Towards sustainable business models with a novel life cycle assessment method

Abstract

Business model (BM) innovation for sustainability is hampered by a lack of tools for environmental assessment and guidance at the BM level. Conventional life cycle assessment (LCA) neglects the economic and socio-technical mechanisms within a BM, and tools based on the BM canvas (BMC) cannot provide recommendations substantiated by environmental data. Here, a new method, BM-LCA, is applied to a case comparing the selling and renting of jackets, using profit as basis of comparison.Results identify how business parameters influence environmental performance, permitting analysis for decoupling within a business practice. This is made possible by the unique way the method links physical life cycle and the monetary flows of a BM. Usefulness of BM-LCA is discussed relative to BM innovation, business strategy and similar tools. BM-LCA provides insights into a broad range of BM elements and emerges as useful for business strategy. By measuring BM environmental performance, it helps determine what BM to compete with and support critical analysis of business against greenwashing. BM-LCA also enables identification of BM elements in greatest need of environmental innovation. BM-LCA appears as a promising tool for guiding business companies towards sustainability, filling a space between LCA and BMC. The method offers a practical way for business and LCA experts to merge their respective knowledge.

Strategic planning oriented to circular business models: A decision framework to promote sustainable development

“…The SPDF‐CBM helps build greater sustainability not only at the level of the company's own operations but throughout the many stages of the life cycle of the product system, thus enabling circular supply chains. In that regard, circular business strategies are known to promote circular supply chains (Babu et al, 2021), since they encourage companies to address environmental effects and resource scarcity (Goffetti et al, 2022) and lead to long‐term economic benefits (Tura et al, 2019). Nonetheless, for circular business strategies and thus circular supply chains to be realized, overcoming challenges and designing novel or improving existing practices, a change in management vision and strategy is needed (Tseng et al, 2022).…”

“…The SPDF‐CBM has in its background a Life Cycle Thinking perspective. Life Cycle Thinking consists of understanding that choices made by decision makers in an organization go beyond the manufacturing processes and their physical limits, as products and services cause environmental, social, and economic impacts over their entire life cycles, that is, from material extraction, to transportation processes, packaging, use, up to final disposal (UNEP, 2004), and including a life cycle perspective to business practices has increasingly been seen as a strategic move that can aid greater competitiveness (Goffetti et al, 2022). Table 1 presents a summary of the stages, activities, recommended practices (tools, methods, and techniques), and inputs and outputs for each activity of the SPDF‐CBM.…”

Switching the focus from product function to business profit: Introducing Business Model LCA (BM-LCA)

“…Forthcoming papers will detail the BM-LCA methodology [24] and examine the learnings from a first case study for business model innovation [25]. Still, more research is needed, for example, to further test and develop BM-LCA on more cases and business models.…”

Finding new purpose: Electric vehicle battery repurposing as a case for implementing a circular economy in automotive industry

“…the unit of research. Based on previous studies, it is both possible to interpret a business model as a unit of research at the level between a firm and industry (Nußholz, 2020), and to conduct LCAs of business models (Goffetti, Böckin, Baumann, Tillman, & Zobel, 2022). However, neither is the case in the present project.…”

“…In this regard, examples exist in literature which integrate disciplines of LCA with the research field of CE indicators (Lonca et al, 2018;Niero & Kalbar, 2019;Rigamonti & Mancini, 2021). Similarly and as mentioned in section 3.2, combining the disciplines of LCA and business model research seems feasible in general (Goffetti et al, 2022). However, such approaches must be rooted in existing frameworks and capture the full picture of relevant aspects.…”