Life Cycle Services

What is our environmental footprint and how can we most effectively reduce it?  Franklin Associates, a division of ERG, a division of ERG, specializes in life cycle research and life cycle assessment (LCA) to help clients answer these questions and improve the sustainability of their products, services, and systems. We pioneered the life cycle inventory (LCI) concept over 40 years ago and have stood at the forefront of this science ever since. Our experts have conducted hundreds of life cycle studies for public and private sector organizations. Based on this experience, we have accumulated an extensive private LCI database for North America, have contributed to the U.S. LCI Database since its inception, and support several federal agencies as a part of the Federal LCA Commons. These public and private databases contain information on the energy and material flows into and out of the environment for commonly used materials, products, and processes. They serve as key resources as we conduct state-of-the-art life cycle research and assessments for our clients.

Life Cycle Data Development
  • Data gathering
  • Tailored data collection forms
  • Literature surveys
  • Secondary data evaluation
  • Telephone surveys
Life Cycle Inventory and Life Cycle Assessment
  • Life cycle scoping
  • Customized modeling
  • Detailed inventory of flows
  • Results analysis and interpretation
  • Target areas for environmental improvement strategies
  • Peer review services
  • Life cycle training
  • Multi-stakeholder project coordination
Integrated Life Cycle Assessment/Life Cycle Costing
  • Combined analyses of environmental performance and costs
    • Results by life cycle stage
    • True system-wide cost
  • Identification of cost and environmental performance trade-offs
Customized Life Cycle Models
  • User-defined scenarios
  • User-friendly interactive models
    • Excel-based
    • Secure Web-based
  • Instant generation of environmental results tables and graphs
Life Cycle Communications
  • Reports
  • Interpretive graphics
  • Presentations
  • Training
  • Support for development of life cycle assessment–related marketing materials
LCA Software Training
  • U.S. training partner for openLCA software
  • Onsite and remote training for business and educational use of openLCA

Service Area Leads

Shanika Amarakoon

As an immigrant, issues of race, equity, and inclusion have always been central to my lived experience and values. As an environmental engineer and policy analyst, I feel grateful to align my convictions with my experience and to lead ERG’s environmental and climate justice solutions practice.

Shanika Amarakoon

Photo of Sam Arden

Solving today’s complex environmental challenges is a daunting task. It requires the delicate balancing of many competing factors, from cost and convenience to public health protection and resource allocation. At ERG, I am fortunate to be able to work on projects that get to the core of this balance, surrounded by clients and colleagues who are equally passionate about finding mindful, objective solutions for our complex world.

Sam Arden

Sarah Cashman

Increasingly, organizations are applying life cycle assessment to learn how they can most effectively reduce the environmental footprint of their products and processes. I take great pride in contributing to techniques and open-source databases that help move the science of LCA forward and facilitate access to more robust, current, and regionalized public life cycle inventory data.

Sarah Cashman

Photo of Andrew Henderson

As the song says, ‘you never miss your water ’til your well runs dry.’ I believe that most individuals and organizations generally appreciate that the environment is important but also find it complex, sometimes abstract, and easy to take for granted. I work with clients to promote understanding about how people depend on and affect the environment and to develop practical, affordable solutions that improve the environment now and over the longer term.

Andrew Henderson

Melissa Huff

Listening is critical to being an effective consultant. Early in my career as a process engineer, I learned to listen—not just to those in charge, but also to those who focus every day on the challenge at hand. Time and again, careful listening has allowed me to develop better solutions.

Melissa Huff

Beverly Sauer

The value of a life cycle assessment depends directly on the quality of the data used for modeling. Our LCA staff played a key role in developing the U.S. Life Cycle Inventory Database, which provides free public access to high-quality data on processes and materials. I am very proud of the work we have done—and continue to do—to advance the accessibility and transparency of data needed to support and encourage wider use of LCA.

Beverly Sauer

Photo of Ben Young

Both companies and the public sector have to assess environmental tradeoffs in the face of limited resources. LCA is a great tool for assessing those tradeoffs and making choices consistent with values. By generating high-quality public data and LCA tools, we provide the underlying data necessary for effective decision-making.

Ben Young