Beyond product: organizational LCA methodologies for sustainability governance

Purpose Organizational life cycle assessment represents a comprehensive methodological framework for assessing the environmental and social performance of organizations across their value chains, adopting the life cycle thinking. Despite its conceptual robustness, the practical uptake and scholarly engagement with organizational perspective appear to be limited and uneven. This commentary explores the evolution and application of organizational life cycle assessment (O-LCA) and social organizational life cycle assessment (SO-LCA) methodologies, highlighting their underutilized potential in sustainability governance. Method A theoretical and literature-based analysis was conducted, examining peer-reviewed studies published between 2014 and 2025. The review evaluated the temporal evolution, geographic distribution, journal representation, and methodological developments of O-LCA and SO-LCA, with attention to their relevance for the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Greenhouse Gas Accounting as well as the emerging regulatory instruments such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. Results The number of O-LCA publications peaked between 2020 and 2022, with Germany and Italy leading in contributions. While 69% of applications focused on environmental impacts, only 23% addressed social aspects. O-LCA and SO-LCA have been applied across diverse sectors, including public services and manufacturing. However, major methodological challenges persist, including system boundary definition, data availability for SMEs, and integration with existing frameworks. Despite these, their alignment with value chain thinking and ESG reporting demonstrates their latent potential to enhance sustainability governance. Conclusion O-LCA and SO-LCA provide robust, holistic methodologies to assess environmental and social impacts at the organizational level. Yet their adoption remains limited. As regulatory pressure grows, these tools can become strategic enablers of sustainable decision-making. Future work should prioritize harmonization, simplification for SMEs, and empirical validations in industry. Integrating O-LCA with environmental, social and governance (ESG) frameworks can elevate its role from an assessment tool to a governance mechanism.