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Sustainability Constraints as System Boundaries: An Approach to Making Life‐Cycle Management Strategic

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  • Henrik Ny
  • Jamie P. MacDonald
  • Göran Broman
  • Ryoichi Yamamoto
  • Karl‐Henrik Robért

Abstract

Sustainable management of materials and products requires continuous evaluation of numerous complex social, ecological, and economic factors. A number of tools and methods are emerging to support this. One of the most rigorous is life‐cycle assessment (LCA). But LCAs often lack a sustainability perspective and bring about difficult trade‐offs between specificity and depth, on the one hand, and comprehension and applicability, on the other. This article applies a framework for strategic sustainable development (often referred to as The Natural Step (TNS) framework) based on backcasting from basic principles for sustainability. The aim is to foster a new general approach to the management of materials and products, here termed “strategic life‐cycle management”. This includes informing the overall analysis with aspects that are relevant to a basic perspective on (1) sustainability, and (2) strategy to arrive at sustainability. The resulting overview is expected to help avoid costly assessments of flows and practices that are not critical from a sustainability and/or strategic perspective and to help identify strategic gaps in knowledge or potential problems that need further assessment. Early experience indicates that the approach can complement some existing tools and concepts by informing them from a sustainability perspective‐for example, current product development and LCA tools.

Suggested Citation

  • Henrik Ny & Jamie P. MacDonald & Göran Broman & Ryoichi Yamamoto & Karl‐Henrik Robért, 2006. "Sustainability Constraints as System Boundaries: An Approach to Making Life‐Cycle Management Strategic," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 10(1‐2), pages 61-77, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:inecol:v:10:y:2006:i:1-2:p:61-77
    DOI: 10.1162/108819806775545349
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    Cited by:

    1. Tobias Schnitzler, 2019. "The Bridge Between Education for Sustainable Development and Transformative Learning: Towards New Collaborative Learning Spaces," Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, , vol. 13(2), pages 242-253, September.
    2. Martina Zimek & Andreas Schober & Claudia Mair & Rupert J. Baumgartner & Tobias Stern & Manfred Füllsack, 2019. "The Third Wave of LCA as the “Decade of Consolidation”," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-19, June.
    3. Umberto Vitiello & Antonio Salzano & Domenico Asprone & Marco Di Ludovico & Andrea Prota, 2016. "Life-Cycle Assessment of Seismic Retrofit Strategies Applied to Existing Building Structures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-18, December.
    4. Korhonen, Jouni & Snäkin, Juha-Pekka, 2015. "Quantifying the relationship of resilience and eco-efficiency in complex adaptive energy systems," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 83-92.
    5. Mazwani Ayu Mazlan & Tengku Adil Tengku Izhar & Mohammad Fazli Baharuddin & Mohd Shamsul Mohd Shoid, 2018. "Current Development on Social Media Platform for Green Library Technology Initiative," International Journal of Learning and Development, Macrothink Institute, vol. 8(3), pages 113-125, September.
    6. Martin Gerner, 2019. "Assessing and managing sustainability in international perspective: corporate sustainability across cultures – towards a strategic framework implementation approach," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 1-34, December.
    7. Jesko Schulte & Henrik Ny, 2018. "Electric Road Systems: Strategic Stepping Stone on the Way towards Sustainable Freight Transport?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-16, April.
    8. Erik G. Hansen & Ferdinand Revellio, 2020. "Circular value creation architectures: Make, ally, buy, or laissez‐faire," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 24(6), pages 1250-1273, December.
    9. Schnitzler, Tobias Joachim, 2020. "Success factors of transformative learning for sustainable development," ÖFSE-Forum, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE), volume 75, number 75.
    10. Michael Kühnen & Samanthi Silva & Rüdiger Hahn, 2022. "From negative to positive sustainability performance measurement and assessment? A qualitative inquiry drawing on framing effects theory," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 1985-2001, July.
    11. Suparak Suriyankietkaew & Phallapa Petison, 2019. "A Retrospective and Foresight: Bibliometric Review of International Research on Strategic Management for Sustainability, 1991–2019," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-27, December.
    12. Carolina Villamil & Jesko Schulte & Sophie Hallstedt, 2022. "Sustainability risk and portfolio management—A strategic scenario method for sustainable product development," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 1042-1057, March.
    13. Mubashir Qasim, 2018. "Some Links between Sustainability and Well-Being," Working Papers in Economics 18/13, University of Waikato.
    14. Korhonen, Jouni & Honkasalo, Antero & Seppälä, Jyri, 2018. "Circular Economy: The Concept and its Limitations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 37-46.
    15. Pakarinen, Suvi & Mattila, Tuomas & Melanen, Matti & Nissinen, Ari & Sokka, Laura, 2010. "Sustainability and industrial symbiosis—The evolution of a Finnish forest industry complex," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 54(12), pages 1393-1404.

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