112
This transition is not something that can be achieved overnight. It requires a good
radar to sense what is important for people, not only functional but also personal.
Sharing – or at least understanding – the same language is really essential to pick up
the signals. It also requires a step-by-step approach to link the results from LCA to
the objectives and language of these departments or even the corporate strategy.
Next we will describe what such an approach could look like.
4.4 Link Life Cycle Assessment with Business Objectives
In most companies, sustainability goals are set top-down. In the corporate sustainability strategy, goals are set for energy, water and climate change, for example.
Business units and departments are then given the task to achieve these goals and
start various projects to realize these goals in the timeframe given. The projects are
topic, location or process specifi c and do not take trade-offs into account. Based on
the goals, companies want to measure the results to report on them and improve
their performance. Often it turns out to be quite hard to report and improve the
goals. They were not really substantiated by insights on a business and product level
which is where the improvements have to be achieved (left column of Fig. 9.2 ), and
let alone the negative trade-offs these improvements could have.
LCA is much more a bottom-up approach as it starts at a product level. In the
product or service life cycle it is identifi ed where a product has its impact. LCA can
deliver insights in what impacts occur for each impact category and life cycle stage.
It enables us to identify hotspots and improvement opportunities, from material
selection to pinpointing the most impactful supplier, from process innovations to
contributions of each phase. However, at the same time LCA struggles to link these
hotspots and improvement opportunities to the KPIs of the company (see column 2
of Fig. 9.2 ), especially as these are often formulated in a different language. TSC
has done some great work to link hotspots to KPIs, but adding the top-down route is
essential to make it company specifi c and meaningful for management. An integrated approach provides a unique opportunity to achieve maximum alignment of
product and corporate strategies (Furfori et al. 2014 ).
To increase the impact of LCA, the LCA practitioner and the LCA department
need to connect the dots. To take the lead in this you can create an overview of business and project KPIs and combine these with the hotspots you identifi ed through
LCA studies (Fig. 9.2 ). Based on those insights and KPIs, projects for improvement
can be identifi ed. This approach helps to link the product level with the business/
corporate level. It brings together the sustainability insights on a corporate and
product level. By doing this you can identify sweet spots, overlap in hotspots as well
as blind spots. It also brings together different departments when it shows they need
to collaborate to achieve their goals. The same applies for suppliers; based on the
hotspots the most relevant suppliers for the sustainability goals – which is not the
same as the most important suppliers in terms of costs – can be pinpointed. By
doing this the sustainability strategy gets more substantiated and goals become
M. Goedkoop et al.
This transition is not something that can be achieved overnight. It requires a good
radar to sense what is important for people, not only functional but also personal.
Sharing – or at least understanding – the same language is really essential to pick up
the signals. It also requires a step-by-step approach to link the results from LCA to
the objectives and language of these departments or even the corporate strategy.
Next we will describe what such an approach could look like.
4.4 Link Life Cycle Assessment with Business Objectives
In most companies, sustainability goals are set top-down. In the corporate sustainability strategy, goals are set for energy, water and climate change, for example.
Business units and departments are then given the task to achieve these goals and
start various projects to realize these goals in the timeframe given. The projects are
topic, location or process specifi c and do not take trade-offs into account. Based on
the goals, companies want to measure the results to report on them and improve
their performance. Often it turns out to be quite hard to report and improve the
goals. They were not really substantiated by insights on a business and product level
which is where the improvements have to be achieved (left column of Fig. 9.2 ), and
let alone the negative trade-offs these improvements could have.
LCA is much more a bottom-up approach as it starts at a product level. In the
product or service life cycle it is identifi ed where a product has its impact. LCA can
deliver insights in what impacts occur for each impact category and life cycle stage.
It enables us to identify hotspots and improvement opportunities, from material
selection to pinpointing the most impactful supplier, from process innovations to
contributions of each phase. However, at the same time LCA struggles to link these
hotspots and improvement opportunities to the KPIs of the company (see column 2
of Fig. 9.2 ), especially as these are often formulated in a different language. TSC
has done some great work to link hotspots to KPIs, but adding the top-down route is
essential to make it company specifi c and meaningful for management. An integrated approach provides a unique opportunity to achieve maximum alignment of
product and corporate strategies (Furfori et al. 2014 ).
To increase the impact of LCA, the LCA practitioner and the LCA department
need to connect the dots. To take the lead in this you can create an overview of business and project KPIs and combine these with the hotspots you identifi ed through
LCA studies (Fig. 9.2 ). Based on those insights and KPIs, projects for improvement
can be identifi ed. This approach helps to link the product level with the business/
corporate level. It brings together the sustainability insights on a corporate and
product level. By doing this you can identify sweet spots, overlap in hotspots as well
as blind spots. It also brings together different departments when it shows they need
to collaborate to achieve their goals. The same applies for suppliers; based on the
hotspots the most relevant suppliers for the sustainability goals – which is not the
same as the most important suppliers in terms of costs – can be pinpointed. By
doing this the sustainability strategy gets more substantiated and goals become
M. Goedkoop et al.