144
We acknowledge the limitations of the LCA approach in terms of the development
of methods for impacts such as biodiversity and toxicity, lack of inventory, uncertainties in data and methods, limited guidance on allocation for different product
categories, etc. (Finnveden et al. 2009 ). Resource requirements are also acting as
limitation for implementing LCA. Companies can also create value with customer
experience, products with superior aesthetics, feel, etc. These aspects might not be
captured by LCA, if its unit of analysis, i.e. the functional unit, cannot take these
aspects into account. LCA is not easily able to capture the perception and preferences of people, taste, and emotional value attached to products, hence it cannot
help companies to create value in terms of these aspects.
5 Conclusions
The main contribution of this chapter to the fi eld of sustainability, especially
corporate and product sustainability, is twofold. First, the authors have presented an
approach to embed LCA in the corporate context and align environmental sustainability with business priorities. Second, they have shown how to synthesize and
communicate all the different aspects in a coherent way, presenting LCA results to
the managers of different business functions using an LCA-based value creation
approach. This communication approach is a combination of “drivers-LCA metrics
business decisions-stakeholder responses-value creation opportunities”. There
could be different barriers and challenges while implementing the presented
approach. The barriers and challenges need further attention in future research. The
integration of social aspects in the framework and in the case studies can be further
improved. Matured approaches for social-LCA to address this issue are needed. The
approach shown here is applicable to all other LCM tools such as S-LCA and
LCC. Additional case studies can demonstrate the integration of the LCM tools
using the approach described.
Open Access This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
Noncommercial License, which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
References
EC (2014) Non-fi nancial reporting. http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/accounting/nonfi nancial_
reporting/index_en.htm . Accessed 13 Aug 2014
Eccles RG, Ioannou I, Serafeim G (2012) The impact of a corporate culture of sustainability on corporate behavior and performance. Working paper, 12–035, 9 May 2012, Harvard Business School
Economist (2014) Enter the Chinese NGO: the Communist Party is giving more freedom to a revolutionary idea. http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21600683-communist-partygivingmore-freedom-revolutionary-idea-enter-chinese-ngo . Accessed 11 June 2014
B.M.K. Manda et al.
We acknowledge the limitations of the LCA approach in terms of the development
of methods for impacts such as biodiversity and toxicity, lack of inventory, uncertainties in data and methods, limited guidance on allocation for different product
categories, etc. (Finnveden et al. 2009 ). Resource requirements are also acting as
limitation for implementing LCA. Companies can also create value with customer
experience, products with superior aesthetics, feel, etc. These aspects might not be
captured by LCA, if its unit of analysis, i.e. the functional unit, cannot take these
aspects into account. LCA is not easily able to capture the perception and preferences of people, taste, and emotional value attached to products, hence it cannot
help companies to create value in terms of these aspects.
5 Conclusions
The main contribution of this chapter to the fi eld of sustainability, especially
corporate and product sustainability, is twofold. First, the authors have presented an
approach to embed LCA in the corporate context and align environmental sustainability with business priorities. Second, they have shown how to synthesize and
communicate all the different aspects in a coherent way, presenting LCA results to
the managers of different business functions using an LCA-based value creation
approach. This communication approach is a combination of “drivers-LCA metrics
business decisions-stakeholder responses-value creation opportunities”. There
could be different barriers and challenges while implementing the presented
approach. The barriers and challenges need further attention in future research. The
integration of social aspects in the framework and in the case studies can be further
improved. Matured approaches for social-LCA to address this issue are needed. The
approach shown here is applicable to all other LCM tools such as S-LCA and
LCC. Additional case studies can demonstrate the integration of the LCM tools
using the approach described.
Open Access This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
Noncommercial License, which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
References
EC (2014) Non-fi nancial reporting. http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/accounting/nonfi nancial_
reporting/index_en.htm . Accessed 13 Aug 2014
Eccles RG, Ioannou I, Serafeim G (2012) The impact of a corporate culture of sustainability on corporate behavior and performance. Working paper, 12–035, 9 May 2012, Harvard Business School
Economist (2014) Enter the Chinese NGO: the Communist Party is giving more freedom to a revolutionary idea. http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21600683-communist-partygivingmore-freedom-revolutionary-idea-enter-chinese-ngo . Accessed 11 June 2014
B.M.K. Manda et al.