Product environmental advantages analysis
Ask us about an analysis →We find the advantages your customers will want to pay for
We prepare the right evidence and claims for each advantage
We point to new markets for your product
Want to know what makes your product stand out?
What is a product environmental advantages analysis?
We review your product over its whole life cycle, from raw materials to use and disposal. We look for features that set it apart from competitors and that buyers care about. For each advantage, we prepare an evidence plan and the wording of the claim. Finally, we point to the markets where that advantage counts most.
We start from what the customer pays for, not from an indicator. The carbon footprint is one of 16 impact categories in the European Commission's Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) method. The advantage a buyer looks for may lie in another category, or in the use stage, which a footprint of production alone does not cover.
We look at production, transport, use and end of life. The difference a customer will pay for often lies outside the factory.
We measure the advantage against what the customer buys today instead of your product, not against a market average.
Each advantage gets an evidence plan before it goes into your communication. From 27 September 2026, the EU bans generic claims without evidence.
When does an environmental claim help sales, and when does it not?
In a study described by Harvard Business Review (2019), 65% of consumers said they wanted to buy green brands, but only 26% did. Even so, in the US, products with environmental or social claims grew faster in 2017–2022. They grew by 28%, against 20% for the rest (McKinsey and NielsenIQ, 2023).
Helps sales
- The buyer must prove something too: a customer with a Scope 3 target needs data from suppliers. From 2028, building designers calculate the whole-life carbon of a building (EPBD 2024/1275) and use EPDs of construction products.
- The user feels the benefit: lower energy or water bills, longer life, fewer harmful substances indoors.
- The claim is specific: a figure with a method and a baseline, or a recognised label such as the EU Ecolabel. The buyer can check it.
Does not help
- A slogan instead of a fact: from 27 September 2026, the EU bans “eco” or “environmentally friendly” without evidence. Back in 2020, the European Commission found 53.3% of the claims it studied to be vague, misleading or unfounded.
- A hint of weaker performance: when buyers value how strong a product is, the label “eco” lowers their rating. Sometimes they even choose a less green option (Luchs et al., Journal of Marketing, 2010).
- A benefit the buyer does not feel: in consumer sales, a lower carbon footprint rarely decides whether people buy.
- A legal duty sold as an advantage: for example “free from substance X” when X is banned anyway. Directive 2024/825 treats this as an unfair practice.
Which products is the advantages analysis for?
Manufacturers gain most when their product has a cheaper or better-known alternative and they must show how it is different.
Healthy materials that do not harm users, carbon footprint over the building's life, durability, recycled content, easy disassembly.
Recyclability and recycled content.
Works at lower temperatures, dosage, biodegradability. For detergents, a large part of the impact comes from heating water at home.
Fewer pesticide residues, more nutritional value, a clean recipe without needless additives.
Carbon footprint as data for the customer's Scope 3, and the energy the device uses in operation.
Energy and water use at home, durability, repairability, what is left after use.
How does the product environmental advantages analysis work?
From a talk about your market to a list of new uses: six steps, usually 4–6 weeks.
Market diagnosis
In a workshop with your sales and product teams, we find out who buys the product, what they choose instead and what drives their choice.
Life cycle map of parameters
With a screening LCA, we compare your product with the one the customer replaces: raw materials, production, transport, use and end of life.
Choosing the advantages
We test each difference with four questions:
- is it real and measurable?
- do buyers care about it?
- does it set the product apart from competitors, rather than just follow the law?
- can it be proven?
Evidence plan
For each advantage, we list the calculations, lab tests or certificates you need, with cost and timing. A lab does the tests, and we interpret the results.
Claims
We write the wording of each claim, one version for consumers and one for business customers (offer, product sheet, tender). The wording follows Directive 2024/825 and the ISO 14021 standard. We add a list of phrases you must not use.
New markets
We point to markets and uses where the same advantage counts more than in your current market. We also name the product you will compete against there.
What do you get after the analysis?
A product parameter map: mapping and comparison with the product the customer replaces, over the whole life cycle.
Advantages with reasons: the advantages we chose and the ones we rejected, with the reason.
Evidence plan: calculations, tests and certificates with cost and timing.
Claims: wording for each advantage and channel, and a list of banned phrases.
New markets: potential markets and uses, with the competing product in each.
Advantages analysis vs green claims audit
A green claims audit assesses the claims your company already makes: on your website, packaging and in ads. Verification under ISO 14021 checks ready claims against the standard. The advantages analysis comes earlier: it decides what is worth saying and builds the claim from scratch.
When an advantage needs full evidence, we prepare it ourselves: a product carbon footprint, an LCA, an EPD or a PEF study.
Why choose EXERGY for your advantages analysis?
If an advantage needs an LCA or an EPD, we prepare it ourselves.
We run green claims audits, so our claims pass the same test from the start.
The results go only to you. We do not show them as examples or in marketing.
Meet the team
Experienced EXERGY specialists run every project with our own proven methods. We do not give consulting work to subcontractors. We have worked in this field since 2017.
Meet the team →Want to know what makes your product stand out?
Tell us what the product is, who you sell it to and what it competes with. We will come back with the scope and price of the analysis.