Sustainability | Surge In Take-up Of Life-cycle Assessment Tools To Improve Sustainability

The increasing demands of customers and regulators to improve environmental performance and transparency are driving a renewed interest in the life cycle assessment (LCA), a study reveals.
LCA is a method to analyze the environmental impact of products and services that take into account their entire life cycle. A strength of LCA is that studies of the whole product system, and thus prevents business mitigate environmental impacts at the expense of another aggravating factor.
The report suggests that the active use of life cycle assessment and life cycle become table stakes in large companies, and those who aspire to lead in the next 2-5 years.
By any measure, the number of scientific publications dealing with the ACL has more than doubled in the last two years. LCA tool vendors and consultants are reporting an increase of 30 "40% per year.
Companies use LCA in a variety of ways: modeling of the environmental impacts of a new production process before building a factory, driving product innovation and improve the environment, Backup marketing claims with scientific analysis.

Large companies such as Unilever have joined in support of a public commitment to understand the environmental impact of all their products. Small Business Solutions AirDye tech as it used to justify their demands for environmental performance, raise capital for investment and market their innovative textile dyeing process. Dairy products maker Stonyfield Farm has ordered the race to help you choose packaging systems with superior features of the environment. In a study led to a bioplastic packaging material which results in less than 48% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions than the alternative of polystyrene, but it costs more.
A low-cost, specialized tools for non-experts, the efforts of open source software, and databases will be improved to reduce the barriers to adoption of LCA. The increase in expectations of transparency, the growth of eco-ACL and the threat of legislation will lead to greater adoption.
Research has shown great dynamism in the market. Despite his high technical content, the senior of LCA studies are not only the supply of engineering professionals in the chain or process. A growing number of senior marketing and sustainability are concerned. This creates opportunities and challenges for suppliers of tools and consultants to effectively communicate the strengths and weaknesses of stroke and to help manage an expansion of the stakeholders in companies. The tools are changing. A new generation of special tools that the use of LCA for decision support for the purchase or design of this product are non-specialists can enjoy the benefits for their work.
Every company that produces or manipulates things must make life-cycle "in its organization to innovate and compete.
The report recommends that companies develop skills in the ACL, even if you rely on consultants to carry out LCA studies. Having knowledge in-house with the concept of life cycle will be increasingly critical and is a key element of product innovation. To maximize the impact of a study of stroke, leaders need to involve all internal parts in advance. This support means in place to address the findings of the study, when you finish it.
David Schatsky is the founder of Green Research, consulting and research firm focusing on clean technology, alternative energy and sustainability.