Implementation and Management
of Life Cycle Approaches in Business—
Challenges, Opportunities, Business
Learnings and Best Practice
Lena Landström and Sara Palander
Abstract This paper presents a summary of the session “Implementation and
management of life cycle approaches in business—challenges, opportunities,
business learnings and best practice”. In the session, the audience got the opportunity to listen to examples from industry and ways to include life cycle approaches
in their business decision making processes. The audience also attended presentations where learnings from the environmental footprint process were discussed. The
conclusions from the presentations and the final panel discussion can be summarized in some key messages. To succeed we need to go together and that is why
harmonization of e.g. methods and regulations are important. As a basis when
developing the way forward it was concluded that the life cycle approach is an
important tool.
1 Introduction
During the latest decades, companies have implemented life cycle assessment
(LCA) into business management processes, e.g. in strategy, investment, procurement, and marketing, with the objective to increase the environmental performance
of their products and services. In the latest update of the standard ISO 14001:2015
(environmental management systems, EMS), companies shall use a life cycle
perspective to fulfil the requirements when for instance identifying the most
important and relevant environmental impacts [1]. Also, the Product and
L. Landström
Vattenfall, Gothenburg, Sweden
L. Landström Á S. Palander (&)
Chalmers University of Technology, Swedish Life Cycle Center,
412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
e-mail: sara.palander@chalmers.se
S. Palander
Chalmers University of Technology, Centre for Environment
and Sustainability, 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
© The Author(s) 2018
E. Benetto et al. (eds.), Designing Sustainable Technologies,
Products and Policies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66981-6_18
157
of Life Cycle Approaches in Business—
Challenges, Opportunities, Business
Learnings and Best Practice
Lena Landström and Sara Palander
Abstract This paper presents a summary of the session “Implementation and
management of life cycle approaches in business—challenges, opportunities,
business learnings and best practice”. In the session, the audience got the opportunity to listen to examples from industry and ways to include life cycle approaches
in their business decision making processes. The audience also attended presentations where learnings from the environmental footprint process were discussed. The
conclusions from the presentations and the final panel discussion can be summarized in some key messages. To succeed we need to go together and that is why
harmonization of e.g. methods and regulations are important. As a basis when
developing the way forward it was concluded that the life cycle approach is an
important tool.
1 Introduction
During the latest decades, companies have implemented life cycle assessment
(LCA) into business management processes, e.g. in strategy, investment, procurement, and marketing, with the objective to increase the environmental performance
of their products and services. In the latest update of the standard ISO 14001:2015
(environmental management systems, EMS), companies shall use a life cycle
perspective to fulfil the requirements when for instance identifying the most
important and relevant environmental impacts [1]. Also, the Product and
L. Landström
Vattenfall, Gothenburg, Sweden
L. Landström Á S. Palander (&)
Chalmers University of Technology, Swedish Life Cycle Center,
412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
e-mail: sara.palander@chalmers.se
S. Palander
Chalmers University of Technology, Centre for Environment
and Sustainability, 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
© The Author(s) 2018
E. Benetto et al. (eds.), Designing Sustainable Technologies,
Products and Policies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66981-6_18
157