The purpose of this design research is to improve the quality of environmental literacy and sustainability education in chemistry teaching through combining a socio-scientific issue, life-cycle analysis (LCA), with inquiry-based learning (IBL). This first phase of the cyclic design research involved 20 inservice trained chemistry teachers from elementary to high school level and two researchers. The aim was to collaboratively develop and test teaching concepts that the teachers had created within in-service training courses over a period of two years. The research questions were: (i) How to develop concepts of chemistry teaching that combine IBL with LCA? and (ii) What kind of teaching concepts related to LCA do chemistry teachers develop in their own practice? The study presents a framework for the development process of new practices in chemistry teaching. The findings reveal that teachers can combine LCA with IBL on all school levels in several different ways. The most popular approach was a project-based student-centered inquiry concept, which combined social and personal teaching strategies. The study suggests that LCA-IBL approaches should be implemented into chemistry education at all school levels. The opportunities to foster several modern educational goals, including scientific literacy and sustainability competence, are also discussed. (Contains 3 figures and 1 table.)