Q&A - Prepare for CSRD with LCA
Here we have collected the answers to some questions that were not all answered in our webinar on January 27th 2023 because of time constraints.
Q: Is ESG a good base to start with before moving to CSRD?
A: Yes, but make sure you are leaning on standards such as e.g ISO26000
Q: How will the digital tagging system work for developing and publishing non-financial reports under the CSRD?
A: There will be technical solutions in place to tag which part of your report refer to which reporting requirements. Similar solutions are in place at least in Financial reporting already.
Q: What does double materiality mean?
A: It means you need to assess 1. How does your activity affect the environment and 2. How do changes in the environment impact your business.
Q: Is there any guide where to find instructions and steps to follow for the elaboration of the Double materiality assessment?
A: ISO26000 and its self-declaration SIS/TS2:2021, https://www.sis.se/produkter/ledningssystem-e07b0fe8/socialt-ansvarstagande/sists-22021/
Q: When are the final formats of the ESRS expected to be published? The Taxonomy criteria for the other 4 objectives has been delayed for some time now..
A: Expected time for the final format (for the first standards) are in june 2023
Q: Are the accredited companies directly responsible for results delivered?
A: Yes, take a look at www.verifyagency.com
Q: So the DNK (German Sustainability Codex) will be good because there you can choos to report with the STandard GRI right?
A: Yes, I (Eva) believe so
Q: What are Eva's thoughts about updated GRI 2021?
A: GRI definitely gives you a good start
Q: How do we report on CSRDcompany wide, not product by product?
A: CSRD reports on company wide
Q: I am slightly confused.. LCA is mostly connected to product emission, CSRD is about company level emission, where LCA is not applicable.
A: I (Greg) would stress two points: 1. LCA can be done at the level of organizations as well as the level of products (""Organizational LCA"") and 2. what you need from your suppliers is generally product (and service) level LCAs for the products and services that they supply to you. You might also be interested to check out the Organizational companion to the PEF: it is called the Organizational Environmental Footprint, OEF. It is a European framework for doing Organizational LCA.
Q: What tool can be used for conducting an Organisational LCA?
A: The same tools - and data! - that you use for product LCA can be used for Organizational LCA as well. I recommend Earthster! earthster.org. it's free to start using, and highly accessible. also promotes collaboration, and collection of data in your supply chains
Q: Haven't worked with ISO 26000 yet, any suggestions?
A: Start with downloading the standard and take a look at the self-declaration questions on our homepage: https://verifyagency.com/iso26000/
Q: Does the LCA reflects the impact of the overproduction comparing to real market demand?
A: Interesting question. If you have data on production that is in excess, you can definitely use LCA to assess the impacts of this overproduction.
Q: @Greg: As far as I know, especially Biodiversity impacts are not yet integrated in LCA because consensus models are lacking. Only proxies like ecotox are available. How would you then utilize LCA to address Biodiversity in CSRD?
A: My assessment is that indeed, biodiversity impacts are addressed already in LCA, including several pathways: land use (change and occupation), pollution (several subcategories including eutrophication and ecotoxicity) and of course climate change. Yes, the science continues to advance and to enrich the LCI data and LCIA methods as well.
Q: How is INDUSTRIAL UPCYCLING metodology rated in LCA?
A: Several methods in LCA give a product (or organization) life cycle credit for ""avoided production"" that results from upcycling.
Q: From a very practical point of view.. how do you get started with an LCA? What are the exact first steps?
A: One good way is to hire an intern through the Environmental impacts Academy LCA program, or have one of your employees participate. You will get an LCA done, have a person with up to date training and experience of conducting at least one LCA. Also, your whole orgnaization will have access to the Earthster LCA software during the program and be able to see reults in a very visual end easily understandable way.
If you want to study on your own, you can read the textbook that we use in the training, which is available to download free of charge.
One more thing you can do is get to know the Earthster software, you can try it free of chare at earthster.org
Q: I really would like the link to the LCA book they talked about!
Q: What are your suggestions on how to use LCA data if you are an SME with e.g. 250 different products?
A: 1. Start with an LCA for your biggest, most important product. Quite often products will be similar, so a lot of the modeling done on one LCA can be copied to others. 2. start with an Organizational LCA and then move from that to making LCA's for some of your products.
Q: Why so much time is wasted in preparing standards that are not followed?
A: We expect that following CSRD standards will be enforced and there will be sanctions for companies that don't. Time will tell of course if that will be the case.
Q: Should we wait for standards and first analyze our impacts, or start improving our impacts on the environment.
A: Don't wait for it. It is best to start now, that work will certainly not be lost work.
Q: Is there any specialized to waste tool for LCA?
A: Waste management needs to be addressed as part of the full life cycle, to make sure we don't improve end of life at the expense of other life cycle stages. Waste management is included in a complete LCA.
Q: Our parent company is in Japan, but we have a European headquarters. Do we have to prepare our own CSRD report in Germany Headcuarter, or is the report prepared by the headquarters in Europe sufficient?
A: It's still a bit uncertain. The EU are not yet specific about technicalities yet.
Q: What do you think about social impact assessments? Do you think it will be regulations for that to? And are they necessary for LCA?
A: In this webinar we focused on the Environmental part of CSRD requirements. There are ESRS standards about social impacts too. There is also something called Social LCA but that is not in the scope of Environmental Impacts Academy.
Q: Which companies will be able to audit the data for CSRD? Will they still be accredited or there are already accreditors?
A: Companies that are accredited for verifying/auditing companies Sustainability reporting. According to EU thay have to be accredited to avoid the risk of fraud, manipulated data etc.
Q: Thoughts about "greenwashing". With this upcoming Dicrective and all connected standards that will follow for reporting I can forsee a risk of different countries interpretation when it comes to local legislation, can potentially undermine the whole intention of the initiative? Any thoughts on this topic?
A: The EU tries to hinder Greenwashin and Fraud and to increase transparency. Reports need to be audited by an accredited third party, which is an attempt to tackle that issue.
Q: Can you please share a link to the self assessment site?
A: https://verifyagency.com/iso26000/
Q: Usually waste management LCI options are not very robust (not very well modelled)
A: Science evolves and more data & better modeling becomes available as more studies are being done. If waste management is at the core of your business or very significant for your business/product, then primary data about those impacts should be used if possible, instead of using databases.
Q: The reason why INDUSTRY 5.0 was launched on December 1, 2015 was to create the WASTELESS WORLD. What is the reason for creation of LCA and new STANDARDS?
A: Waste always has environmental impacts, which will be shown in an LCA as waste management or end of life processes.
Q: Can you give some concrete examples of how LCAs will help to collect information, on which specific parts of ESRS and how?
A: It will be on the Environmental standards (5 standards)
Q: When considering end-of-lfe materials and associated waste management processes (e.g. recycling), where does the life cycle stop?
A: There are many ways that recycling can e treated in LCA. In the commonly used "cut-off" method, the benefits of using recycled vs. virgin materials are shown in the system that consumes that material. Environmental impacts of the recycling process are however included. The benefit of sending material to recycling as opposed to waste, is that impacts of waste management does not burden the system that send waste to recycling
Q: For a company of a small size, not even having reported according to GRI, would you recommend trying to report according to GRI/use GRI Indicators as a first step towards CSRD?
A: No, GRI is quite comprehensive. I would recommend you to start with ISO26000 and it's self-declaration, https://verifyagency.com/iso26000/
Q: Avoiding Greenwashing needs to also look at how LCA metrics are communicated ... you need to reference the analysis and peer reviewed report and it should be geography specific. A bit more involved than just referencing an LCA study.
A: According to the ISO14040/ISO14044 standards, an LCA report has to be critically reviewed by a third party before it is communicated to the public. Still it is true that LCA just like any other method can be misused and results miscommunicated. We hosted a webinar about Greenwashing in December 2022. The recording is available on our web page https://www.environmentalacademy.org/events
Q: Where can we connect with Gregory and with Eva ?
A: On Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/eva-vati/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregoryanorris/
Q: How can my business get started with doing Environmental Life Cycle Assessment?
A: Hire an intern from the Environmental Impacts Academy LCA internship program. More information: https://www.environmentalacademy.org/lca-starter