Open Access

Maria Celia Briones Espinoza, Tobias Spengler, Matthias Schicktanz, Miguel Gonzalez-Salazar

• As decarbonization accelerates across policy, markets, and supply chains, small and medium-sized manufacturers face growing demands to quantify organizational climate impacts and to target the main sources of emissions. This study defines the foundational elements of a streamlined organizational assessment for manufacturing SMEs that is practical, repeatable, and aligned with real data constraints. Building on ISO 14072, ISO 14040, and ISO 14044, and drawing on UNEP O-LCA and ILCD guidance, it reviews relevant standards and conducts a sector scan of six public reports in plastics components and industrial machinery to identify where methodological choices most influence screening outcomes. Two screening designs are proposed that fix goal and scope, and specify an inventory strategy using hybrid data collection, tiered data quality, simple cut-off rules, and clear electricity accounting conventions. The designs align LCA guidelines with sector patterns to enable consistent scoping, efficient data requests, and transparent assumptions. The screening designs are meant to guide screening LCAs that retain broad climate-relevant coverage but rely on streamlined data for key emission sources. The result is an initial technical basis for accessible organizational assessments tailored to German manufacturing SMEs, intended to lower technical barriers, support credible prioritization of action, and improve integration with supply chain sustainability practices.