline after reaching maturity in the market, is essential for long-term business success.

Life-cycle assessment is a codified and standardised approach. The method is regulated by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
It is rolled out in four phases:

1. Goal and scope.
The aim is normally to choose what specialists call the 'functional unit' (FU), a sort of benchmark enabling comparisons of products and their impacts. It relies, in particular, on three criteria: the life span of the product, the quantity consumed and the frequency of consumption. An example of a functional unit: the monthly consumption of bottled water by 1,000 people; or the use of a pair of trainers once a week for two years.

2. Inventory analysis.
This consists in listing and quantifying all inflows and outflows of materials and energy, throughout the life cycle of a product. Inventories require sound and ample databases.

3. Impact assessment.
This is where the environmental and social effects of the flows inventoried in the previous stage are measured. This lies at the heart of the analysis, which reveals the most important impacts, which must be addressed as a priority. For an idea of the impacts that the LCA will assess, we can use the list prepared by the European Commission.

This list includes 14 main categories of impacts:
- climate change,
- ozone depletion,
- ecotoxicity, freshwater,
- human toxicity, cancer,
- human toxicity, non-cancer,
- respiratory effects of gaseous and particulate inorganic compounds,
- ionising radiation,
- photo-oxidant formation,
- acidification,
- land eutrophication,
- water eutrophication,
- water use,
- use of mineral and fossil resources,
- land use.

4. Interpretation.
During this fourth and final phase, the quality of the results is assessed and conclusions are drawn from the data collected during the various stages. The goal: to develop solutions to reduce impacts and streamline the life cycle of the product in question from an economic perspective.

As you can see, life-cycle assessment follows a clear and standardised procedure. Consequently, companies use sophisticated databases and software tools. These include, for example, OpenLCA, GaBi and SimaPro. Some public institutions also provide open-access tools, like the Environment and Energy Control Agency (ADEME) or the European Commission.

Decathlon has been working on its products' environmental assessment since 2009. It is an approach that lets us analyse the full life cycle from the extraction of raw materials to their  end of life. To ensure an optimal calculation, it is vital to have an effective tool, reliable calculation rules and representative databases. Once calculated, the indicators are there to identify the phases of the life cycle and the most impactful components. Using such data, product designers and buyers can choose the best materials, processes and suppliers.

It is essential, for this reasons, to conduct an environmental assessment of all DECATHLON and other brand products sold by the group: this is now the case for over 50% of the company's models representing 97% of its turnover.

Since 2021, DECATHLON has employed a specialised and internal digital solution for its environmental assessments. It uses a reference database based on the  Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) method developed under the supervision of the European Commission. . This tool gives a reliable and comparable score by standardising and weighting sixteen categories of impacts (climate change, use of water resources, fine particle emissions, etc.).

Thus, the calculations of the impacts of DECATHLON products are now aligned with the most advanced life-cycle assessment method in Europe.