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holistic understanding of the interdependence of industrial systems. To this end,
sound tools are needed that can capture the complexity and provide metrics to
embed sustainability in different business decisions. Systems thinking helps to
understand the different parts within the system and their relation to other systems.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a systems analysis tool that can assess and help
improve the environmental performance (one of the three pillars of sustainability)
of products and processes by providing powerful insights into the whole value
chain (ISO 2006a , b ; ILCD 2010 ). By doing this, LCA provides an understanding
that allows avoiding shifting impacts from one process step/industry to another,
from one impact category to another and from one place to another. LCA
supports businesses in making various decisions such as the selection of processes, materials, and supply chains. By supporting these business decisions and
actions, LCA can offer value creation opportunities to business and improves
shareholder and stakeholder value simultaneously. Similarly, other tools such as
Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Social Life Cycle Assessment (Social-LCA) can be
used to understand the economic costs (externalities can also be included) and
social impacts and risks (both positive and negative) throughout product life
cycles. The authors focus on environmental LCA and combine other tools wherever
possible.
LCA has been applied in companies and in public policy making. When applied
in companies, LCA has often been seen as a mere auxiliary technical tool and the
insights were limited to the impact quantifi cation, which is the major strength of
the tool, without actively involving business functions. Many companies are not
implementing LCA in their day-to-day business due to its resource-intensive
nature, complexity and the diffi culty of contextualizing the relevance of LCA for
the circumstances of companies. There has hardly been any exploration of how
LCA can offer advice to existing corporate structures through decision support of
business functions. And most importantly, the insights of LCA have by far not
been fully exploited for the potential value creation opportunities in companies.
There is little research to understand the role of LCA in supporting business
functions (Sandin et al. 2014 ) and consequently linking it with sustainable value
creation opportunities (UNEP/SETAC 2009 ; Rebitzer and Buxmann 2005 ; Gloria
et al. 2014 ).
The objective of this chapter is to bridge the gap between sustainability science
and business management by contextualizing the application of LCA in corporate
sustainability and aligning it with business activities/functions and business priorities (value creation). This alignment can mainstream and advance the implementation of LCM in business.
In order to fulfi ll the above mentioned objective, the authors explain the context
of corporations, the opportunities for value creation, and the role of different
functions in integrating sustainability in day-to-day business. Case studies show
how LCA can be contextualized in business and connected to value creation opportunities. Based on case studies, the authors offer an iterative procedure to conduct
LCAs and create sustainable value.
B.M.K. Manda et al.
holistic understanding of the interdependence of industrial systems. To this end,
sound tools are needed that can capture the complexity and provide metrics to
embed sustainability in different business decisions. Systems thinking helps to
understand the different parts within the system and their relation to other systems.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a systems analysis tool that can assess and help
improve the environmental performance (one of the three pillars of sustainability)
of products and processes by providing powerful insights into the whole value
chain (ISO 2006a , b ; ILCD 2010 ). By doing this, LCA provides an understanding
that allows avoiding shifting impacts from one process step/industry to another,
from one impact category to another and from one place to another. LCA
supports businesses in making various decisions such as the selection of processes, materials, and supply chains. By supporting these business decisions and
actions, LCA can offer value creation opportunities to business and improves
shareholder and stakeholder value simultaneously. Similarly, other tools such as
Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Social Life Cycle Assessment (Social-LCA) can be
used to understand the economic costs (externalities can also be included) and
social impacts and risks (both positive and negative) throughout product life
cycles. The authors focus on environmental LCA and combine other tools wherever
possible.
LCA has been applied in companies and in public policy making. When applied
in companies, LCA has often been seen as a mere auxiliary technical tool and the
insights were limited to the impact quantifi cation, which is the major strength of
the tool, without actively involving business functions. Many companies are not
implementing LCA in their day-to-day business due to its resource-intensive
nature, complexity and the diffi culty of contextualizing the relevance of LCA for
the circumstances of companies. There has hardly been any exploration of how
LCA can offer advice to existing corporate structures through decision support of
business functions. And most importantly, the insights of LCA have by far not
been fully exploited for the potential value creation opportunities in companies.
There is little research to understand the role of LCA in supporting business
functions (Sandin et al. 2014 ) and consequently linking it with sustainable value
creation opportunities (UNEP/SETAC 2009 ; Rebitzer and Buxmann 2005 ; Gloria
et al. 2014 ).
The objective of this chapter is to bridge the gap between sustainability science
and business management by contextualizing the application of LCA in corporate
sustainability and aligning it with business activities/functions and business priorities (value creation). This alignment can mainstream and advance the implementation of LCM in business.
In order to fulfi ll the above mentioned objective, the authors explain the context
of corporations, the opportunities for value creation, and the role of different
functions in integrating sustainability in day-to-day business. Case studies show
how LCA can be contextualized in business and connected to value creation opportunities. Based on case studies, the authors offer an iterative procedure to conduct
LCAs and create sustainable value.
B.M.K. Manda et al.