Your company has invested time and resources in a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
The report is complete, rigorous, and compliant with standards, but it often remains confined to a technical document, read by few people and rarely fully leveraged.

Overly technical language, lack of adapted communication materials, difficulty contextualizing figures, or concerns about miscommunication: these are all barriers that prevent stakeholders from fully appropriating the results. And what is the value of your LCA results if they are not understood by your stakeholders? 

An LCA is not an end in itself. It is a decision-support tool, an environmental management instrument, and a communication tool. However, it is necessary to know how to translate it, to whom it should be presented, and in what format, without distorting the results or taking regulatory risks. 

This is where simplified communication becomes strategic. In this article, we will cover the three key aspects of effective simplified communication.

Understanding your LCA results 

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In order to communicate effectively, it is first necessary to understand the available indicators and what they represent. The objective is to select the most relevant ones according to the activity, the dominant impacts identified in the LCA, and the target audience. Selecting the right indicators is not only a matter of pedagogy: it is also an efficiency issue. Focusing on the dominant impacts helps avoid dispersion, prioritize high-impact actions, and more quickly support operational and strategic decision-making.

The visual below provides an explanation of the impact indicators from the European impact assessment method EF3.1, as well as contexts for highlighting the results.

Adapting communication to the target audience and to the objective. 

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Effective LCA communication is based on a key principle: the message must be adapted to the target audience. The substance may remain the same, but the format, level of detail, and messaging must be adjusted to the intended objective. The same LCA can and should give rise to multiple messages, consistent with one another, but designed for different uses and audiences.

Adapting LCA communication to different audiences is not only about improving explanation: it helps align teams, streamline exchanges between functions (technical, marketing, management), and avoid misunderstandings or contradictory interpretations of the results.

Objective: to understand the essentials without generating doubts or time-consuming technical questions, while strengthening the credibility of the environmental approach.

• Key messages, few indicators, simple vocabulary. 

• Contextualisation of figures, analogies, educational visuals. 

Expert audience (consulting firms, engineers, technical partners) 

Objective: to share actionable and credible results.

• Detailed indicators, assumptions, system boundaries, limitations. 
• Methodological and normative references 

Objective: to inform decision-making and demonstrate control over key issues; a genuine management tool enabling leadership to compare scenarios, guide investments, and arbitrate between different improvement levers.

• Overall view, dominant impacts, improvement levers. 
• Limited numerical data, but structured key messages. 

Objective: to contribute to knowledge and ensure reproducibility.

• Full methodology, data, assumptions, uncertainties. 
• Standardised language, bibliographic references. 

Objective: to raise awareness, showcase an approach, and generate interest.

• Short, educational, visual messages 
• Focus on the approach and key insights, not on raw figures 

Avoiding greenwashing when communicating your LCA 

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Greenwashing is a real risk. Inaccurate or insufficiently substantiated environmental communication can undermine a company’s credibility, lead to sanctions, and result in a long-term loss of trust. Simplifying is useful; poor contextualisation is risky.

Regulatory framework to be aware of 

Any communication based on LCA results falls under environmental claims and is therefore strictly regulated in France and in Europe. An environmental message must be clear, precise, based on scientific evidence, and verifiable, otherwise it may be classified as greenwashing. Complying with the regulatory framework for environmental communication is not only a legal requirement: it is also a way to limit reputational and commercial risks, in a context of increased scrutiny and growing stakeholder vigilance.

In practice, a standalone figure has no regulatory value. The regulatory trend is clear: environmental communication must be substantiated, contextualised, and in some cases verified by a third party, regardless of the medium used, including social media. Simplification never exempts methodological rigor. The regulatory framework does not require less communication, but rather better-founded and more transparent communication.

Normative framework to comply with  

International standards govern the communication of environmental results. Indeed, the ISO 14020 series provides an international reference framework for structuring and securing environmental communication. It distinguishes three main types of claims.

• ISO 14020 sets out the general principles applicable to all such communications (transparency, relevance, verifiability). 
• ISO 14024 governs Type I environmental labels, awarded by third-party organisations based on multi-criteria requirements (e.g. ecolabels), ensuring a high level of credibility.
• ISO 14021 covers self-declared environmental claims (Type II), often used in marketing materials (e.g. “recyclable”, “low carbon footprint”), and requires that they be accurate, substantiated, and not misleading.
• Finally, ISO 14025 defines Type III environmental declarations, such as EPDs/DEP, based on verified LCAs and enabling transparent product comparisons.

Relying on these standards not only helps secure communications from a legal standpoint, but also improves their clarity and market acceptance. 

A minimum methodological framework is essential. 

Adapting communication to the audience does not mean removing the LCA methodological framework. Whatever the medium, including LinkedIn or highly simplified content, certain elements must always be disclosed in order to ensure transparency, credibility, and compliance of the communication. 

At a minimum, any communication based on an LCA must specify: 

• the indicator being communicated (for example climate change, water consumption, etc.), including the correct unit (kg CO2-eq ≠ kg CO2) 
• the impact assessment method used (e.g. EF, ReCiPe, EN 15804…) 
• the system boundary (what is included or excluded: cradle to grave, cradle to gate, etc.) 
• the functional unit (what the results are based on: 1 product, 1 kg, 1 year of use, etc.) 

This information can be presented in a simplified form, placed in a footnote, caption, or link, but it must never be omitted, otherwise the message may become ambiguous or misleading.

This framework is essential for:

• éviter toute accusation de greenwashing, 
• avoiding any accusation of greenwashing, 
• ensuring consistency between marketing, institutional, and technical communications. 

Verification: a key lever to address doubts and secure communication 

Having an LCA reviewed before communicating it helps strengthen the credibility of the results, reduce regulatory risks, and build trust among stakeholders. There are several levels and types of verification, to be used depending on the communication objective and the level of exposure of the message. Verification is not a barrier to communication, but a tool for securing and enhancing credibility.

• Critical review according to ISO 14044 

It is the most common form of verification. It consists of an independent review of the methodology, assumptions, data, and the consistency between results and conclusions. It is strongly recommended, and in some cases essential, for external communication. In the case of a comparative study, a panel critical review is required.

A critical review carried out by an independent third party helps secure the messaging, even when the communication is simplified.

• The EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) (DEP in French). 

EPDs are standardized environmental declarations based on LCAs verified by an independent operator. They are particularly suited to industrial sectors (construction, equipment, standardized products) and provide a high level of recognition and comparability.

There are several EPD operators; they may be sector-specific or general.   

• Sector-specific frameworks or dedicated reference systems. 

Some sectors have Product Category Rules (PCR), reference frameworks, or labels that include verification requirements. They facilitate the interpretation of results, their comparison, and their acceptance by the market. 

Communicating better to make better decisions 

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An LCA only has impact if its results are understood, shared, and used. Effective LCA communication is neither about oversimplifying nor overwhelming the message with technical detail: it is about finding the right balance between methodological rigor and clarity, depending on the audience, the objective, and the medium.

At WeLOOP, in addition to conducting LCAs, we support you at every stage of the communication process for your results, with:

• the selection of relevant indicators aligned with your actual challenges, 
• the selection and adaptation of language according to your audiences (experts, non-experts, management, clients, etc.), 
• the clarification and securing of the methodological framework (methods, system boundaries, functional unit), 
• the verification of results, supported by recognised expertise and options for critical review or standardised frameworks (EPD, ISO). 

Our role: to transform your LCA results into reliable messages, that are understandable and defensible, without ever compromising their credibility.

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