Abstract This work addresses the potential environmental effects of thermal energy storage using the life cycle assessment to perform an optimal system framework. The study assesses the recovery of waste thermal energy at medium temperatures through the application of phase change materials and the recovered heat use in other industrial processes avoiding the heat production from fossil fuel. To this end, twenty different situations were analysed in terms of energy and environmentally combining four thermal energy storage systems varying the type of phase change material incorporated (potassium nitrate, potassium hydroxide, potassium carbonate/sodium carbonate/lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide/potassium hydroxide) which were defined as cases and five scenarios were the heat can be released based on the type of fossil fuel consumed (coal, heavy fuel, light fuel, lignite and natural gas). Moreover, a net zero environmental metric time parameter was calculated to assess the time period in which the environmental impacts associated to the thermal energy system were equal to the avoided impacts by the use of the heat recovered. Values that were lower than the thermal energy system lifetime were obtained in more than 40% of the total study situations. Finally, an additional analysis was performed to identify the most significant parameters for the further development of a mathematical model to predict the net zero environmental metric time.