What a study actually costs
I bill by the day, not by fixed fee. You pay for the time actually spent on your product, and you know the day count before work starts. The durations below are the ones observed on my engagements.
| Deliverable | Day rate | Typical duration | Indicative budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product or service LCA | 320 EUR | 10 to 14 days | 3,200 to 4,480 |
| EPD / PEP Ecopassport® | 345 EUR | 13 to 18 days | 4,485 to 6,210, plus 700 verification |
| Carbon footprint | 295 EUR | set at scoping | quoted at scoping |
| Advisory and support | 280 EUR | per day | — |
| Site or area LCA | 320 EUR | up to 40 days | quoted at scoping |
All figures in euros, excluding VAT. Clients outside the European Union are normally invoiced without VAT under the reverse charge rules. The first day is a scoping day: at the end of it you receive a firm day count.
What makes the duration move
Three things stretch a study. I would rather name them now than at quoting time.
The bill of materials
A forty component luminaire models in a few days. A four hundred reference assembly, with bought in sub assemblies whose composition you do not hold, takes two to three times longer to inventory.
Whether your suppliers answer
If they send data, the inventory moves fast. If they do not, everything has to be rebuilt from proxy data and every assumption documented well enough to survive verification.
How many references the declaration covers
A declaration covering a whole product range needs a representativeness analysis that a single product does not.
How I handle it
The first day is a scoping day. At the end of that day I give you a firm day count, not an estimate. If the real scope turns out heavier than what we looked at together, I tell you before continuing, with the new day count and the reason. You then decide to carry on, narrow the scope, or stop. You never discover an overrun on an invoice.
Why my day costs less than a consultancy
This is not a discount. It is a difference in structure.
In a consultancy, your invoice pays an account manager, a project manager, a junior engineer who produces, a senior who reviews, and the overhead carrying all of it. Here, the person who answers you, models your product and defends the study in front of the verifier is the same person. There is nothing to re bill in between.
You pay for competence and time, not for the chain around them, at identical standard compliance: ISO 14040, ISO 14044, EN 15804+A2, TRACI 2.1.
Frequently asked
What does a product LCA cost?
A product LCA runs 10 to 14 days at 320 EUR per day, so a budget of 3,200 to 4,480 EUR excluding VAT. Duration depends on the number of components and on how much supplier data you already hold.
What does an EPD cost?
An EPD runs 13 to 18 days at 345 EUR per day, so 4,485 to 6,210 EUR excluding VAT, plus 700 EUR of final verification, paid to the verifier, once.
Why day rates rather than a fixed fee?
A fixed fee on a complex product is paid for either by a safety margin every client funds, or by a study that cuts corners. On a day rate you pay for the time actually spent on your product, and you know the day count before work starts.
Can the quote go up during the study?
The first day is a scoping day. At the end of it you get a firm day count, not an estimate. If the real scope turns out heavier, I tell you before continuing, with the new day count and the reason. You never discover an overrun on an invoice.
Do you work with North American methods?
Yes. TRACI 2.1 for North America, EF 3.1 and EN 15804+A2 for Europe, ReCiPe where the context calls for it, all modelled in openLCA and SimaPro on ecoinvent 3.10.