Sustainable Value Creation with Life Cycle Management

Abstract

Life cycle management has gained traction in the last decades. However, even today it is not yet implemented in all companies due to lack of the connection between sustainability and value creation. In fact, managers are pressed to deliver value, and their performance is measured on how well they deliver the value. In this chapter the authors contribute to bridging the gap between sustainability science and business management by application of life cycle assessment (LCA) in corporate sustainability and aligning it with business activities/functions and value creation. They illustrate the context of corporations, sustainable value creation opportunities and the role of different business functions in integrating sustainability in the core business. Two cases demonstrate how business functions can use LCA-based insights for business decisions and how they are directly connected with value creation opportunities.