LCA–what’s that?

LCA stands for: lifecycle assessment. This is a new tool that Kraft Foods has started using to measure its footprint on every step it takes to make a product, deliver it and consume it.

How you ask?

The LCA is based on the multi-year footprinting project Kraft Foods recently used to map its impact on climate change, land and water use. With help of LCA, the company can measure how product and packaging innovations improve on previous designs.

An example, given by Kraft, of utilizing LCA in the United States is their “YES” Pack salad dressing.  The Kraft YES Pack salad dressing team used LCA to prove their design has a reduced environmental impact, because they used 60 percent less plastic packaging than the previous container.

Kraft believes that LCA is a key component in their sustainability journey. Roger Zellner, Sustainability Director for Research, Development & Quality says, “It gives us a competitive advantage, as we now have more insight into how to reduce our products’ footprints, find efficiencies and validate and explain those benefits to customers and consumers. Together, we’re focusing and working smarter and communicating better, which is good for the environment, people and our business.” (Source)