Environmental Sustainability in the Context of Mass Personalisation – Quantification of the Carbon Footprint with Life Cycle Assessment

Abstract

Driven by individualisation as a trend and enabled by new production technologies and increasing digitalisation, mass customisation (MC) and mass personalisation (MP) open up new possibilities to address user demands much better. However, the sustainability achievements of current manufacturing technology could be compromised by this trend as variability in environmental impacts increases. Small lot sizes are likely to increase per piece manufacturing efforts, and reusability and recyclability might be limited. Nevertheless, personalised products can address user demands much better and hold great sustainability potential as well. In order to manage these risks and potentials, sustainability assessments are necessary. This paper first provides a short overview of the current state of sustainability assessment in the field based on existing literature and the current discussion in the scientific community. To contribute to filling the existing gap in the application of sustainability assessments by providing further quantitative results, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is applied to two conceptual MC/MP examples. Operationalised by the carbon footprint, the environmental impacts of customer choices are quantified for the analysed scenarios. The examples are within the field of mobility, one examining return logistics of personalised consumer products, the other analysing lowcarbon vehicle choices based on individual driving behaviour. The aim of this paper is to contribute to embedding LCA as a methodology for the assessment of environmental sustainability in the area of MC and MP and add qualitative assessment to support existing sustainability frameworks in the field.

The cyber-consciousness of environmental assessment: how environmental assessments evaluate the impacts of smart, connected, and digital technology

“…The spread of additive manufacturing (i.e. 3D printing), and mass customization more generally, is raising similar concerns in the realm of consumer products (Cerdas et al 2017, Briem et al 2019, Kunkel and Matthess 2020.…”

The effect of solid waste management investments in the Republic of Serbia

“…Any pollution of nature will have an effect on the sustainable development of the country, i.e. as sustainability accomplishments of current manufacturing technology could be imperilled by individualisation trend as variability in environmental impacts increases (Briem et al, 2019). Investments needed to improve municipal waste collection and transportation services can be financed partially or entirely from the private sector (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 2018).…”

Sustainable product development by means of personalization – paradox or solution?

“…Personalization can have both negative and positive effects on the environmental sustainability of products [1]. For instance, personalized products might have a longer lifetime and potentially use less resources, due to fulfilling user needs more precisely or through adaptivity to changing user needs.…”

“…Additionally, users often lack information on the sustainability of their decisions when choosing personalized products, despite growing sensitivity and motivation. Thus, in order to integrate sustainability in a user-oriented way and at an early stage in the creation of personalized products as well as purchase and usage decisions, it is necessary to develop a systematic approach providing different stakeholders with information in a comprehensible way [1,2].…”