254
impact of environmental issues and aligning LCM initiatives with the company’s
business strategy. The pilots and observations from mature company programs
highlighted the need to support efforts to develop the technical capacity for LCA
and LCM with complementary resources to address softer management issues associated with individual and organizational development. The success of the pilots
was correlated with strong management vision and direction and greater crossfunctional representation on project teams. In fact, one of the greatest benefi ts of the
LCA studies conducted might be the enhanced communication across functional
groups, supply chain partners and customers. The Renault Collaborative LCA
emphasized the importance of developing relationships that crossed organizational
boundaries to improve value chain performance.
The collaboration among companies within a geographic region can be a powerful facilitator for disseminating LCM, particularly in developing economies. The
networks facilitated by SDA and FICCI are models for future efforts to promote
LCM. SMEs often lack the resources necessary to help champion and support
change initiatives develop new procedures and systems due to the pressing competitive priorities, production schedules, etc. The external support of a credible organization can be a critical factor in overcoming the inertia to change. It is important that
the human change management issues receive the same attention as concern for the
technical methodological details of LCA and LCM. It is also important to recognize
that companies face numerous market and regulatory barriers to implementing
LCM. The social networks, and especially collaboration with government agencies,
will be a necessary factor in negotiating policies that facilitate sustainable consumption and production.
A pressing need is more rigorous evaluation of the effi cacy of LCM CMM in
promoting faster learning in business and in producing outcomes that do move business toward more sustainable practices. The customized maturity assessments
developed by FICCI and Renault raise an interesting dilemma. Is it better to tailor
the maturity assessment to be more relevant to the local context and company priorities, or work towards a more standardized assessment that would facilitate correlating performance with maturity level? A fundamental challenge in evaluating the
effi cacy of LCM CMM is that there is no broad consensus on the desired end state.
Views of sustainability are value-laden, and different groups will value the same
outcome differently. It would be interesting to revisit these pilot studies in 6 months
to a year for a retrospective evaluation of the benefi ts achieved.
Acknowledgements and Disclaimer The views expressed do not necessarily represent the
decision or the stated policy of the United Nations Environment Program. Funding from the
European Commission is kindly acknowledged for the case studies presented in Sect. 2.2.1 .
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.
T.E. Swarr et al.
impact of environmental issues and aligning LCM initiatives with the company’s
business strategy. The pilots and observations from mature company programs
highlighted the need to support efforts to develop the technical capacity for LCA
and LCM with complementary resources to address softer management issues associated with individual and organizational development. The success of the pilots
was correlated with strong management vision and direction and greater crossfunctional representation on project teams. In fact, one of the greatest benefi ts of the
LCA studies conducted might be the enhanced communication across functional
groups, supply chain partners and customers. The Renault Collaborative LCA
emphasized the importance of developing relationships that crossed organizational
boundaries to improve value chain performance.
The collaboration among companies within a geographic region can be a powerful facilitator for disseminating LCM, particularly in developing economies. The
networks facilitated by SDA and FICCI are models for future efforts to promote
LCM. SMEs often lack the resources necessary to help champion and support
change initiatives develop new procedures and systems due to the pressing competitive priorities, production schedules, etc. The external support of a credible organization can be a critical factor in overcoming the inertia to change. It is important that
the human change management issues receive the same attention as concern for the
technical methodological details of LCA and LCM. It is also important to recognize
that companies face numerous market and regulatory barriers to implementing
LCM. The social networks, and especially collaboration with government agencies,
will be a necessary factor in negotiating policies that facilitate sustainable consumption and production.
A pressing need is more rigorous evaluation of the effi cacy of LCM CMM in
promoting faster learning in business and in producing outcomes that do move business toward more sustainable practices. The customized maturity assessments
developed by FICCI and Renault raise an interesting dilemma. Is it better to tailor
the maturity assessment to be more relevant to the local context and company priorities, or work towards a more standardized assessment that would facilitate correlating performance with maturity level? A fundamental challenge in evaluating the
effi cacy of LCM CMM is that there is no broad consensus on the desired end state.
Views of sustainability are value-laden, and different groups will value the same
outcome differently. It would be interesting to revisit these pilot studies in 6 months
to a year for a retrospective evaluation of the benefi ts achieved.
Acknowledgements and Disclaimer The views expressed do not necessarily represent the
decision or the stated policy of the United Nations Environment Program. Funding from the
European Commission is kindly acknowledged for the case studies presented in Sect. 2.2.1 .
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.
T.E. Swarr et al.