The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment

The UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative has been promoting the development and dissemination of a life cycle management capability maturity model (LCM CMM) to fully operationalize and eventually mainstream LCA into all facets of business, including product development, marketing, and strategic decision-making business processes. The capability framework defines a logical sequence of skill building based on the experiences of sustainability leaders that can speed learning for companies with less mature programs. Business improvement projects are designed to incrementally expand the span of concern from company objectives, to value chain viability, and ultimately to societal needs, while broadening the base of information and engaging a wider set of stakeholder views. The UNEP/SETAC sponsored pilot tests of the LCM CMM in Cameroon, Uganda, South Africa, India, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru. The results from the pilot conducted by Secretaria Distrital de Ambiente (SDA) and a network of 22 companies in Bogotá, Colombia, are presented to illustrate how the capability approach can be applied and highlight lessons learned to promote further dissemination of life cycle practices. The companies were able to apply the concepts to develop accurate, representative assessments of organizational maturity and to identify reasonable improvement projects that delivered some financial value in the short term, addressed a management system gap identified in the maturity assessment, and could be completed within the schedule deadline of the contract (∼6 to 9 months). The projects included an LCA of cleaning products, collaboration among three companies to find a better solution for managing a waste stream of coffee “silver skins,” a streamlined assessment of acrylic products, an LCA of disposable polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS) cups, and a qualitative screening of operations of a transit company. The paper discusses how the results of the studies were used to identify specific improvement projects tailored to the specific needs and priorities of each company. The pilot projects showed that the capability maturity approach had intuitive appeal and the companies were able to apply the concepts to their organizations with limited technical support and identify an appropriate improvement project with LC relevance. This suggests there should be less emphasis on LCA as a tool to identify projects and more as a method to gain insights for effective implementation of business-relevant projects. One key question is how to sustain the energy and ongoing improvements fostered by this pilot program.

In life cycle assessment (LCA), resource availability is currently evaluated by means of models based on depletion time, surplus energy, etc. Economic aspects influencing the security of supply and affecting availability of resources for human use are neglected. The aim of this work is the development of a new model for the assessment of resource provision capability from an economic angle, complementing existing LCA models. The inclusion of criteria affecting the economic system enables an identification of potential supply risks associated with resource use. In step with actual practice, such an assessment provides added value compared to conventional (environmental) resource assessment within LCA. Analysis of resource availability including economic information is of major importance to sustain industrial production. New impact categories and characterization models are developed for the assessment of economic resource availability based on existing LCA methodology and terminology. A single score result can be calculated providing information about the economic resource scarcity potential (ESP) of different resources. Based on a life cycle perspective, the supply risk associated with resource use can be assessed, and bottlenecks within the supply chain can be identified. The analysis can be conducted in connection with existing LCA procedures and in line with current resource assessment practice and facilitates easy implementation on an organizational level. A portfolio of 17 metals is assessed based on different impact categories. Different impact factors are calculated, enabling identification of high-risk metals. Furthermore, a comparison of ESP and abiotic depletion potential (ADP) is conducted. Availability of resources differs significantly when economic aspects are taken into account in addition to geologic availability. Resources assumed uncritical based on ADP results, such as rare earths, turn out to be associated with high supply risks. The model developed in this work allows for a more realistic assessment of resource availability beyond geologic finiteness. The new impact categories provide organizations with a practical measure to identify supply risks associated with resources. The assessment delivers a basis for developing appropriate mitigation measures and for increasing resilience towards supply disruptions. By including an economic dimension into resource availability assessment, a contribution towards life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) is achieved.