290
5 Conclusion
As outlined throughout the previous sections, two major challenges for mainstreaming
life cycle management exist that are intrinsically linked: collaboration and communication. In order to radically increase the take up of life cycle based approaches in
business and government, life cycle professionals need to enhance global collaboration among themselves, users of life cycle information, as well as with others and
communicate to a wider set of stakeholders.
To facilitate this process, a home for the community is needed that enables it to
become one coherent and clearly identifi able stakeholder but also acts as a central
information and networking hub within the community. Such a home would need to
respond to a variety of issues and gaps, as identifi ed before. It would also need to
make an effort to provide not only a space for collaboration and communication, but
more importantly be rooted in a shared set of ideas and principles. Community
members will need to be able to identify easily with the new organisation and be
interested to engage with the organization and its members to jointly shape its future.
The newly established Forum for Sustainability through Life Cycle (FSLCI) is
built around these considerations and will need to demonstrate in going forward that
it can live up to and address the issues outlined throughout this chapter. Its success
will be largely depended on its acceptance by the community, in particular those life
cycle practitioners that make changes in real life by putting LCM theory outlined in
the fi rst part of this book into practice. At the moment, it remains to be seen, whether
the life cycle community is ready to become a stakeholder of its own. Whether it is
ready to get out of the niche, and aim for actual global change towards creating a
global sustainable society, where decision makers have fully integrated life cycle
management into their regular decision making processes.
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
Atkinson L (2014) Wild west’ of eco-labels: sustainability claims are confusing consumers. The
Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/eco-labels-sustainability-trustcorporate- government . Accessed 13 Mar 2015
Baron DP, Harjoto M, Jo H (2009) The economics and politics of corporate social performance.
Graduate School of Stanford Business. Working paper no. 1993
Bjørn A, Owsianiak MI, Laurent A, Molin C, Westh TB, Hauschild MZ (2013) Mapping and
characterization of LCA networks. Int J Life Cycle Assess 18:812–827
CIP (2015) The 10YFP consumer information program (CIP). www.unep.org/10yfp/Programmes/
ProgrammeConsultationandCurrentStatus/Consumerinformation/tabid/106265/Default.aspx .
Accessed 28 Feb 2015
European Commission (2015) The product environmental footprint pilots. http://ec.europa.eu/
environment/eussd/smgp/pef_pilots.htm . Accessed 16 Mar 2015
P. Strothmann et al.
5 Conclusion
As outlined throughout the previous sections, two major challenges for mainstreaming
life cycle management exist that are intrinsically linked: collaboration and communication. In order to radically increase the take up of life cycle based approaches in
business and government, life cycle professionals need to enhance global collaboration among themselves, users of life cycle information, as well as with others and
communicate to a wider set of stakeholders.
To facilitate this process, a home for the community is needed that enables it to
become one coherent and clearly identifi able stakeholder but also acts as a central
information and networking hub within the community. Such a home would need to
respond to a variety of issues and gaps, as identifi ed before. It would also need to
make an effort to provide not only a space for collaboration and communication, but
more importantly be rooted in a shared set of ideas and principles. Community
members will need to be able to identify easily with the new organisation and be
interested to engage with the organization and its members to jointly shape its future.
The newly established Forum for Sustainability through Life Cycle (FSLCI) is
built around these considerations and will need to demonstrate in going forward that
it can live up to and address the issues outlined throughout this chapter. Its success
will be largely depended on its acceptance by the community, in particular those life
cycle practitioners that make changes in real life by putting LCM theory outlined in
the fi rst part of this book into practice. At the moment, it remains to be seen, whether
the life cycle community is ready to become a stakeholder of its own. Whether it is
ready to get out of the niche, and aim for actual global change towards creating a
global sustainable society, where decision makers have fully integrated life cycle
management into their regular decision making processes.
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
Atkinson L (2014) Wild west’ of eco-labels: sustainability claims are confusing consumers. The
Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/eco-labels-sustainability-trustcorporate- government . Accessed 13 Mar 2015
Baron DP, Harjoto M, Jo H (2009) The economics and politics of corporate social performance.
Graduate School of Stanford Business. Working paper no. 1993
Bjørn A, Owsianiak MI, Laurent A, Molin C, Westh TB, Hauschild MZ (2013) Mapping and
characterization of LCA networks. Int J Life Cycle Assess 18:812–827
CIP (2015) The 10YFP consumer information program (CIP). www.unep.org/10yfp/Programmes/
ProgrammeConsultationandCurrentStatus/Consumerinformation/tabid/106265/Default.aspx .
Accessed 28 Feb 2015
European Commission (2015) The product environmental footprint pilots. http://ec.europa.eu/
environment/eussd/smgp/pef_pilots.htm . Accessed 16 Mar 2015
P. Strothmann et al.