1. What are some of the most significant developments you have seen in your field over the past few years?

Verification has become a much bigger part of the conversation in the last few years, simply because demand for EPDs has grown and so has the number of programme operators supporting that demand.

The more significant shift, though, is around scale. A few years ago, LCA and EPD work was largely done one product at a time. Now organisations want coverage across entire product families, and that's driving real demand for pre-verified EPD tools — a category that barely existed until recently.

Artificial intelligence is starting to reshape the field from multiple directions. On the modelling side, its use is still early but growing quickly. What I find more notable is its emergence on the verification side — solution providers are now building AI agents to assist with EPD verification itself, and some programme operators are adopting AI-driven QC checks before EPDs even reach a verifier. That's a meaningful shift in how credibility gets established, not just how data gets produced.

Alongside this, the tool provider landscape is consolidating. A few years back it felt like new LCA software was launching every month; the market is now settling, and pricing models are evolving with it — Circa is a good example, where modelling itself is free and cost is tied only to dataset access, effectively bringing down the cost of doing an LCA.

2. In your view, what are the biggest challenges organisations face when working with environmental or sustainability data?

The challenges organisations face look quite different depending on whether they're doing their first EPD or their tenth. First-time organisations typically struggle with understanding what's actually expected of them. They often hand the entire process to a consultant and disengage, which makes choosing the right consultant one of the most consequential decisions they'll make. Many also act reactively — only starting the process once a tender or customer request creates an urgent deadline, rather than building EPDs into their planning proactively.

For organisations already producing EPDs, the challenge shifts to scalability — moving from a single EPD to a full portfolio without the process becoming unmanageable. There's also a competitive dimension now, with organisations paying close attention to how their products compare to peers, which puts pressure on methodology and data choices in ways that go beyond pure accuracy. Those operating across multiple markets face the added complexity of managing several programme operators in parallel, each with different requirements and timelines.

Underlying both groups is the primary data gap, which remains a real and well-known issue across the industry. It's one that will continue to improve simply as more organisations participate in EPD development and more primary data becomes available.

3. What key message or insight do you hope participants will take away from your session at ISC2026?

This session is a bit different — I'm co-presenting with Steven, founder of Circa. He'll run the hands-on LCA modelling training, and I'll bring the verifier's side of things into the room alongside him. What I want people to take away is this: an LCA looks different once you've seen it from the verifier's point of view. Most training teaches you how to get to a number, but in this one, participants will also get to know common issues when someone independently checks that number — where your assumptions need to be defensible, where data gaps get flagged.

I'll go through the common issues that I see most often as a verifier — the modularity principle, how module D gets handled, end-of-life modelling, biogenic carbon accounting, reprocessing of waste internally, and more.