Overview
ISO 14072:2024 - Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - Requirements and guidance for organizational life cycle assessment provides standardized requirements and practical guidance to apply life cycle assessment (LCA) methods at the organizational level (OLCA). Published as the first edition in 2024, ISO 14072 extends ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 principles to assess an organization’s inputs, outputs and potential environmental impacts across its full life cycle, including upstream and downstream supply chains. It replaces ISO/TS 14072:2014 and is applicable to any organization, for a defined time period, or to selected segments when justified.
Key technical topics and requirements
- Goal and scope definition: Define clear objectives, intended application (e.g., performance tracking), audience and a statement that results are not for public comparative assertions.
- Reporting unit: The reporting unit replaces the product functional unit for OLCA and must be transparently defined and justified.
- System boundary: Requirements to set cradle-to-grave, cradle-to-gate or other boundaries; all inclusions/exclusions must be disclosed and justified.
- Life cycle inventory (LCI) and life cycle impact assessment (LCIA): Specific considerations for collecting organization-level inventory data, modeling multiple product life cycles, and addressing burden shifting across the value chain.
- Consolidation methodology: Options for organizational boundaries-operational control, financial control, or equity share-and guidance on selecting the appropriate approach.
- Performance tracking: Methods to compare organizational performance over time using consistent reporting units and quantified tolerances.
- Reporting and limitations: Requirements for transparent reporting, with explicit limitations on environmental declarations and comparative assertions intended for public disclosure.
- Normative and informative annexes: Includes Annex A–F covering ISO 14044 applicability, reporting requirements, example OLCA applications, inventory procedures, converting financial to physical flows, and allocation rules.
Practical applications and benefits
- Supports sustainability and environmental management by quantifying an organization’s environmental footprint across operations and supply chains.
- Enables strategic decision-making, prioritization of mitigation actions, and identification of burden shifting due to outsourcing or supply-chain changes.
- Useful for performance tracking, corporate reporting (within stated limits), supplier engagement and internal improvement programs.
- Improves transparency and control of upstream/downstream impacts, aiding supply-chain risk management.
- LCA practitioners and environmental consultants
- Corporate sustainability and EHS managers
- Life cycle inventory analysts and LCIA specialists
- Supply-chain and procurement teams seeking environmental insight
- Regulators and auditors requiring consistent OLCA methodology
Related standards
Keywords: ISO 14072, organizational life cycle assessment, OLCA, life cycle assessment, LCA, ISO 14040, ISO 14044, LCI, LCIA, reporting unit, system boundary, performance tracking.