LCA@Pli: A product management-oriented approach

In today’s world of overflowing information and complex interwoven processes, environmentally-committed businesses have a growing number of challenges to tackle. In such business environment, life cycle analysis (LCA) has come to be considered as a helpful device.

It is the conventional understanding of the notion of ‘device’ that has led Pli to carry out an investigation into alternative approaches to LCA. The traditional perception defines this ‘device’ as an operational tool, whether physical or electronic (i.e. software), used mainly to calculate input and output, therefore inevitably focused solely on manufacturing. Instead, during the productive time of my internship at Pli, we strived to develop a method that could embrace as many sides as possible to a product development process.

Now the initial findings of this investigation have been gathered in a white paper format, and is here for everyone to review (click here).

LCA representation of the Reee chair concept

There are other examples of this kind of thinking.

In his book The Revenge of Gaia, James Lovelock talks about the planet-cooling quality of aerosols—an unheard-of fact about a group of gases which are normally famous for causing acid rain. He posits that, in the case of a possible ban on aerosols, the planet may go into an exponential warming rate, since the offsetting element has been taken away instantly.

A recent research argues that LCD TVs, well-regarded for their eco-friendliness, actually emit greenhouse gases that are more harmful than carbon dioxide.

These two chunks of sophisticated inquisition show us that every step along the way to an environmentally-committed product/service is a coin that still has the other side to be observed. Pli’s product-management oriented-approach to LCA attempts to do this.