LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT, A BRIDGE TO MORE SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS

EXTENDED ABSTRACT Life Cycle Management (LCM) is a new practical, integrated, and systematic approach to minimize the environmental and socio-economic burdens associated with a product (goods or service) over its entire life cycle and value chain. LCM will promote a sustainable development by linking environmental improvements with economic efficiency, and implementation will be useful for companies wanting to increase their resource productivity and be proactive and ready for the future challenges from society, legislations, and consumers. LCM is explicitly aimed to modify and improve the performance of product systems and supports the business assimilation of IPP, ecolabelling, design for environment, green procurement, extended producer responsibility and other initiatives. In this paper typical applications of LCM will be highlighted, and various entry gates and drivers will be discussed.