Life cycle thinking is an approach that emphasizes the assessment and minimization of environmental impacts at all stages of a product's life. This concept seeks to avoid shifting environmental burdens from one stage of the product's life to another. It also recognizes the importance of technological innovation in tackling environmental issues.
Corporations utilize this approach in the creation of environmentally friendly products. Consumers apply it in their mindful choices of products, and governments incorporate it into regulatory frameworks aimed at lessening environmental impacts. This strategy entails pinpointing crucial areas for impact reduction and enhancing consumer awareness regarding environmental concerns.
Approaches
There are many different approaches to life cycle thinking that all involve looking at life cycle-generated impacts and ways to minimize these impacts. An important component is the avoidance of burden shifting, which ensures that improvements in one stage are not achieved at the expense of another stage. Impact measurement focuses on decreasing environmental impact and resource use throughout all stages of a process.
Life-cycle assessment
Life-cycle assessment
Life cycle assessment (LCA), also known as life cycle analysis, is a methodology for assessing the impacts associated with all the stages of the life cycle of a commercial product, process, or service. For instance, in the case of a manufact ...
(LCA or life cycle analysis) is a technique used to assess potential environmental impacts of a product at different stages of its life. This technique takes a "cradle-to-grave" or a "
cradle-to-cradle" approach and looks at environmental impacts that occur throughout the lifetime of a product from raw material extraction, manufacturing and processing, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, disposal, and recycling.
Life cycle management (LCM)
Life cycle management
Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...
is a business approach to managing the total life cycle of products and services. It follows the life cycle thinking that businesses, through the activities they must perform, have environmental, social, and economic impacts. LCM is used to understand and analyze the life cycle stages of products and services of a business, identify potential economic, social, or environmental risks and opportunities at each stage and create ways to act upon those opportunities and reduce potential risks.
Life cycle costing (LCC)
Life cycle costing (or life cycle cost analysis) is the total cost analysis of a process or system. This includes costs incurred over the life of the system and is frequently used to find the most cost-effective means for providing goods and services.
Design for the Environment
Design for the Environment Program (DfE) was created in 1992 by the
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on De ...
and works to prevent pollution and reduce the risks pollution presents to humans and the environment. The main goals of the DfE are to promote green cleaning, recognize safer industrial and consumer products through safer product labeling, define best practices in production and manufacturing, and identify safer chemicals for these processes based on life cycle thinking.
Product service system
Product service systems (PSS) are sets of marketable products and services that work together to fulfill a user's needs. This approach is a result of firms realizing that services in combination with products can provide higher profits and customer satisfaction than simply selling products alone. Firms that use PSS work to find ways to maximize the use of their product throughout its lifetime, using services to supplement its usage. PSS has been seen to have a smaller environmental impact than traditional business models, as the focus on services has led to a decrease in material production and consumption. This applies to life cycle thinking because it involves looking at the life-cycle cost of a product (i.e. maintenance and storage costs) for a consumer and reducing that cost by providing services with the purchased good.
Integrated product policy (IPP)
Integrated product policy works to minimize
environmental degradation
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...
caused by products by looking at all phases of a product's life cycle to pinpoint where taking action is most effective. This also uses a cradle-to-grave approach when looking at a product's life. In addition, it is important that policies avoid burden shifting and do not decrease environmental emissions at one stage of development at the expense of another. Integrated policy measures used to act upon recommendations include economic instruments, substance bans, voluntary agreements,
environmental labeling, and product design guidelines; the use of a variety of tools, rather than a single policy measure, is a central feature of an integrated approach.
The
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
issued a
green paper
In the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth countries, Hong Kong, the United States and the European Union, a green paper is a tentative government report and consultation document of policy proposals for debate and discussion. A green paper represen ...
on IPP on 7 February 2001. The
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...
initially viewed the Commission's proposals as "interesting" but "unsatisfactory", and called for "a more exhaustive and more cohesive policy proposal" to be put forward. The Commission subsequently adopted a ''Communication'' on the subject on 18 June 2003, which was sub-titled "Building on Environmental Life-Cycle Thinking". The ''Communication'' listed potential roles to be played by several stakeholders:
member states
A member state is a state that is a member of an international organization or of a federation or confederation.
Since the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) include some members that are not sovereign states ...
, industry,
consumer organization
Consumer organizations are advocacy groups that seek to protect people from corporate abuse like unsafe products, predatory lending, false advertising, astroturfing and pollution.
Consumer Organizations may operate via protests, litigation, Adver ...
s,
environmental organization
An environmental organization is an organization coming out of the conservation or environmental movements
that seeks to protect, analyse or monitor the environment against misuse or degradation from human forces.
In this sense the environme ...
s and consumers.
Sectors
Agriculture
Life cycle thinking works to reduce the impact of the
agriculture
Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
and
food industry
The food industry is a complex, global network of diverse businesses that supplies most of the food consumed by the world's population. The food industry today has become highly diversified, with manufacturing ranging from small, traditional, ...
at all stages of food production. Cultural identity, health, lifestyle, and nutrition are addressed to ensure that decreases in emissions and environmental impact do not occur at the expense of consumer well-being.
Manufacturing
A Product Life Cycle Analysis involves all production and service processes involved in the manufacturing of a product throughout the life cycle. This includes the production of materials needed to make the product. Since the manufacturing sector is a big emitter of pollutants and a user of natural resources, pinpointing areas in which to decrease environmental impact throughout the manufacturing process is a big part of life-cycle thinking.
Energy
Drastic increases in
atmospheric CO2 caused by burning
fossil fuels
A fossil fuel is a flammable carbon compound- or hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the buried remains of prehistoric organisms (animals, plants or microplanktons), a process that occurs within geologica ...
have led to the search for alternative energy sources like
biofuels
Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels such as oil. Biofuel can be produced from plants or from agricultural, domestic ...
and
renewable energy sources
Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind power, and hydropower. Bioenergy and ...
. To analyze whether or not these alternative sources have overall less environmental impact than conventional energy sources, life-cycle analysis is needed. Life-cycle thinking is an intricate part of finding new energy sources that have an overall smaller impact on the environment.
Waste management
Life-cycle thinking and analysis can help reduce the negative environmental impacts of
waste
Waste are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor Value (economics), economic value. A wast ...
generation and
management
Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...
. This includes looking at ways to reduce waste production, increase
recycling
Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. This concept often includes the recovery of energy from waste materials. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the propert ...
, and dispose of waste in a more
environmentally friendly
Environment friendly processes, or environmental-friendly processes (also referred to as eco-friendly, nature-friendly, and green), are sustainability and marketing terms referring to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies that c ...
way. This is complicated by differences in benefits and burdens in different geographical regions and the fact that effects usually occur over long periods. Furthermore, the benefits and burdens of different processes can occur in many different forms and can be difficult to identify, quantify and compare.
Retail
Retail
Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholes ...
often accounts for a significant portion of economies and thus can have huge implications in terms of environmental impacts. The life cycle of a product in retail would include the complete supply chain of the product, its use, and disposal or end-of-life treatment.
Construction
There are many uses for life-cycle thinking in
construction
Construction are processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the a ...
, especially in terms of
construction waste
Construction waste or debris is any kind of debris from the construction process. Different government agencies have clear definitions. For example, the United States Environmental Protection Agency EPA defines construction and demolition mate ...
and waste management. Finding better ways to recycle waste and prevent waste are important to reduce the negative environmental impact of the
construction industry
Construction are processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the ...
.
For construction products in Europe, a standardized methodology for building assessment considering
Environmental Products Declarations (EPD) has been approved. The main standards are EN 15978 (buildings) and EN 15804 (products).
Transport

Finding alternative fuel sources is the biggest challenge to reducing negative environmental impacts in the
transportation
Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...
sector.
Biofuel
Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from Biomass (energy), biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels such as oil. Biofuel can be produced from plants or from agricu ...
s are becoming increasingly popular as an alternative to fossil fuels. Life cycle analysis can provide a fuller picture of the extent alternative fuel sources reduce emissions and overall environmental impact compared to conventional fuels.
Services
Service industries play a big part in adding environmental burdens, especially in terms of
greenhouse gas emissions
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide (), from burning fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, oil, and natural gas, is the main cause of climate chan ...
generated by
travel
Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical Location (geography), locations. Travel can be done by Pedestrian, foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without Baggage, luggage, a ...
and
tourist industries. The
service industry
The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the s ...
is expected to play a larger part in the modern economy as "
dematerialization", or the replacement of manufactured goods by services in many firms, plays a bigger role in the economy.
Applications
There are multiple situations to which life cycle thinking can be applied, including the everyday life of consumers, businesses, and government policy. By applying life cycle thinking to multiple aspects of the community, consumers, businesses and governments can have a largely positive aspect on the environment. This is true even if the steps taken to apply life cycle thinking are small.
Consumers
Consumers regularly make choices regarding products they would like to use, based on needs and different brands available. Due to several factors, the environmental impact of a product purchase may not be a deciding factor when it comes to choosing a product. Consumers may not be aware of the
product's energy usage,
questionable labor conditions that produced it,
hazardous waste
Hazardous waste is waste that must be handled properly to avoid damaging human health or the environment. Waste can be hazardous because it is Toxicity, toxic, Chemical reaction, reacts violently with other chemicals, or is Corrosion, corrosive, ...
from production, impacts on the
ecosystem
An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...
, or pollution of
air
An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...
or
water
Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...
.
Consumers can apply life cycle thinking in multiple different ways with regards to their product choices to reduce their impact on the environment. Many companies provide
sustainability reports that consumers can read to educate themselves. By using life cycle thinking, consumers can choose a company with reduced environmental impacts.
Primarily, consumer usage has the largest impact on the environment throughout a product's life. By using life cycle thinking this impact can be reduced. This would require
educating consumers to make better choices about product usage. This can come from the companies who provide the goods and services, from non-profit consumer awareness groups or government agencies. Consumer education starts with a self-assessment; for example, consumers can ask themselves what impacts they have while using the product and whether they can pursue more environmentally friendly alternatives. Consumers can educate themselves on how to become more sustainable themselves through life cycle thinking rather than relying on the efforts of companies and the government.
Businesses are responsible for many choices about their services and products each day. By applying life cycle thinking, businesses can recognize the potential impacts of their choices. They consider how each design and manufacturing decision has an effect on the environment and how they can make it more sustainable. Businesses not only take into consideration how the product is made, but also how the product will be used and disposed of by the user. Companies try to have more sustainable products by making products recyclable or reusable. The challenging part is balancing cost and sustainable choices. Life cycle thinking allows them to see the best sustainable options but is limited when it comes to pricing these choices. Life cycle thinking for businesses entails consideration of where to obtain raw material, how to manufacture the material, and transporting, distributing, using, and disposing of the product. By looking at all of these phases businesses make the best choices for themselves and the consumer for a lower impact on the environment.
Governments
Government plays a key role in life cycle thinking by establishing policies to regulate environmental impacts. By applying life cycle thinking policymakers can set standards that businesses and consumers need to meet. They do so by gathering information as a baseline of the environmental impact and using that to set goals based on knowledge from life cycle thinking. They can also use trends from the supply chains of different businesses they regulate to determine where the biggest influence can be made to majorly reduce the impacts of the businesses. Government sectors can also use life cycle thinking to better educate consumers. Requiring labels on products describing the impacts the product has and how to use the products to reduce the impact can be an important role for the government. Regulating supply chains and consumers with policy is motivational as negative reinforcement. Life cycle thinking provides a methodology for creating those policies to most effective and cost efficient means of reducing environmental impacts.
In policy
Many consumers, when making decisions on what to buy and what not to buy, consider the environmental impact of the particular product. Policymakers recognize this desire and act to create policy that not only helps consumers do this but will do so while keeping a growing economy in mind.
European policy

There are many aspects of life cycle thinking incorporated into European policy. The
Sustainable Consumption and Production Action Plan is a piece of legislation that aims to reduce the environmental impact and consumption of resources associated with the complete life cycles of goods and services. On July 16, 2008, the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
presented this legislation. This proposal suggests plans on how to not only reduce the environmental impacts of goods and services but also encourage the use of more sustainable goods and production technologies. This action plan also encourages the European Union to seek out every opportunity to innovate in the industry.
The
Integrated Product Policy is another legislative action that Europe has taken to facilitate life cycle thinking. The Integrated Product Policy seeks to minimize the environmental degradation caused by the manufacturing, use, and disposal of all products. This legislation looks at all aspects of the product's life cycle and takes action where necessary to reduce.
The
Thematic Strategy on Sustainable Use of Natural Resources was implemented on 21 December 2005 to reduce environmental impacts associated with resource use and to do this in a growing economy. The objective can be described as "ensuring that the consumption of resources and their associated impacts do not exceed the
carrying capacity
The carrying capacity of an ecosystem is the maximum population size of a biological species that can be sustained by that specific environment, given the food, habitat, water, and other resources available. The carrying capacity is defined as the ...
of the environment and breaking linkages between economic growth and resource use".
United States policy
While the term "life cycle thinking" is not as prominent in United States policy, there are considerations of the life cycle process throughout governmental policies and programs. There are
Environmental Product Declarations that are used to incorporate life cycle thinking into companies and organizations. They communicate to the consumer the environmental performance of a product or system. These declarations are based on the Life Cycle Assessment and once the assessment is complete a product or system can be certified EPD.
The Environmental Protection Agency's program,
Design for the Environment works with individual industry sectors to compare and improve the performance and human health and environmental risks and costs of existing and alternative products, processes, and practices. DfE partnership projects promote integrating cleaner, cheaper, and smarter solutions into everyday business practices. The Design for the Environment program is also equipped with a labeling program. They allow safer products to carry these labels and they are an indication to consumers that buying these products will be safer for the environment and their families.
Also, the
Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007
The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007Pub.L. 110-140, originally named the Clean Energy Act of 2007, is an Act of Congress concerning the energy policy of the United States. As part of the United States Democratic Party, Democratic Pa ...
is a piece of legislation that incorporates life cycle thinking. While this exact phrase isn't listed. This act includes sections on advanced biofuels. In Title II of the act, it requires the creation of Biomass-based diesel which is the addition of renewable biofuels to diesel fuel and will reduce emissions by 50% as compared to petroleum biofuel. In Title III improved standards will be implemented.
Importance
Since life cycle thinking can be involved in the choices of individual consumers, as well as policymakers and businesses, people must be well-informed about the subject and its uses.
Increasing awareness of the Life Cycle Analysis technique could allow companies as well as individuals to consider multiple options for a new product. After consideration of all available options, life cycle thinking would encourage the selection of the most sustainable option. If more individuals practiced life cycle thinking when looking for new materials or methods, they would be more aware of how the environmental cost of ownership of products can be influenced by the running costs of energy and consumables.
Life cycle thinking can help people find new ways to improve environmental performance, image, and economic benefits.
Since the decisions of global businesses and government organizations have such a large impact on the environment, incorporating life cycle thinking into their actions could greatly reduce negative environmental effects and improve sustainability. Many businesses do not always consider their supply chains or the "end-of-life" processes associated with their products; likewise, government actions frequently consider their own country or region and do not take into account the impact that they could have on other regions.
Not only could life cycle thinking help the environment, but it can also save the company more money and improve its reputation. If a company knows where its materials come from as well as where they will end up after they have reached the end of their useful life, economic performance could be further enhanced. Also, since presently so much emphasis is placed on sustainable actions, the more a company shows its concern and respect for the environment, the better its reputation will be.
In a case study on laundry detergents, it was found that washing clothes at lower temperatures resulted in energy savings and improvements in several environmental indicators, like climate change, acidification, and photochemical ozone creation. Because the company understood the importance of life cycle thinking, they decided to conduct a Life Cycle Analysis to find the benefits of developing a different laundry detergent. Not only did the new detergents reduce environmental impact by decreasing energy consumption, but they also benefited the consumer by reducing electricity bills and helped the company by becoming a leader in the industry. (3)
See also
*
Government by algorithm
Government by algorithm (also known as algorithmic regulation, regulation by algorithms, algorithmic governance, algocratic governance, algorithmic legal order or algocracy) is an alternative form of government or social ordering where the usag ...
*
Appropriate technology
Appropriate technology is a movement (and its manifestations) encompassing technology, technological choice and application that is small-scale, affordable by its users, labor-intensive, efficient energy use, energy-efficient, environmentally sust ...
*
Circular economy
A circular economy (also referred to as circularity or CE) is a model of resource Production (economics), production and Resource consumption, consumption in any economy that involves sharing, leasing, Reuse, reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and ...
*
Downcycling
Downcycling, or cascading, is the recycling of waste where the recycled material is of lower quality and functionality than the original material. Often, this is due to the accumulation of tramp elements in secondary metals, which may exclude th ...
*
Durable good
In economics, a durable good or a hard good or consumer durable is a good that does not quickly wear out or, more specifically, one that yields utility over time rather than being completely consumed in one use. Items like bricks could be conside ...
*
Industrial ecology
Industrial ecology (IE) is the study of material and energy flows through industrial systems. The global industrial economy can be modelled as a network of industrial processes that extract resources from the Earth and transform those resource ...
*
List of environmental topics
*
Loop analysis
*
Path analysis
*
Regenerative design
*
Resource efficiency Resource efficiency is the maximising of the supply of money, materials, staff, and other assets that can be drawn on by a person or organization in order to function effectively, with minimum wasted (natural) resource expenses. It means using the ...
*
Sharing economy
The sharing economy is a socio-economic system whereby consumers share in the creation, production, distribution, trade and consumption of goods, and services. These systems take a variety of forms, often leveraging information technology and the ...
*
Social metabolism
Social metabolism or socioeconomic metabolism is the set of flows of materials and energy that occur between nature and society, between different societies, and within societies. These human-controlled material and energy flows are a basic featu ...
*
Sustainability
Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...
*
Sustainable development
Sustainable development is an approach to growth and Human development (economics), human development that aims to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.United Nations General ...
* ''
The Blue Economy''
*
Upcycling
Upcycling, also known as creative reuse, is the process of transforming by-products, waste materials, useless, or unwanted products into new materials or products perceived to be of greater quality, such as artistic value or environmental value ...
*
Waste & Resources Action Programme
References
{{reflist
External links
SETAC North America , setac.org
Sustainable design
Environmental social science concepts