Want to start with LCA documentation itself? The guide explains what a life cycle assessment means for a product, and how you get started. If you were looking for building LCA or expert tools such as LCAbyg, SimaPro or OpenLCA, read the difference first.
LCAB was made so work on life cycle assessment and product documentation feels more manageable and less messy.
You get a shared language for materials, suppliers and documentation. Teams can keep going, also when sustainability requirements start to matter.
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ESG is a way to assess how responsible a company is. E is environment: CO2, energy, waste, materials, and climate impact. S is people and supply chains. G is governance, controls, and documentation. ESG is not a law by itself. It is a set of questions that customers, investors, and partners increasingly ask. If a company says it is sustainable, the natural next question is: Can you prove it with data? That is where structured product data becomes essential.
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CSRD is EU legislation requiring large companies to document sustainability claims instead of only describing them in polished language. When a large customer must report, the demand often reaches down the value chain. Small and medium-sized companies are asked for CO2, materials, origin, and documentation, even when the law does not hit them directly. The pressure comes through customers. LCAB matters here because it helps the smaller company answer properly and reuse those answers the next time the question appears.
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EU 2024/1781, also called ESPR, is about the products themselves. The vision is that you can scan a product and see materials, origin, environmental impact, repair options, and recycling. That is called a Digital Product Passport. For many companies it means a shift: From scattered files to a structure they can stand behind. LCAB is built as a system that helps gather, understand, and document exactly the kind of product data that ESG, CSRD, and ESPR gradually make more necessary.
ESG
The questions about accountability.
CSRD
The reporting requirement that creates supplier pressure.
ESPR
The product requirements and the product passport.
LCAB helps with the practical middle layer: gathering data, documenting the work, and being ready when the questions come.
The platform is more than a calculator. Below you can read what the key features do, when they are used, and why they exist. Start with Integration if your data already lives in Excel or documents. The goal is to make the path from product idea to documentation manageable for teams without a dedicated sustainability department.
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On suppliers, materials, new product, and in the wizard you click Integration, choose a system via the icons (for example Excel), pick the file, and press Extract data. LCAB suggests column mapping: Supplier Name → Supplier name, Steel → Material, Weight → Weight, Country → Country of origin. You approve, and next time LCAB remembers the setup. For a new product, Excel can fill fields while wizard sections that still need data are marked. The integrations hub also shows upcoming connections to ERP (Business Central, Odoo, e-conomic, SAP, and more), PIM, PLM, CAD, supplier portal, EPD, Ecoinvent, OpenLCA, Power BI, and REST API.
Used when data already lives in Excel, CSV, or documents, and you want to avoid manual entry.
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In LCAB you create a product and work through a guided wizard that follows the logic of ISO 14040 and ISO 14044: goal and scope, inventory, impact assessment, and interpretation. Along the way you get explanations in business language, so you do not have to start in the full standard text. After data extraction, the wizard highlights which sections still need completion before you move on to reporting or compliance checks.
Used when you need to create a product and complete a life cycle assessment step by step.
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When data is in place, you can generate reports in several formats. A full ISO 14044 report suits a more complete assessment. An EPD-oriented report supports documentation in the style of environmental product declarations. A carbon footprint per ISO 14067 focuses on climate impact. With at least two scenarios, you can work with comparative flows. Each issuance gets a document ID so the recipient can verify that the document comes from LCAB.
Used when results must be shared with customers, buyers, leadership, or for internal decisions.
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Instead of entering the same material again and again in new spreadsheets, you gather materials in a library, or import them via Integration. There you can register name, origin, and available environmental data, and reuse entries across products. That saves time, reduces errors, and makes it easier to keep data updated when a supplier changes the specification.
Used to create one shared truth about materials across products.
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Supplier cards make it possible to keep track of country, certifications, linked materials, and documents. Via Integration → Excel → Extract data you can import whole lists at once. When a customer asks where a part comes from, the answer does not have to be dug out of the inbox. That is a practical foundation for traceability and for answering quickly under supplier pressure from CSRD-related customer demands.
Used to gather supplier data that otherwise lives in emails, folders, and single files.
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Certificates, tests, EPD files, REACH or CE documentation, and supplier sheets can be gathered in one place and linked to product, material, or supplier. That means documentation is ready for audit, customer requests, or internal quality control, without needing to remember which folder held the latest version.
Used for all product documentation, not only LCA reports.
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Compliance score and checklists help you follow ISO-related points, readiness for EPD or carbon footprint, and readiness for a digital product passport. The goal is not to promise certification. The goal is to make gaps visible in time, so you can prioritize next steps calmly before a customer or auditor asks.
Used to see how far you are, and what is still missing.
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In LCAB you can work with passport readiness, publishing, and the public side of the product. It is about gathering the information a Digital Product Passport typically concerns: product identity, materials, environmental data, and traceability. That way the passport becomes a natural next step from data you are already structuring.
Used to prepare product data for future passport requirements under ESPR.
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The traceability view makes relations visible. It is useful when new colleagues need to learn a product, when you must explain the value chain to a customer, or when you yourself need to check whether documentation actually covers what you think it covers. The product story no longer has to live in one persons head.
Used to understand how product, materials, suppliers, documents, and LCA connect.
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When you issue a report, a document ID follows. The recipient can look up the ID and see the issued version. That builds trust in dialogue with customers and partners, because you are not only sending a PDF, but also a verifiable reference to the official document.
Used when a recipient needs to check that an LCAB document is genuine.
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LCAB supports organization, roles, and product sharing so work can be distributed. That matches reality in many SMEs, where sustainability is not one persons full-time job, but a shared responsibility across product, purchasing, quality, and leadership.
Used when several people in the company work on the same products.
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First steps into sustainability documentation, needing a clear start.
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Must meet customer requirements and pass data further in the value chain.
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Manage multiple projects and need structure and reuse of data.
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Seek better consistency, traceability, and one shared place for product data.
Whether you are doing your first or your hundredth assessment, the ambition is to make the work clearer and more confident.
LCAB is developed and maintained by Windfeld Jensen Co., a software company built around a simple belief: Technology should make work easier.
The company was founded on the idea that software should adapt to people and workflows, not the other way around. The same philosophy guides every part of LCAB.
We build software for the people who do the work. Sustainability is not only about data. It is about the people responsible for collecting, documenting, understanding, and acting on it.
Read more about Windfeld Jensen Co. here: www.windfeldjensen.com
Our mission
Our mission is simple: to make life cycle assessment and product documentation workable, clearer and less frustrating.
We want organizations of all sizes to feel confident when working with sustainability data, environmental documentation, and life cycle assessment.
Sustainability documentation should not only be for those with the largest budgets or the largest teams. It should be possible for SMEs willing to start. LCAB exists to make that start more manageable.
Next step
Book a walkthrough. We look at your bill of materials and files and show how they land in LCAB.
No commitment. You can start with the demo if you want to see the system first.
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