Product Carbon Footprint vs Life Cycle Assessment: what’s the real difference?

Key takeaways

• PCF is fast and focused on climate, ideal for Scope 3 and labels

• LCA is holistic, essential for avoiding trade-offs and meeting regulation

• The EU Green Claims Directive and CSRD are making LCA the new standard

• Tools like Devera use AI to make both approaches efficient and affordable

• The best sustainability strategies combine PCF and LCA, depending on use case

Climate impact, transparency, regulation. These aren’t buzzwords anymore, they’re real business requirements. As brands face pressure to back up sustainability claims, terms like Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) are becoming more familiar. But they’re not interchangeable, and understanding how they differ is key to building credible, actionable strategies.

In this article, we break down PCF and LCA, explain when to use each, and explore how platforms like Devera are making them easier, faster and more affordable than ever.

What is a Product Carbon Footprint (PCF)?

A Product Carbon Footprint measures the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with a product, expressed in kilograms of CO₂ equivalent. The footprint typically includes emissions from raw materials, manufacturing, packaging, transport, usage and disposal, depending on how the boundaries are set, often called cradle-to-gate or cradle-to-grave.

The standard methods behind PCF are well established, including ISO 14067, PAS 2050 and the GHG Protocol Product Standard. These frameworks help ensure that carbon claims are measurable, consistent and auditable.

What is a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)?

Life Cycle Assessment, or LCA, is a more comprehensive evaluation. It includes carbon emissions but goes beyond them to assess a wide range of environmental impacts, such as:

• Water use

• Human toxicity

• Ozone depletion

• Eutrophication

• Resource depletion
  
  

LCA studies are guided by ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, which define how to structure the analysis, assess data quality and interpret results.

Unlike PCF, which looks at a single impact, LCA covers 10 to 20 categories, giving companies a complete picture of their product’s environmental profile.

Product Carbon Footprint vs Life Cycle Assessment: side-by-side

PCF is perfect for quick benchmarking or making carbon-neutral claims. But it may hide trade-offs, such as reducing CO₂ while increasing water or toxicity impacts, what’s known as burden shifting. That’s where a full LCA is essential.

Why this matters now

Two regulatory forces are making PCF and LCA non-negotiable: New EU rules are turning sustainability from a nice-to-have into a must-do:

1. The EU Green Claims Directive will require companies to back any public sustainability claim with scientific evidence, ideally from an LCA study.
   
   
   

2. The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) mandates Scope 3 emissions disclosure for thousands of companies, pushing demand for product-level footprint data.
   
   
   

These changes mean sustainability teams can no longer rely on general assumptions or vague percentages. They need actual data and fast.

So, when do you use each?

Here’s a simple decision tree:

• Want to track your product’s carbon intensity, report Scope 3 emissions, or create a basic environmental label? → Go with a Product Carbon Footprint.

  
  

• Need to inform design decisions, support claims under EU law or prevent impact trade-offs? → You’ll need a full Life Cycle Assessment.
  
  
  

Most brands start with PCF across their portfolio and go deeper with LCA for their bestsellers, regulated categories or high-impact products.

Making PCF and LCA easier with AI

Doing all this manually takes time, money and a lot of internal coordination. That’s where tools like Devera come in.

Devera automates data collection and environmental assessment by:

• Scraping public product pages

• Extracting data from documents, images and certificates

• Building a dynamic sandbox with standard life cycle data

• Injecting emission factors from gold-standard sources like Ecoinvent and OpenLCA

The result is a fast, reliable PCF or full LCA that meets ISO standards, without waiting months or paying for consultancy. You can also integrate the footprint directly into your e-commerce with Devera’s sustainability widget.

What this looks like in practice

Let’s say you’re developing a new skincare product. With Devera, you can:

• Simulate the product’s footprint pre-launch, to design smarter

• Compare its carbon score with market benchmarks

• Display an eco-score and impact badge on your product page

• Update automatically each year as emission factors evolve
  
  

This turns sustainability into a competitive edge, not just a compliance task. 

Ready to turn sustainability into a competitive edge?

Discover how Devera can help you calculate, display and improve your product footprint faster and smarter. Visit devera.ai

FAQs

Is a Product Carbon Footprint enough to meet EU regulations?
Not always. If you’re making general environmental claims, the EU Green Claims Directive will likely require an LCA-based assessment.

Can I start with PCF and scale to LCA later?
Absolutely. Many companies use PCF for initial visibility, then select key products to run full LCAs.

What’s the best software to run these assessments?
Common tools include OpenLCA, SimaPro and Brightway. Devera integrates these databases through an AI layer to automate the entire process.

How long does it take to get a footprint using Devera?
Depending on your setup, you can get verified PCFs or LCAs in a matter of days, not months.

Learn more

To explore how Devera can help you calculate and communicate your product’s footprint with confidence, visit devera.ai or see a sample product page.

Want help choosing between PCF and LCA for your product portfolio? Get in touch — we’ll help you decode your footprint so you can decide what matters most, and decarbonize effectively.