Life Cycle Management Responsibilities and Procedures in the Value Chain

Abstract

Product life cycles and companies' value chain dynamics now extend to far-away countries, linking a multitude of end-users with numerous upstream suppliers and manufacturers. The breadth of the sustainability issues of popular concern, together with the complex nature of supply chains from which they arise, leads to serious management challenges. These challenges have been met in different ways depending on the interests and the institutional context of the actors. Corporations are strongly focused on optimizing product performance through a reliance on life cycle assessment based procedures. Commodity sectors are often seeking harmonized sustainability performance across a broad geographical range. Management institutions and business associations are providing life cycle management frameworks for corporations, followed up with training, and further research into improved metrics. At regional level some efforts have been made to introduce life cycle approaches, e.g. sustainable procurement, but the formal application of structured life cycle management is not yet widespread. The different approaches taken by the above actors reflects not only their different situations, but also the lack of a clear universal framework for life cycle management and a more generalized toolbox that will support their sustainability ambitions throughout the value chain. Limitations of current life cycle assessment methodologies imply that not all sustainability challenges are addressed in a consistent manner.