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Lifecycle analysis (LCA) techniques can be used to quantify the environmental performance of a product, process, or service. This article describes several LCA methods and their application to supply chains.
Whether managing existing supply chains or developing new products and services, companies are increasingly concerned about their environmental footprint, including natural resource consumption and waste generation. To fully understand product sustainability, a business must consider not only its own operations, but also its entire network of suppliers, customers, and supporting resources. This article describes the methods and challenges of lifecycle assessment - a comprehensive approach for quantifying the environmental sustainability of supply chains, from raw material acquisition to end-of-life material recovery.
The expanding scope of corporate sustainability
Over the last decade, environmental sustainability has evolved from an obscure fringe concept to a mainstream concern at the highest levels of corporate governance. This dramatic shift is partly due to changes in the business environment - anxieties over climate change and energy security, increased pressures from stakeholder advocacy groups, and regulatory directives that oblige companies to consider the environmental impacts of their products and operations.
Another key force driving the adoption of sustainability principles has been a growing understanding of its influences on competitiveness and shareholder value creation. As early as the 1980s, companies like 3M began to see a connection between cleaner production and operational efficiency, and began to proactively modify their production processes and technologies to generate less pollution and waste. Common pollution prevention practices include better housekeeping, more-efficient use of resources, elimination of toxic or hazardous substances, process simplification, source reduction, and recycling of process wastes.
By the 1990s, many companies had taken the next logical step - applying these concepts to the full product lifecycle and incorporating environmental awareness into their product development processes. Through programs such as Responsible Care (the global voluntary initiative under which chemical companies work to improve their health, safety and environmental performance, and to communicate with stakeholders about their products and processes), the concepts of product stewardship and corporate citizenship emerged, signifying a broad commitment by companies to environmental and social responsibility. Leading companies, such as SC Johnson, Kimberly-Clark, and Xerox, have adopted design for environment strategies, which include eliminating toxic constituents, reducing packaging, conserving energy, utilizing...