Abstract
The main objective of this research is to make a contribution to bridge the gap between sustainability science and business management by improving the integration of sustainability in core business of corporations. The core business of corporations is to provide products and services to meet societal needs. Corporations through their
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decisions cause various impacts on the environment and society while providing these products and services. Business decisions are made by business functions such as innovation, business development, marketing and procurement. These business functions need guidance and metrics to improve the sustainability performance of the products and services. The metrics should consider the complexity of product value chains that encompass various geographic scopes, different environmental and social problems depending on product groups and be able to provide support in the decision-making of different business functions. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a systems tool which can help corporations to understand the impacts of their value chain and innovation process and can provide support in the decision-making process. Systems thinking helps to understand the different parts within the system and their relation to other systems. LCA is a systems tool that allows to evaluate and improve the environmental performance of products by providing powerful insights into the whole value chain. By doing this, LCA avoids shifting of impacts from one process step/industry to another, from one impact category to another and from one place to another. This thesis presents a pragmatic approach and can help companies to allocate resources such as budget and manpower to use LCA and embed sustainability in their decisions. This is due to its alignment with business priorities and clarity on how different aspects can be related. Owing to this approach, LCA can act as a means to the end, i.e. to integrate environmental sustainability in business and implement sustainability in companies, by translating and shifting focus from impacts to business decisions. LCA is a powerful tool despite its limitations such as methodological and uncertainty issues (see chapter 6). LCA can act as a vehicle to develop superior products, services and business models as long as the practitioners and stakeholders create enabling conditions for its success. We found that there are some pre-conditions, which need further research and efforts, to integrate environmental sustainability in core business and to successfully implement sustainability in companies. In this thesis, we worked with a few business to business (B2B) companies in some industries and have shown their influence and interdependence on B2C companies for value creation. Sustainability practitioners need to understand business processes of different industries in both business to business and, more importantly, business to consumer (B2C) companies due to the inherent complexity which arises from the breadth of their product portfolios and numerous suppliers. Moreover, the interactions of business processes and decision-making should be understood from the whole value chain perspective which encompasses both B2B and B2C companies. Proper tools and metrics should be developed that suit their circumstances. Many of these changes need commitment of top management and right incentives to embed sustainability in core business of companies. To support specific decisions, supply chain specific inventory data should be developed by companies. Sustainable value creation needs cross-functional collaboration within the companies and also between partners of the whole value chain. The value creation opportunities should be identified for different stakeholders in the value chain to ensure their commitment to collaboration and sustainability. Therefore, businesses should concentrate on all these aspects. There is a need to create a level playing field for companies to compete on equal terms based on harmonized and scientifically robust methodologies. Demand needs to be created for the consideration of environmental issues in buying choices (both B2C companies and end consumers). Therefore, governments, multi-stakeholder organizations and NGOs need to support harmonization of approaches and create mechanisms for influencing customer (B2C companies) and consumer behaviour.
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