A regulatory term referring to period of time during which a product (3.1.3.1) in use meets or exceeds the performance requirements.
Service life is the period during which a product remains able to meet or exceed the relevant performance requirements while in use. It is therefore a functional-duration concept, not simply an ownership period or a calendar age.
ISO 14067:2018 - Greenhouse gases — Carbon footprint of products
period of time during which a product (3.1.3.1) in use meets or exceeds the performance requirements
Reference: 3.1.3.11
This term originates in ISO 14067:2018 and/or ISO 14044 LCA methodology. It is used in EU product regulation — particularly under the EU Battery Regulation (PEF method for carbon footprint) and ESPR (environmental footprint) — because both regulations require lifecycle-based quantification of environmental impacts. Practitioners applying these regulations should be familiar with these LCA/PEF concepts to correctly scope, conduct, and verify product-level environmental assessments.
This term matters when climate, durability, and circularity assessments depend on how long a product can actually deliver its intended function before degradation or failure changes the picture. Service-life assumptions often shape how impacts are allocated and how product longevity claims are interpreted.
For Minespider, service life is a durability-and-assumptions term. It is often one of the quiet variables that most strongly affects whether a sustainability claim reflects real long-term use or only an optimistic modelling premise.