8
Keywords Application life cycle management • Data life cycle management
- Information life cycle management • Life cycle assessment • Life cycle management
• Life cycle sustainability management • Product life cycle management • Sustainability
1 Life Cycle Management and Life Cycle Sustainability
Management: A Clarifi cation of Terms
A web search on life cycle management (LCM) results in a link to the UNEP/
SETAC Life Cycle Initiative’s website as well as the offi cial UNEP website on life
cycle management and the publication of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative on
Life Cycle Management: A Business Guide to Sustainability (Remmen et al. 2007 ),
to which the authors of this chapter as co-initiator and co-authors of the UNEP publication will refer to. Moreover, links of LCM events from the fi rst held in
Copenhagen to the recent conferences in Gothenburg ( http://lcm2013.org/ ) and the
upcoming event in Bordeaux ( http://lcm2015.org/ ) are among the top ten search
results jointly with references to product life cycle management (PLCM) and information life cycle management (ILCM).
These considerations are the motivation for the authors to use Life Cycle
Management: Implementing Sustainability in Business Practice as the title for this
chapter.
Looking at some of the existing defi nitions of LCM that are summarized in
Table 2.1 , LCM seems to be a concept with a broad variety of approaches and methodological tools. Companies apply it in a number of different ways in order to
achieve the desired outcomes, as far as it relates to their sustainability performance.
The theoretical background for LCM has been developed by a SETAC Working
Group (Hunkeler et al. 2004 ). Yet there is no universal defi nition of LCM.
1
LCM is mainly a business management concept for sustainable products that can
be applied in the industrial and service sectors with the aim of improving specifi c
goods and services and enhancing the overall sustainability performance of the
business and its value chains in general. It makes life cycle thinking and product
sustainability operational for businesses that are ambitious and are committed to
reduce their environmental and socio-economic burden, while maximizing economic and social values. In this regard, LCM is used beyond the short-term business
success; rather it aims at taking businesses forward towards long-term achievements
and sustainable value creation. So LCM requires a holistic view and a full understanding of interdependency of businesses in order to support relevant decisions and
actions so as to improve sustainability performance that takes into account both the
environmental and social benefi ts and at the same time offer a number of value creation opportunities to the business.
1 Seemingly similar, but unrelated, terms include product lifecycle management (PLM), application life cycle management (ALM) for software, and data lifecycle management (DLM).
G. Sonnemann et al.
Keywords Application life cycle management • Data life cycle management
- Information life cycle management • Life cycle assessment • Life cycle management
• Life cycle sustainability management • Product life cycle management • Sustainability
1 Life Cycle Management and Life Cycle Sustainability
Management: A Clarifi cation of Terms
A web search on life cycle management (LCM) results in a link to the UNEP/
SETAC Life Cycle Initiative’s website as well as the offi cial UNEP website on life
cycle management and the publication of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative on
Life Cycle Management: A Business Guide to Sustainability (Remmen et al. 2007 ),
to which the authors of this chapter as co-initiator and co-authors of the UNEP publication will refer to. Moreover, links of LCM events from the fi rst held in
Copenhagen to the recent conferences in Gothenburg ( http://lcm2013.org/ ) and the
upcoming event in Bordeaux ( http://lcm2015.org/ ) are among the top ten search
results jointly with references to product life cycle management (PLCM) and information life cycle management (ILCM).
These considerations are the motivation for the authors to use Life Cycle
Management: Implementing Sustainability in Business Practice as the title for this
chapter.
Looking at some of the existing defi nitions of LCM that are summarized in
Table 2.1 , LCM seems to be a concept with a broad variety of approaches and methodological tools. Companies apply it in a number of different ways in order to
achieve the desired outcomes, as far as it relates to their sustainability performance.
The theoretical background for LCM has been developed by a SETAC Working
Group (Hunkeler et al. 2004 ). Yet there is no universal defi nition of LCM.
1
LCM is mainly a business management concept for sustainable products that can
be applied in the industrial and service sectors with the aim of improving specifi c
goods and services and enhancing the overall sustainability performance of the
business and its value chains in general. It makes life cycle thinking and product
sustainability operational for businesses that are ambitious and are committed to
reduce their environmental and socio-economic burden, while maximizing economic and social values. In this regard, LCM is used beyond the short-term business
success; rather it aims at taking businesses forward towards long-term achievements
and sustainable value creation. So LCM requires a holistic view and a full understanding of interdependency of businesses in order to support relevant decisions and
actions so as to improve sustainability performance that takes into account both the
environmental and social benefi ts and at the same time offer a number of value creation opportunities to the business.
1 Seemingly similar, but unrelated, terms include product lifecycle management (PLM), application life cycle management (ALM) for software, and data lifecycle management (DLM).
G. Sonnemann et al.