Using life-cycle assessments in large corporations: A survey of current practices

Industries presently face a challenge to maintain competitiveness while creating minimal adverse impacts on the environment. The conventional concerns of product functionality, quality, and cost are further complicated by environmental considerations. Thus, corporate environmental strategies are evolving toward a life-cycle approach by implementing life-cycle analysis (LCA), design for environment (DFE), and environmentally conscious design and manufacturing (ECDM) practices. These life-cycle concepts provide a tool for industry to identify and evaluate opportunities to minimize environmental burdens from cradle to grave. A mail survey administered by Vanderbilt University's U.S.-Japan Center for Technology Management was sent to 175 U.S. corporations from the 1994 Fortune 500 list. The results show that more than half of the 56 respondents are using life-cycle concepts for environmental assessments, with marketing and cost issues as the primary motivation factors. Hi-tech and personal care firms are more active in implementing LCAs while chemical and intermediate companies are more involved with maintaining databases and utilizing LCA tools. The survey and this article show how life-cycle thinking has not been adequately integrated throughout corporate organizations, and most environmental efforts are initiated by the environmental affairs department. However, the percentage of top management involvement has increased since 1992 and is now at moderate levels. LCA methods need to be further developed in order to expand their industrial acceptability.     

Reducing life-cycle environmental impacts: An industry survey of emerging tools and programs

Corporate environmental practices have been evolving quite rapidly in recent years, as consumers express their preferences for environmentally friendly products and practices, as manufacturers look “upstream” and inquire into their suppliers' environmental practices due to liability and marketing concerns, and as company operating costs increase as a result of new environmental regulations. New corporate efforts are made to anticipate (rather than respond to) outside environmental pressures, to internalize costs, and to find strategic opportunities or competitive advantages based on company or product environmental performance. This article describes a survey and research project designed to explore one aspect of these evolving corporate practices—the use of analytical tools and associated programs, such as life-cycle assessment and design-for-environment—by companies to account for impacts throughout a product'S life-cycle.     

Elements of effective DFE program management and product stewardship

Design for the Environment (DFE) is a systems-oriented approach for designing more ecologically and economically sustainable product systems. It couples the product development cycle used in business with the physical life-cycle of a product. DFE integrates environmental requirements into the earliest stages of design so total impacts caused by product systems can be reduced. With DFE practices, environmental, performance, cost, cultural, and legal requirements are balanced. Concepts such as concurrent design, total quality management, cross-disciplinary teams, and multiattribute decision making are essential elements of DFE.¹ In this article, the authors show how these DFE initiatives can provide the design and product development teams with the training, information, decision support tools, and procedures that ensure improved product development decisions and environmental performance.     

油田企业实施环境管理会计制度的必要性

通过对油田企业落实科学发展观、减轻环境压力、促进油田企业自身健康有序发展、寻求国家环境政策的支持、实现可持续发展、提高油田企业国际竞争力等几方面实施原因进行分析,并与传统会计相对比,充分挖掘实施环境管理会计制度的益处,阐述了油田企业建立和实施环境管理会计制度的必要性和紧迫性,强调了油田企业只有实施环境管理会计制度,才能增强企业竞争力,扩大市场份额,减少环境风险,实现企业永续经营。     

Improving environmental management with full environmental cost accounting

Based on the most comprehensive field research ever conducted in corporate environmental management, this article reports on the integration of environmental impacts into product costing and cost management practices in organizations. It examines approaches for identifying and tracking current environmental costs related to both current and past production. It also develops the need and prospects for a complete analysis of future environmental impacts, including both costs and benefits, and the integration of these elements into a life-cycle costing or full environmental cost accounting model. The prospects for full environmental cost accounting and the related accounting issues are analyzed. Finally, the importance of full environmental cost accounting for improving corporate environmental performance, reducing corporate environmental impacts, and increasing long-term corporate profitability is discussed.     

Hazardous waste indicators for national decision makers

Indicators and indices are important tools that assist decision makers to formulate and implement plans for management at local, national and international levels. Four indicators for hazardous waste management are described that have recently been adopted within the United Nations framework of Indicators of Sustainable Development. Although these four indicators will be useful tools, the need for a broader range of policy-relevant qualitative and quantitative indicators, proxy indicators and indices is outlined. The argument is advanced that in order for all nations to better manage the range of hazardous waste issues, including waste generation, export/import and disposal, a set of innovative indicators and indices is required. Useful indicators and indices are described that could be used to link and quantify likely environmental, ecosystem and health impacts and risks especially from hazardous waste disposal. Indicators are also suggested that could be used to illustrate the shift in industrial strategy away from end-of-pipe processes towards waste recycling, cleaner production and integrated life-cycle analysis. It was concluded that until the lack of reliable and harmonized data on hazardous waste is addressed, indicator development and use by national and international decision makers cannot readily be implemented.     

Detection and decision-making in environmental effects monitoring

The majority of environmental effects monitoring (EEM) frameworks that have been proposed compare selected indicator variables as a means of assessing whether significant changes in stressed ecosystems have occurred. Most are deterministic in nature and do not appropriately account for the natural variability and dynamics within the systems being comapred. This suggests that the comparative procedures should be statistically based and immediately raises the issue of whether the selected comparative procedures are to be used as decision-making tools or conclusive procedures. Conclusive procedures require a significant body of evidence before rejecting the postulated null hypothesis. The costs and time involved in environmental data collection accordingly bias action toward the maintenance of a status quo approach to environmental management. if, however, EEM is treated as a decision-making procedure, risk functions that include consideration of type I and II statistical error may be developed and combined with costs to select a minimum expected loss strategy for environemental management. Examples of the interpretative difficulties and conclusion reversal phenomena caused when EEM is used as a conclusive procedure are presented. In addition, risk functions appropriate for environmental management within an EEM context are constructed and applied. Only when such tools are fully developed and applied can EEM expect to have significant impacts on minimizing environmental degradation.     

Environmental management in an international consumer goods company

Many management processes and tools can provide companies with information to support their environmental decision making. Risk assessment, environmental auditing, life cycle assessment and environmental reporting are but a few examples. Each of these has typically evolved independently as the need for it has arisen. Today, however, this abundance of tools can lead to confusion: What is the exact objective of each tool? How do they differ? Are some ‘better’ than others? Should they be used in parallel, sequentially or in place of each other? More importantly, how do they fit together into a coherent environmental management framework that will ensure sound environmental and economic decision making in a company? This paper seeks to answer these questions. It describes the overall environmental framework that has been developed internally within Procter & Gamble and which allows the company to make coherent economically and environmentally sound decisions, in both the short- and long-term.     

Practices of energy use management and sustainable performance in Brazilian mineral industries

Energy is an essential asset for the existence of industrial activities, however, the absence of energy use management may lead to numerous environmental, economic, and social impacts. Thus, industries, which are major consumers of energy, play an essential role in seeking to preserve the energy system. This study aimed at analyzing the practices of energy use management and their relation to sustainable performance in the industries within the Brazilian mineral sector. The practices of energy use management were measured using the model proposed by Liu et al. (2012, Journal of Cleaner Production, 26, 79–89). After that, evidence of sustainable performance was identified based on performance indicators developed by the Global Reporting Initiative (2006, 2010, 2014). The study is characterized as quantitative, and it was conducted through a survey of industries linked to the Brazilian Mining Association. Through our results, we verified that the practices related to energy use management existent in the companies that we studied are subjected to periodic verification of the impacts caused by company activities on the environment, and that attention to energy use provides an incentive to daily practices of energy saving. On the other hand, the practices of energy use management are still little disseminated among these companies, as is certification to the International Organisation for Standardization's (ISO) Energy Management Systems framework, ISO 50001. In general, through the analyses that we performed, we can verify the existence of positive associations between the factors related to the practices of energy use management and to corporate sustainable performance.     

Environmental Impact and Sustainable Development: An Analysis in the Context of Standards ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and OHSAS 18001

In this study, we seek to verify the contributions made by three international standards to efforts by eight companies to reduce their environmental impacts and move toward sustainable development. The standards considered in this article are the International Organization for Standardization's (ISO) 9001 (quality), ISO 14001 (environmental management systems), and the Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) 18001. The eight companies analyzed for this study are located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. As part of this work, the authors generated a proposed sustainable positioning matrix and placed each company within one of four quadrants—economic approach, environmental approach, social approach, and sustainability approach—derived from the context of the Triple Bottom Line (Elkington, 2004 ).     

Comparative risk analysis for metropolitan solid waste management systems

Conventional solid waste management planning usually focuses on economic optimization, in which the related environmental impacts or risks are rarely considered. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the methodology of how optimization concepts and techniques can be applied to structure and solve risk management problems such that the impacts of air pollution, leachate, traffic congestion, and noise increments can be regulated in the long-term planning of metropolitan solid waste management systems. Management alternatives are sequentially evaluated by adding several environmental risk control constraints stepwise in an attempt to improve the management strategies and reduce the risk impacts in the long run. Statistics associated with those risk control mechanisms are presented as well. Siting, routing, and financial decision making in such solid waste management systems can also be achieved with respect to various resource limitations and disposal requirements.     

Cost-benefit analysis of water-reuse projects for environmental purposes: a case study for Spanish wastewater treatment plants

Water reuse is an emerging and promising non-conventional water resource. Feasibility studies are essential tools in the decision making process for the implementation of water-reuse projects. However, the methods used to assess economic feasibility tend to focus on internal costs, while external impacts are relegated to unsubstantiated statements about the advantages of water reuse. Using the concept of shadow prices for undesirable outputs of water reclamation, the current study developed a theoretical methodology to assess internal and external economic impacts. The proposed methodological approach is applied to 13 wastewater treatment plants in the Valencia region of Spain that reuse effluent for environmental purposes. Internal benefit analyses indicated that only a proportion of projects were economically viable, while when external benefits are incorporated all projects were economically viable. In conclusion, the economic feasibility assessments of water-reuse projects should quantitatively evaluate economic, environmental and resource availability.     

Making sense of environmental accounting

Much as Total Quality Management (TQM) has helped companies decrease waste and enhance value, environmental accounting offers an approach and a suite of tools that can help organizations improve both environmental quality and bottom-line business performance. Its focus is to bridge the world of finance and economics with the world of environmental management. Companies in all sectors have discovered that they can increase profits by meeting and even surpassing environmental regulations. Through environmental accounting, companies can discover more of these opportunities and, ideally, bring environmental concerns earlier into planning, decision making, and operations. This article introduces environmental accounting and some basic principles that should guide organizations' thinking on environmental accounting and environmental accounting systems. It also describes several different objectives for environmental accounting that imply different requirements and orientations. Although the focus of this article is on environmental accounting as an aspect of forward-looking management and decision making in companies, much of the discussion applies to nonprofits and government units as well.     

Environmental assessment of different management options for individual waste fractions by means of life-cycle assessment modelling

Several alternatives exist for handling of individual waste fractions, including recycling, incineration and landfilling. From an environmental point of view, the latter is commonly considered as the least desirable option. Many studies based on life-cycle assessment (LCA) highlight the environmental benefits offered by incineration and especially by recycling. However, the landfilling option is often approached unjustly in these studies, maybe disregarding the remarkable technological improvements that landfills have undergone in the last decades in many parts of the world.This study, by means of LCA-modelling, aims at comparing the environmental performance of three major management options (landfilling, recycling and incineration or composting) for a number of individual waste fractions. The landfilling option is here approached comprehensively, accounting for all technical and environmental factors involved, including energy generation from landfill gas and storage of biogenic carbon. Leachate and gas emissions associated to each individual waste fraction have been estimated by means of a mathematical modelling. This approach towards landfilling emissions allows for a more precise quantification of the landfill impacts when comparing management options for selected waste fractions.Results from the life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA) show that the environmental performance estimated for landfilling with energy recovery of the fractions “organics” and “recyclable paper” is comparable with composting (for “organics”) and incineration (for “recyclable paper”). This however requires high degree of control over gas and leachate emissions, high gas collection efficiency and extensive gas utilization at the landfill. For the other waste fractions, recycling and incineration are favourable, although specific emissions of a variety of toxic compounds (VOCs, PAHs, NO_x, heavy metals, etc.) may significantly worsen their environmental performance.     

Kodak's framework and assessment tool for implementing TQEM

Total Quality Management provides a powerful management foundation and framework to implement an organization's environmental vision and principles. The elements of TQM include customer/stakeholder focus, a high degree of senior management commitment, a long-term focus, and tools such as continuous improvement, empowerment, and a prevention-based approach. This article describes a matrix developed by major U.S. and Canadian firms that serves as (1) a guide to organizations implementing TQEM from the ground floor up and (2) an assessment tool that can be used internally or externally to measure progress toward environmental management excellence and to identify opportunities for improvement. The matrix is based on categories adapted from those used in the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award process. The relationship between individual matrix cell criteria and key concepts such as pollution prevention and sustainability is also described.     

An Exploration of Dynamical Systems Modelling as a Decision Tool for Environmental Policy

A weakness often found in conventional environmental management tools is that of treating the dynamics of environmental effects and the underlying dynamics of structural change as external factors, precluding their ability to capture the evolutionary behaviour which characterizes economic systems. This article suggests a spatial dynamic modelling framework which addresses explicitly complex sectorial linkages and their environmental effects. The economic dynamics of the model are given spatial reference by means of a set of sector-based suitabilities, which allows us to explore both local environmental degradation effects as they unfold, and how these impacts then affect the economic productivity of the system as a whole. The approach is illustrated by calibrating the model with 1971-1981 data for the island of Crete, and then running it to explore how the economic dynamics of the island might evolve to the year 2001. This article presents a means through which to endogenize the environment and its explicit linkages with sectorial economic dynamics which can be of considerable use to environmental management in all its dimensions.     

A Systems Thinking Approach to Environmental Follow-Up in a Swedish Central Public Authority: Hindrances and Possibilities for Learning from Experience

This study analysed the environmental follow-up of a public organisation from a systems thinking approach, including follow-up within different phases of operation and with different environmental management tools. The Swedish Rail Administration (SRA), a public authority responsible for Swedish rail infrastructure, was used as a case organisation. The main aim was to identify different follow-up activities during planning, construction and operation of rail infrastructure. Additional aims were to identify limiting factors for effective environmental follow-up and to provide suggestions on how SRA follow-up can better be used as an organisational learning tool. The follow-up proved to be highly influenced by Environmental Management System and was mainly used for showing compliance with legal regulations or contract requirements. Use of environmental monitoring data was limited to the specific project in which the follow-up was carried out, possibly because of the project-based structure of the organisation following rail deregulation. Theory on organisational learning was applied in the study to discuss how to improve the distribution and use of follow-up data. A more complete ‘organisational memory’ seems to be required for learning from experience and adapting to change.     

Designing tools to track health and well-being in mining regions of India

The objective of this article is to illustrate the use of a framework to design a set of tools to assess progress towards improved well-being in a mining region. The framework uses an ecosystem approach to assess human well-being and is sensitive to the needs, concerns, and interests of at least the major stakeholders: government, company and community. The framework seeks to be useful to stakeholders and to be of policy relevance. The article presents the proposed framework with illustrations from a case study in Goa, India. Mining in Goa has had both positive and negative impacts on the well-being of local people. These impacts vary depending on the age of mining. In areas where mining is well established and active, the economic impacts are more positive. The social and environmental impacts are more negative in the regions where mining is new or is closing down. These characteristics generate their own set of issues of concern to stakeholders. Based on these issues, three types of tools to assess current well-being and progress towards improved well-being are suggested: (i) Indicators based on identified issues using the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) framework; (ii) A quality of life instrument, which can be developed either as an aggregate measure of well-being or in a more limited way to capture the satisfaction of the community with their living conditions; (iii) A regional income accounting framework to assess whether the mining region is able to continue functioning into the indefinite future without being forced into a decline through the degradation of its key natural, social, and human assets and resources. The article suggests that if these tools are used regularly, an information system will emerge that will, over time, provide markers of what mining is doing to the region and to the local communities.     

Life-cycle phosphorus use efficiency of the farming system in Anhui Province,Central China

The rapid increase of phosphorus (P) use in farming has raised concerns regarding its conservation and environmental impact. Increasing the P use efficiency (PUE) is an approach to mitigating these adverse impacts. In this study, we applied substance flow analysis (SFA) to establish a life-cycle P use efficiency model to determine the life-cycle PUE of the farming system used in Anhui Province in 2011, which is typical of the agriculture practiced in central China. Based on this model, the P flows and PUEs of five subsystems were identified and quantified: crop farming, crop processing, livestock breeding, rural living, and urban living. The three largest P flows were found in the crop farming and livestock breeding subsystems; it can therefore be concluded that these subsystems have substantial impacts on the entire farming system. In contrast, the PUEs of crop farming, rural consumption, and livestock breeding subsystems presented the three lowest PUEs (58.79%, 71.75%, and 76.65%, respectively). These results were also consistent with the finding that the greatest P losses occurred in crop farming and livestock breeding. Consequently, the study proposes that great potential exists for increasing PUEs in the farming system of Anhui, and several of the most promising measures could be combined for improving PUEs. Finally, the study assesses data quality and presents a sensitivity analysis for use in interpreting the results. The study also shows that improving PUE and decreasing P losses in farming systems through improved nutrient management must be considered an important issue, and this study represents valuable experience in resource conservation and agricultural development in China.