4
however, for many business sectors, competition is now truly global and fi ercer than
ever, making it necessary to have the focus on profi table growth and to being able to
react very fl exible to changing market requirements. The ancient quote “Change is
the only constant in life” (generally attributed to Heraclitus of Ephesus, a Greek
philosopher, who lived from 535 BC to 475 BC) is today more valid than ever.
How can this fast-paced business reality that inevitably aims at profi tability,
short and long-term, be married with the need to balance long-term fi nancial,
environmental, governance, and social impacts and benefi ts?
The traditional view in environmental management and later in sustainability
management can be characterized by:
• Concentrating on internal operations (“inside the factory walls”)
• Targeting cost savings through effi ciency improvements and related reductions
in material and energy use as well as waste generation
• Assurance of compliance to regulatory and other explicitly stated requirements
(international standards, customer requests, etc.)
• Risk management, mainly to avoid liability issues and reputational damage
This perspective, which was shared by most governments and other stakeholders,
was prevalent in most business organizations from the early 1990s and well into the
new millennium and is still the standard in many organizations today. It is often
represented by organizations, where the sustainability function is a sub-function of
Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS).
It is obvious that this internally focused cost savings, compliance, and risk
management approach can only be a basis, but will never be suffi cient to address the
aforementioned business challenges and align with the primary profi tability goals of
any business organization in a market economy.
2 The Role of Life Cycle Management
This is where life cycle management, fi rst discussed in the pioneering 1st
International Conference on Life Cycle Management organized by Allan Astrup
Jensen ( 2001 ), then formally introduced by David Hunkeler (Hunkeler et al. 2004 )
and later extended by Matthias Finkbeiner (Finkbeiner, ed, 2011 ) towards life cycle
sustainability management, comes in by:
• Expanding the scope to also address upstream (supply chain) and downstream
activities (customers and their customers, and products)
• Addressing not only environmental but also social and economic aspects throughout the life cycle of products and services
• Linking sustainability management and performance of organizations and
products to business value and value creation
Expanding the scope means to include the complete value chain, both from the
product perspective (life cycle thinking), but also in the sense of value chain
G. Rebitzer
however, for many business sectors, competition is now truly global and fi ercer than
ever, making it necessary to have the focus on profi table growth and to being able to
react very fl exible to changing market requirements. The ancient quote “Change is
the only constant in life” (generally attributed to Heraclitus of Ephesus, a Greek
philosopher, who lived from 535 BC to 475 BC) is today more valid than ever.
How can this fast-paced business reality that inevitably aims at profi tability,
short and long-term, be married with the need to balance long-term fi nancial,
environmental, governance, and social impacts and benefi ts?
The traditional view in environmental management and later in sustainability
management can be characterized by:
• Concentrating on internal operations (“inside the factory walls”)
• Targeting cost savings through effi ciency improvements and related reductions
in material and energy use as well as waste generation
• Assurance of compliance to regulatory and other explicitly stated requirements
(international standards, customer requests, etc.)
• Risk management, mainly to avoid liability issues and reputational damage
This perspective, which was shared by most governments and other stakeholders,
was prevalent in most business organizations from the early 1990s and well into the
new millennium and is still the standard in many organizations today. It is often
represented by organizations, where the sustainability function is a sub-function of
Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS).
It is obvious that this internally focused cost savings, compliance, and risk
management approach can only be a basis, but will never be suffi cient to address the
aforementioned business challenges and align with the primary profi tability goals of
any business organization in a market economy.
2 The Role of Life Cycle Management
This is where life cycle management, fi rst discussed in the pioneering 1st
International Conference on Life Cycle Management organized by Allan Astrup
Jensen ( 2001 ), then formally introduced by David Hunkeler (Hunkeler et al. 2004 )
and later extended by Matthias Finkbeiner (Finkbeiner, ed, 2011 ) towards life cycle
sustainability management, comes in by:
• Expanding the scope to also address upstream (supply chain) and downstream
activities (customers and their customers, and products)
• Addressing not only environmental but also social and economic aspects throughout the life cycle of products and services
• Linking sustainability management and performance of organizations and
products to business value and value creation
Expanding the scope means to include the complete value chain, both from the
product perspective (life cycle thinking), but also in the sense of value chain
G. Rebitzer