Evaluate and reduce environmental impacts with life cycle analysis

Published on 4/4/2025

To meet today's environmental challenges, it is essential to measure and assess impact throughout the value chain. For companies, LCA (Life cycle analysis) is an effective and recognized tool.

A strategic tool

LCA is a multi-criteria method based on all the stages in the life cycle of a product or activity, in order to measure its impacts and implement coherent action plans.

It consists of 16 impact indicators on air, water, toxicity, resources and soil.

Carrying out an LCA is not mandatory for companies and is therefore entirely voluntary.

LCA of the SILAB activity

Since 2016, SILAB has been committed to carrying out the LCA of its activity on scopes 1, 2 and 3. This analysis therefore assesses the impact of SILAB's activity on the environment, from the sourcing of raw materials to the delivery of the active ingredients to customers.

It is conducted using a tool developed by an environmental strategy consultancy specializing in LCA. This tool is compliant with the GHG Protocol (GreenHouse Gas Protocol).

Regarding the "Climate change" indicator, here are SILAB's results for the year 2024:

Scopes	Share of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
Scope 1 (Gas consumption)	17%
Scope 2 (Electricity consumption)	0%
Scope 3 (All other emissions)	83%

SILAB purchases renewable electricity, so its GHG emissions are considered zero for Scope 2. The main categories contributing to Scope 3 GHG emissions are purchasing, upstream and downstream transport, and equipment goods.

The total amount of GHG emissions for scopes 1, 2 and 3 has been verified by a third party since 2021. 

Reducing SILAB's impact

Based on the results of the LCA of its activity and in line with its objectives set within the framework of the Science Based Targets (SBTi) initiative, SILAB is implementing impact reduction action plans.

The objectives for 2030 are to reduce GHG emissions from scopes 1 and 2 by 30% compared with 2018, and to measure and reduce emissions from scope 3.

Scopes	2018	2024
Scope 1 (Gas consumption)	1.533 TCO₂ eq	1.853 TCO₂ eq
Scope 2 (Electricity consumption)	0 TCO₂ eq	0 TCO₂ eq

Since 2018, SILAB has implemented an effective energy reduction plan through rigorous monitoring of its consumption and an ambitious energy recovery project. The company's gas consumption has nevertheless risen as a result of site development and increased production activity. As a result, absolute CO₂ emissions have also increased.

In order to meet its SBTi objective, the company is pursuing its action plans and gradually committing to renewable energies to reduce its Scope 1 emissions.

LCA of SILAB active ingredients

SILAB also wishes to assess the environmental impact of its active ingredients. The LCA of its activity provides an average figure. For the climate change indicator, the impact is 13.9 kgCO₂e/kg SILAB liquid equivalent active ingredient in 2024.

In order to go even further, SILAB now wishes to progressively carry out LCAs on its active ingredients. It is therefore devoted to a program of action and dedicated resources. This will enable us to gain a better understanding of the environmental impact of raw materials and processes, to meet a dual objective:

to implement action plans for existing natural cosmetic active ingredients to reduce their impact;
to use LCA, combined with other projects, as an eco-innovation tool for the development of new products.

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