A cotton t-shirt travels several thousand kilometers before arriving in a wardrobe. From cotton cultivation, dyeing, maritime transport, and machine washing over the years, this garment alters the air, water, and soil at every stage. This is exactly what environmental impact encompasses: the totality of changes that human activity causes to natural environments.
What environmental impact concretely encompasses beyond CO2
When we talk about environmental impact, the reflex is to think of greenhouse gas emissions. However, carbon represents only a fraction of the problem. Environmental impact also includes water, soil, air, and biodiversity.
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To structure this notion, specialists distinguish several categories of environmental impacts:
- Air and soil acidification, caused by certain industrial or agricultural discharges that alter the pH of ecosystems
- Eutrophication of waters, linked to an excess of nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus) that suffocates aquatic environments
- Depletion of non-renewable resources, whether they are minerals, fossil fuels, or freshwater in aquifers
- Land occupation and transformation, which fragment natural habitats and reduce ecosystems’ ability to regenerate
Understanding the definition of environmental impact therefore requires going beyond the carbon indicator alone to consider these multiple dimensions simultaneously.
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In France, the environmental assessment reform that came into effect in 2024 has also strengthened the consideration of biodiversity in development projects. The “avoid-reduce-compensate” sequence is now systematic, with monitoring of compensatory measures over time. The impact is no longer limited to what we emit: it includes what we destroy or what we prevent from regenerating.
Life Cycle Assessment: the reference method for measuring environmental impact
Have you ever noticed that two similar products can display very different ecological balances? This often comes down to the measurement method used. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) evaluates a product from the extraction of raw materials to its end of life.
How an LCA works
The LCA breaks down the life of a product or service into stages: extraction, manufacturing, transport, use, and then end-of-life treatment (recycling, landfilling, incineration). For each stage, incoming flows (energy, materials, water) and outgoing flows (emissions, waste, discharges) are quantified.
This data then feeds into several indicators of environmental impacts: contribution to climate change, acidification, eutrophication, resource consumption. A product may have a low carbon footprint but a high water footprint, for example.
PEF: the European framework that is becoming essential
The European Commission has developed the PEF (Product Environmental Footprint) method to harmonize how companies measure and communicate their environmental footprint. With the proposed “Green Claims” directive presented in March 2023, any environmental claim must be based on recognized methods such as LCA or PEF.
This framework changes the game. Until now, a company could choose its indicators, scope, and method. The PEF imposes a common methodological foundation that makes results comparable from one product to another, from one sector to another.
Carbon footprint and carbon balance: complementary tools to LCA
The LCA covers all environmental impacts, but its implementation requires time and detailed data. For organizations that want to start with a more targeted scope, the carbon balance remains a relevant entry point.
The carbon balance accounts for the greenhouse gas emissions of an organization over a defined scope: direct emissions (heating, vehicles), emissions related to purchased energy, and indirect emissions from the value chain (purchases, transport of goods, employee travel).
This breakdown into three scopes (often referred to as scopes 1, 2, and 3) helps identify the heaviest contributors. In most service companies, the indirect emissions from the value chain represent the largest share of the total.
The carbon balance does not replace an LCA. It does not evaluate water, biodiversity, or resource depletion. But it provides an initial measurement strategy that allows prioritizing the most effective reduction actions before expanding the analysis.
Digital and everyday consumption: two blind spots in impact measurement
Why do these areas deserve special attention? Because their environmental impacts are often underestimated due to a lack of reliable data or an appropriate measurement scope.
The environmental footprint of digital technology
ARCEP, through its annual survey “For Sustainable Digital Technology,” has imposed detailed reporting on sector players since its 2024-2025 campaign. This reporting goes beyond greenhouse gas emissions: it includes resource consumption and land occupation related to infrastructure. Manufacturing a terminal concentrates the majority of the footprint, much more than its daily use.
Everyday services
Every act of consumption carries an environmental footprint, but measuring it precisely remains a challenge. Food, for example, accumulates impacts on water (irrigation), soil (fertilizers, pesticides), air (transport, refrigerated storage), and biodiversity (monocultures).
A serious assessment of these impacts requires cross-referencing several data sources and multiple indicators. Relying on a single figure, such as the carbon footprint of a meal, gives a distorted picture of reality.
Three criteria to judge the reliability of an impact measurement
In the face of the proliferation of environmental labels and scores, knowing how to assess the quality of a measurement becomes a useful skill. A reliable impact measurement relies on an explicit scope, traceable data, and verifiable results.
- The scope: does the measurement cover only manufacturing or the entire life cycle? A partial scope can mask the most polluting phases
- The source of the data: are they primary data collected on-site or generic sector averages? Results vary significantly depending on the quality of the input data
- The transparency of the method: are the calculation assumptions and emission factors used published? Without this transparency, it is impossible to verify or compare results
The Green Claims directive pushed by the European Commission aims precisely to make these three criteria mandatory for any environmental communication. Companies that anticipate this framework will gain credibility with their stakeholders while having a measurement strategy that is truly useful for guiding their reduction actions.