What is a sustainability Life Cycle Assessment, and why did we do two of them?

Since we first started developing Grow with Iris, we’ve taken sustainability seriously – long before drought warnings and heatwaves made it the topic on everyone’s lips. Our toddlers will inherit this planet, and keeping that front of mind has always been non-negotiable.

So a few years ago, backed by Innovate UK ‘Sustainability in Innovation’ grant funding, we commissioned an independent environmental consultancy to properly measure our impact – rather than just assume it.

We ended up doing this twice: once comparing Grow with Iris against dairy-based growing up milks, and again comparing it specifically against ready-made plant-based growing up drinks (think cartons!)

Here’s what that actually involved, and what we found.

So, what is a Life Cycle Assessment?

A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is basically a full audit of a product’s environmental footprint – cradle to grave. It looks at everything: growing and processing the ingredients, manufacturing, packaging, getting the product to your door, how it’s used at home, and what happens to the packaging afterwards.

The point isn’t just to get a nice number for marketing. A proper LCA does three useful things for us:

Gives us the full picture: not just carbon, but water use, land use, air pollution and more, so we’re not solving one problem by accidentally creating another (LCA people call this “burden-shifting”).
Finds our hotspots: the specific stages in our supply chain having the biggest impact, so we know exactly what to work on next.
Lets us compare fairly: against real competitor products, using the same rules for everyone.

The 12 things we measure

Each assessment scores Grow with Iris against 12 recognised environmental impact categories.

These are:

Global warming – greenhouse gas emissions
Fossil resource scarcity – use of oil, gas and coal
Water consumption – how much fresh water is used
Freshwater eutrophication – nutrient pollution harming rivers and lakes
Marine eutrophication – the same, but for seas and oceans
Land use – how much land is taken up to make the product
Fine particulate matter formation – air pollution linked to respiratory issues
Ozone formation (human health) – smog-forming pollution that affects people
Ozone formation (terrestrial ecosystems) – the same, but for plants and wildlife
Terrestrial acidification – soil acidity that harms plants and wildlife
Mineral resource scarcity – use of finite metals and minerals
Ionising radiation – impact from radioactive materials in the supply chain

That’s a lot to take in, so the headline is simpler: It’s not just about carbon: our LCA looked at everything from global warming to water and land use, and found Grow with Iris scores lower than both dairy and ready-made plant-based competitor products overall.

LCA #1: Grow with Iris vs. dairy growing up milks

The first assessment compared us against dairy growing up milks – standard cow’s milk formula, organic cow’s milk formula, goat milk formula, and hydrolysed allergy formula. Because Grow with Iris is a plant-based powder rather than a dairy product, our impact came out lower across almost every category measured, including global warming, water consumption and land use.

LCA #2: Grow with Iris vs. ready-made plant-based drinks

The second assessment asked a more specific question: how do we compare to other plant-based options, like ready-made cartons? This is where the numbers get striking:

86% lower carbon footprint than ready-made growing up drinks, across packaging, use, distribution and end of life.
84% lower impact from packaging production, and 88% lower impact from packaging disposal, compared to cartons.

A big part of this comes down to something simple: ready-made cartons are mostly water, so lorries end up transporting that water around the country before it even reaches a shop shelf. Because Grow with Iris is a powder, you add the water at home – nothing but the good stuff needs shipping.

It’s also why you don’t need to boil a kettle to make it up; it’s designed to mix straight from the tap.

What we’re doing with this information

An LCA isn’t a certificate to put in a drawer – it’s a to-do list. Ours has already pointed us toward:

Sustainable packaging – both our pouches and on-the-go sachets are 100% recyclable, with a lower carbon footprint than tins, cartons and tubs.
Raw ingredients and supply chain – we’re using the identified hotspots to keep working with suppliers on where the biggest gains are.
Ongoing environmental reporting – we’re committed to re-measuring over time, not just doing this once and moving on.

Two LCAs and a lot of spreadsheets won’t fix a drought, and we’re not going to claim they do. What they do give us is proof – not just a feeling – that choosing Grow with Iris is a genuinely kinder option for the planet our children are growing up on, and a clear list of what to improve next.

Source: Grow with Iris Life Cycle Assessments carried out by Fishwick Environmental