Life Cycle Management

Source: Life Cycle Management, A Business Guide to Sustainability

By UN Environment Programme, 2007

Reflection:

“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

The above quote, by Albert Einstein, is perhaps the most succinct way of summing up the changes necessary for a movement toward sustainability, but it’s particularly appropriate for thinking about life cycle management (LCM). In a nutshell, LCM is an attempt to control as many variables as possible in the life cycle of a given product, from raw material extraction to what happens to the product when it has outlived its useful life, in order to get those variables in line with the principles of sustainability.

The above quote is apt because traditionally, a manufacturer likely would not consider controlling variables outside it’s “roof,” i.e. a bicycle hub manufacturer wouldn’t worry about where or how the aluminum they use is mined. They would be concerned with the price and quality, and the mining and smelting would be the responsibility of the miners and smelters. Using an LCM approach, that same manufacturer would consider those variables their responsibility, and would control them as much as possible, which is to say, they may not be able to dictate which mining techniques are used, but would make the producers aware they represent a market demanding a product mined as responsibly as possible, or would communicate to the smelter they desire a product containing a minimum amount of recycled materials. In this respect, LCM is yet another example of sustainability through communication, using the market as a tool and an evolutionary process. Referring to the latter, quick changes through LCM may not be possible, so we must do the best we can, continually striving for improvement.

As far as Life Cycle Management as a resource is concerned, I found it to be a complete and compelling document; yet another I’m putting in my toolbox, to be brought out when some forward-thinking company hires me to make them sustainable. I especially appreciated the mini case studies included; it’s sometimes surprising where you can find sustainable business practices.

Also of note was the “Plan-Do-Check-Act” cycle in the section on implementation. As the semester progresses, I am finding more and more similarities in plans for implementation, regardless of what is being implemented. I’m not entirely sure what to make of this, other than it seems plausible that we’re looking at some kind of convergent evolution, which is a good thing. If it is indeed convergent evolution, it means we’re working with a best practice that has been tried and tweaked to work as well as possible with what we know now about how organizations operate.