97
on-site renewable energy and energy management systems get clustered. Sustainable
supply chains need to be managed e.g., retail or supply chain energy management
or aspects of supply chain transparency.
Environmental performance has long been an important aspect in the companies’
sustainability approaches including environmental remediation, occupational health
and safety, pollution control and prevention, biodiversity and land stewardship, and
waste water and water management.
Most of the above mentioned topics are done in pure project style. Some companies started different projects with direct links to individual tasks and needs that
needed to be addressed. This might be tasks concerning suppliers, customers,
cooperating industries or from governmental bodies or their own research and
development topics.
Some companies selected so-called lighthouse projects on especially important
topics to gain insights on intercompany cooperation while ensuring that the results
are valuable for the company to guarantee a wide range of company stakeholders
from project engineer to executive management are interested in the results. The
selection of lighthouse project topics can be done monetarily (important revenue
stream) or by image (specifi c product with specifi c message) or by any other
company- relevant aspects.
However, some companies prefer to start with non-critical trial projects to test
the approach through a shadow-project in a protected internal environment
without any information exchange with suppliers, customers or the public on data
gathering and results communication.
Typically in the screening phase the four aspects – materiality, practicability,
quality and transparency – are addressed in a company specifi c way:
• Under materiality questions are answered like: Which data do I have? Which
data is relevant for me?
• Practicability addresses questions like: Where do I get my company data and my
supplier data from? Where do I get reliable background data?
• Concerning quality companies answer questions like: What does quality mean in
my business? What are relevant quality indicators for my goal?
• Transparency in professional applications means: Are processes documented
and change monitored? Are routines qualifi ed and auditable?
In the screening phase companies start with initial workshops to clearly scope
the work and defi ne the goal. In most cases the fi rst is step is to benchmark against
the average in the industry. In a materiality assessment the inventory situation of in
house data is checked and assessed. Life cycle based product and corporate environmental draft footprints are often a fi rst screening result.
An example of doing a successful screening is a US based company which design
and manufacture fl oors and ceilings for residential and commercial products. Their
challenge was losing market share in an industry, where sustainability is a defi ning
strategy. The solution was life cycle assessment showing the quantifi able and relevant
8 From Projects to Processes to Implement Life Cycle Management in Business
on-site renewable energy and energy management systems get clustered. Sustainable
supply chains need to be managed e.g., retail or supply chain energy management
or aspects of supply chain transparency.
Environmental performance has long been an important aspect in the companies’
sustainability approaches including environmental remediation, occupational health
and safety, pollution control and prevention, biodiversity and land stewardship, and
waste water and water management.
Most of the above mentioned topics are done in pure project style. Some companies started different projects with direct links to individual tasks and needs that
needed to be addressed. This might be tasks concerning suppliers, customers,
cooperating industries or from governmental bodies or their own research and
development topics.
Some companies selected so-called lighthouse projects on especially important
topics to gain insights on intercompany cooperation while ensuring that the results
are valuable for the company to guarantee a wide range of company stakeholders
from project engineer to executive management are interested in the results. The
selection of lighthouse project topics can be done monetarily (important revenue
stream) or by image (specifi c product with specifi c message) or by any other
company- relevant aspects.
However, some companies prefer to start with non-critical trial projects to test
the approach through a shadow-project in a protected internal environment
without any information exchange with suppliers, customers or the public on data
gathering and results communication.
Typically in the screening phase the four aspects – materiality, practicability,
quality and transparency – are addressed in a company specifi c way:
• Under materiality questions are answered like: Which data do I have? Which
data is relevant for me?
• Practicability addresses questions like: Where do I get my company data and my
supplier data from? Where do I get reliable background data?
• Concerning quality companies answer questions like: What does quality mean in
my business? What are relevant quality indicators for my goal?
• Transparency in professional applications means: Are processes documented
and change monitored? Are routines qualifi ed and auditable?
In the screening phase companies start with initial workshops to clearly scope
the work and defi ne the goal. In most cases the fi rst is step is to benchmark against
the average in the industry. In a materiality assessment the inventory situation of in
house data is checked and assessed. Life cycle based product and corporate environmental draft footprints are often a fi rst screening result.
An example of doing a successful screening is a US based company which design
and manufacture fl oors and ceilings for residential and commercial products. Their
challenge was losing market share in an industry, where sustainability is a defi ning
strategy. The solution was life cycle assessment showing the quantifi able and relevant
8 From Projects to Processes to Implement Life Cycle Management in Business