Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) – Our contribution to environmental protection
A life cycle assessment (LCA) makes it possible to capture the entire environmental impact of a product – from raw material extraction to disposal. All greenhouse gas emissions are taken into account. This analysis not only serves as a transparent source of information for consumers, but also forms the basis for strategic measures to reduce a company's environmental impact.
For our ROLLTOP 2.0 in black, we wanted to know precisely what environmental impacts would result – and what these would look like if we manufactured it exclusively from virgin plastic, i.e., without recycled materials. To this end, we collaborated with ConClimate GmbH on an analysis according to the ISO 14044 standard.
The study encompassed the entire product life cycle: from the collection of the plastic as part of our clean-up program, through the production of the backpack and its shipping in the case of an online purchase, to its disposal in Germany. Since a backpack does not need to be washed regularly in everyday use, the usage phase could be disregarded.
The impact of a product on global warming is expressed in CO₂ equivalents (CO₂eq) . This value summarizes all climate-relevant gases – such as carbon dioxide and methane – in kilograms. To make the results more transparent, we have divided them into the following categories: production processes, material usage, transport, shipping packaging, and disposal .
Source: LCA study ConClimate GmbH, 2024
Calculations show that the use of Ocean Impact Plastic and other recycled plastics leads to significantly lower material emissions. While emissions during transport and production are slightly higher due to longer supply chains, the overall environmental impact of the ROLLTOP 2.0 is still around 22% lower than that of a comparable backpack without recycled materials. Even though emissions have been reduced, every product still has an environmental impact – which we aim to minimize as much as possible.
To account for further environmental factors, we also considered land and water use as well as marine eutrophication . You can find more information about the various environmental impacts of our backpack here.
What happens next?
Life cycle assessment provides us with a scientific basis for specifically reducing the environmental impact of our products. A comparison with a backpack containing no recycled materials already shows that using recycled materials makes a significant difference. However, as the LCA illustrates, other factors also play a role.
In the next steps, we will therefore focus primarily on optimizing production processes and energy use in our manufacturing facilities – in order to further reduce our ecological footprint.