LCA and PEF: not just assessment methods, but a way to internalize life-cycle management as an opportunity for "sustainable" organisational learning

Our newest article has just been published on the international review “Organization and Environment”, investigating the role of life-cycle assessment- related methods in driving corporate organisational change, on the pattern towards environmental sustainability.

The adoption of a LCA (or of a Product Environmental Footprint) as a managerial approach, and not just a merely technical assessment tool, brings about considerable organisational implications for a company, but also great benefits in terms of efficiency, motivation, skills and innovation capabilities. Implementing a substantial environmental strategy that addresses all phases of the product  lifecycle, in fact, is a complex and demanding challenge that most organizations fail to convincingly  overcome. Based on a case study of five frontrunner companies located in Italy and Norway, this study explores the factors that promote, or hinder, the learning process underlying the implementation of substantial measures for lifecycle management and how this can contribute to further internalizing environmental sustainability throughout the organization. Our article contributes to the literature on  organizational learning and environmental sustainability by  showing, from a dynamic perspective, the enablers of organizational learning required for  internalizing lifecycle management in organizations. We propose a new framework for environmental  sustainability based on the 4Is (intuiting, interpreting, integrating, and institutionalizing)  and an organizational learning model is put forward in line with the concept of lifecycle management. Managerial implications are also discussed.

Organizations that are committed about becoming more environmentally friendly, should consider  Life-Cycle Management to further internalize a “green strategy” into their daily activities. As highlighted by the United Nations, one of the  strengths of Life-Cycle Management is to operationalize environmental strategies by translating this multifaceted concept into practical initiatives. This translation contributes to bridge the gap between the commitment to sustainability and corporate operations.

As an organization is forced to rethink its entire lifecycle, the adoption of an LCA-based approach reaches out to its main business  partners, such as suppliers and distributors. For example, by identifying and addressing environmental hotspots along their product lifecycle, suppliers, and distributors are inevitably involved in this exercise. As a result, they will also have to become more environmentally friendly, for  example, by providing cardboard packaging or by switching to recycled plastics, in order to increase the overall environmental performance of a product. Overall,  the results of our study and the proposed model on organizational learning can help leaders to better plan and manage the change process by anticipating the steps, enablers, and barriers to the internalization of environmental sustainability. Since organizational learning plays a crucial role for the internalization of aLCA-based approach, such as Life-Cycle Management, several practical implications emerge on how managers can enable this process. First of all, the role of top management support emerges as crucial in several phases of the 4Is model. Besides a generic support, it is important to build a visionary leadership which is able to increase employee empowerment and trigger the proactive behavior that is fundamental for making effective the transition from an I-phase to another.

The role of employees is determinant in this process. On the one hand, Life-Cycle Management is beneficial for employees, who can then relate the effects of behaving more sustainably to their daily job. This helps preventing decoupling at various levels since the new environmental strategy gets  embedded by employees who better understand its implications for their daily routines. On the other hand, employees do not appear as passive recipient of the new environmental strategy, but they rather gain environmental awareness through Life-Cycle Management internalization, and their participation and involvement allow the assimilation of sustainability concepts.

For supporting this positive effect, managers should incentivize informal collaboration and information sharing among different units also by developing areas where informal meeting may be held. This cross-unit collaboration tends to generate a feel-good attitude and culture throughout the organization and facilitates the embeddedness of sustainability principles.  Moreover, managers should invest in building the necessary skills among functions and units of the company, for reducing their resistance to change and fear for uncertainty. These skills embrace both technical knowledge  related to LCA (for instance for production or supply chain units) or to green marketing (for  marketing and communication units) and soft skills related to entrepreneurship attitude, which reduces the “defence of the status quo” and the resistance to change and innovation.

The full text of our article can be requested on my Researchgate webpage, at the following link:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350187676_Organizational_Learning_for_Environmental_Sustainability_Internalizing_Lifecycle_Management