Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a systematic approach used to evaluate the environmental impact of a product throughout its entire life cycle – from raw material extraction  to final disposal South Africa recently became one of the first 

countries to mandate LCA as a requirement under its Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Regulations (DFFE, 2020). These regulations require producers in six sectors to conduct LCA studies on their products, with the goal of minimising material use; redesigning products for reuse, recycling or recovery; and reducing the environmental toxicity of post-consumer waste stream (DFFE, 2020).

Given South Africa’s limited capacity for LCA and the relatively small number of LCAs conducted to date, this policy requirement is expected to become a strong driver for the increased application and uptake of LCA. “The introduction of LCA as a legal requirement in South Africa has caught many industries off guard and is considered a bold move by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE),” says CSIR senior engineer, Dr Valentina Russo.

The CSIR Sustainability, Economics and Waste (SEW) Research Group, with its substantial expertise in LCA, has recognised the need to empower producers to navigate the LCA landscape. With funding from the Department of Science and Innovation and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition through the National Cleaner Production Centre, the team developed a set of guidelines for conducting LCA studies in South Africa.

The CSIR LCA Guidelines provide a step-by-step procedural approach to evaluate the environmental impacts of a product throughout its entire life cycle – from raw material extraction to production, use and end-of-life, including circular practices and final disposal. Available for free, the CSIR LCA Guidelines can help businesses comply with environmental policy requirements in South Africa – a game-changing move as the country becomes the first to enact such a requirement.

Officially launched in November 2024, the CSIR LCA Guideline series is a brainchild of the CSIR. Its serves as a tool providing technical guidance on how to conduct LCA studies within the South African context, ensuring that these studies meet the requirements of the Extended Producer Responsibility regulations. The intention is to provide a standardised set of recommendations regarding the various methodological choices to be made when conducting an LCA study. This ensures that LCA studies IN South Africa are performed in a manner that ensures relevance, consistency, completeness, comparability and transparency. Dr Russo says the CSIR LCA Guidelines are comprehensive: “LCA studies can be done on any product, but the ideal is to have one common methodology to follow to ensure consistency across studies conducted in South Africa.”

The two-year process of compiling the guidelines involved working closely with multiple entities and proved to be a valuable learning experience for the team, which has recently been in contact with the United Nations Environment Programme’s Life Cycle Initiative to review, provide feedback and endorse the guidelines.

“We adopted a participatory approach to compile the guidelines, leading extensive stakeholder engagement workshops with LCA experts and relevant industry and government stakeholders. We also spent time understanding the challenges faced by those affected by the EPR regulations. The aim is for the DFFE to recommend the guidelines as the preferred tool for conducting LCA studies in South Africa, ultimately ensuring greater circularity of products and materials in the long term,” says Russo.

“Creating awareness of the impact that products will have on the environment throughout their entire life cycle is critical,” Russo emphasises. She also points out that eco-labelling, which indicates product’s environmental friendliness, is gaining popularity among consumers who want to choose items with a lower environmental impact. However, such eco-labels must be informed by rigorous LCA studies to avoid misinformation and ‘green-washing’.  

The full guideline series can be accessed at https://bit.ly/CSIR-LCA-guidelines. Guideline one (https://bit.ly/LCA-Guideline-1) provides best practice for undertaking LCA studies; while Guidelines two to four provide additional information.