Fundamentals: Holistic Life Cycle Thinking

It is crucial to focus efforts towards sustainability on the correct targets. Most sustainability issues and mitigating actions are linked to products and services offered by organizations/countries or demanded by customers/societies. A good starting point is to identify areas of biggest concern as well as assessing the benefit of interventions based on their sustainability. Potential issues and opportunities along the product’s life cycle from environmental, social, and economic perspectives should be determined. The chapter describes the necessary tools to identify areas of particular relevance, focusing on Life Cycle Assessment, Social Life Cycle Assessment, and Life Cycle Costing.