24
Keywords Life cycle assessment • Life cycle management • Sustainability • Value
creation
1 Introduction
The role sustainability plays differs from one organization to another. This is also
true across different functions within the same company. Indeed, an organization is
not homogeneous, and the needs of departments such as operations, marketing,
product development, sales and other stakeholders within the company are often
very different. They are also very different in how they are impacted by the risks and
opportunities posed by the sustainability topic. A one-fi t-for-all solution to make
sustainability operational within an organization is therefore not feasible, but rather
the right approach needs to be tailored to the unique context, resources and constraints of the company or department in question.
Many companies have started their journey towards sustainability in response to
stakeholder or customer requests, or sometimes through a strong personal commitment of key individuals. However, today’s corporations are inherently profi t-driven
by the necessity of competition and so, to be integrated into the company and
become part of the company’s DNA and strategy, sustainability needs to create
value for the corporation itself (Bonini and Schwartz 2014 ). If not connected to the
business it can easily be disregarded in challenging economic conditions. In addition, today’s corporations conduct their core business with great effi ciency and
alignment of sustainability with these core operations ensures a rapid and effective
trajectory for achieving outcomes in comparison to treating sustainability work as a
form of philanthropy.
Systematic integration of sustainability into strategic initiatives is key to achievement of meaningful sustainability related goals, since the long-term changes
required are likely to be drastic departures from today’s status quo and the path to
achieving them is often as-yet unclear and quickly evolving. A strategic focus on
sustainability allows appropriate actions to be taken at the right moment, as the
context of the sustainability discussion plays out over the long term. Life cycle
thinking is a key to achieving this strategic alignment by allowing companies to
understand their position within the broad context of sustainability. Today’s leaders
in the sustainability space are continually fi nding creative ways to adapt life cycle
thinking to the whole organization as well as its products and services, thus leading
to a better understanding of consumer preferences, stakeholder pressure, existing
regulation and future trends.
Life cycle management (LCM) is “a fl exible integrated management framework
of concepts, techniques and procedures incorporating environmental, economic,
and social aspects of products, processes and organizations” (UNEP 2006 , UNEP/
SETAC 2009 ) to achieve the integration of sustainable development into the
company, along the whole value chain (O’Rourke 2014 ).
S. Harbi et al.
Keywords Life cycle assessment • Life cycle management • Sustainability • Value
creation
1 Introduction
The role sustainability plays differs from one organization to another. This is also
true across different functions within the same company. Indeed, an organization is
not homogeneous, and the needs of departments such as operations, marketing,
product development, sales and other stakeholders within the company are often
very different. They are also very different in how they are impacted by the risks and
opportunities posed by the sustainability topic. A one-fi t-for-all solution to make
sustainability operational within an organization is therefore not feasible, but rather
the right approach needs to be tailored to the unique context, resources and constraints of the company or department in question.
Many companies have started their journey towards sustainability in response to
stakeholder or customer requests, or sometimes through a strong personal commitment of key individuals. However, today’s corporations are inherently profi t-driven
by the necessity of competition and so, to be integrated into the company and
become part of the company’s DNA and strategy, sustainability needs to create
value for the corporation itself (Bonini and Schwartz 2014 ). If not connected to the
business it can easily be disregarded in challenging economic conditions. In addition, today’s corporations conduct their core business with great effi ciency and
alignment of sustainability with these core operations ensures a rapid and effective
trajectory for achieving outcomes in comparison to treating sustainability work as a
form of philanthropy.
Systematic integration of sustainability into strategic initiatives is key to achievement of meaningful sustainability related goals, since the long-term changes
required are likely to be drastic departures from today’s status quo and the path to
achieving them is often as-yet unclear and quickly evolving. A strategic focus on
sustainability allows appropriate actions to be taken at the right moment, as the
context of the sustainability discussion plays out over the long term. Life cycle
thinking is a key to achieving this strategic alignment by allowing companies to
understand their position within the broad context of sustainability. Today’s leaders
in the sustainability space are continually fi nding creative ways to adapt life cycle
thinking to the whole organization as well as its products and services, thus leading
to a better understanding of consumer preferences, stakeholder pressure, existing
regulation and future trends.
Life cycle management (LCM) is “a fl exible integrated management framework
of concepts, techniques and procedures incorporating environmental, economic,
and social aspects of products, processes and organizations” (UNEP 2006 , UNEP/
SETAC 2009 ) to achieve the integration of sustainable development into the
company, along the whole value chain (O’Rourke 2014 ).
S. Harbi et al.