99
In-house teams are a huge knowledge pool and can work on sensitive aspects
without any external interference, which is an asset for any company. However,
depending on the company structure in-house teams can be quite expensive.
Working with no dedicated in-house team might be cheaper and easier to manage,
as the content and deadline responsibility is managed by a contractor. However, the
quality of the contactors work is decisive for the quality of the companies
end results.
It might be fair to say that in most of the successful companies in this topic established dedicated in-house teams along their journey in the topic and can work in
many or most cases fairly independent from external consultant companies or
experts.
The beauty of the topic is that businesses can defi ne their own journey and mile
stones towards sustainable success. No entry hurdle, no rush, no “point of no return”
decisions in the process are necessary.
A successful sustainability approach simply means, to build on existing measures, to use as much as possible existing in-house information and to choose a
professional software and data solution to create multiple (business) benefi ts from
the approach.
Summarizing the scoping phase is characterized by (company and external)
stakeholder engagement often with strategy workshops to align on strategy development and implementation, identifi cation of suitable corporate reporting software
solutions of, e.g., GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), Carbon, EH&S (Environment,
Health, Safety), or Building Portfolios. Further LCAs and organisational environmental footprints are undertaken and Environmental Product Declarations (EPD)
done. The growing data and resulting demand calls for professional product sustainability software solutions.
An example doing successful scoping is a German fi nancial institution. They
decided to solve the topic with and ISO 14001 compliant environmental management system. The idea was central sustainability performance management. Their
aim was to quantify the sustainability performance. They reached reduced electricity consumption of 噉 111,000/year alongside with 29 % reduction in paper consumption, which equals 207 t. The gained business value was a total resource cost
reduction of 噉 300,000 in 6 months and total cost reduction of another 噉 500,000 in
the second year. Additional business value was reputation and brand enhancement.
Another example is an American multinational consumer goods company. Their
defi ned goal was to integrate a product sustainability software tool that anyone in
the organization could use. Boundary conditions were that no new hires were needed
and that the staff did not need training on the product sustainability software tool.
The solution was an LCA solution allowing product designers to understand the
environmental impacts and deliver results of a proposed modifi cation in less than
15 min. Further benefi ts were achieved by integrating the solution fully into the
product design community.
8 From Projects to Processes to Implement Life Cycle Management in Business
In-house teams are a huge knowledge pool and can work on sensitive aspects
without any external interference, which is an asset for any company. However,
depending on the company structure in-house teams can be quite expensive.
Working with no dedicated in-house team might be cheaper and easier to manage,
as the content and deadline responsibility is managed by a contractor. However, the
quality of the contactors work is decisive for the quality of the companies
end results.
It might be fair to say that in most of the successful companies in this topic established dedicated in-house teams along their journey in the topic and can work in
many or most cases fairly independent from external consultant companies or
experts.
The beauty of the topic is that businesses can defi ne their own journey and mile
stones towards sustainable success. No entry hurdle, no rush, no “point of no return”
decisions in the process are necessary.
A successful sustainability approach simply means, to build on existing measures, to use as much as possible existing in-house information and to choose a
professional software and data solution to create multiple (business) benefi ts from
the approach.
Summarizing the scoping phase is characterized by (company and external)
stakeholder engagement often with strategy workshops to align on strategy development and implementation, identifi cation of suitable corporate reporting software
solutions of, e.g., GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), Carbon, EH&S (Environment,
Health, Safety), or Building Portfolios. Further LCAs and organisational environmental footprints are undertaken and Environmental Product Declarations (EPD)
done. The growing data and resulting demand calls for professional product sustainability software solutions.
An example doing successful scoping is a German fi nancial institution. They
decided to solve the topic with and ISO 14001 compliant environmental management system. The idea was central sustainability performance management. Their
aim was to quantify the sustainability performance. They reached reduced electricity consumption of 噉 111,000/year alongside with 29 % reduction in paper consumption, which equals 207 t. The gained business value was a total resource cost
reduction of 噉 300,000 in 6 months and total cost reduction of another 噉 500,000 in
the second year. Additional business value was reputation and brand enhancement.
Another example is an American multinational consumer goods company. Their
defi ned goal was to integrate a product sustainability software tool that anyone in
the organization could use. Boundary conditions were that no new hires were needed
and that the staff did not need training on the product sustainability software tool.
The solution was an LCA solution allowing product designers to understand the
environmental impacts and deliver results of a proposed modifi cation in less than
15 min. Further benefi ts were achieved by integrating the solution fully into the
product design community.
8 From Projects to Processes to Implement Life Cycle Management in Business