Why do compaines carry out a life cycle assessment on their potential new products before making them?

Assessing environmental impacts of individual products or services (we’ll call them “products” for short) is one of the most important things you can do in creating the diagnostic foundation that your company needs to pursue Eco-Advantage. Product-level impact analyses can help fine-tune your understanding of eco-related risks and opportunities, pinpoint specific areas for you to target for improvement, and help you evaluate complex options and trade-offs in product and process design. But conducting product impact assessments is tricky. There are many competing methodologies and tools available for product “life cycle analysis/assessment”

what are the choices?