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- Otero, Juana Camacho, 1979, et al.
(författare)
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Unravelling the shrimp nets.
- 2016
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- 'Controversy mapping' can provide insights about issues related to actors, their networking, and governance where the interpretation of science is at stake. In turn, these insights can be useful for advocacy processes, collective problem-solving and decision-making. In order to explore the potential of controversy mapping, a case study was conducted for the North prawn (Pandalus borealis), which was the main subject of a controversy that started in 2014 on the West Coast of Sweden. A temporary stabilization in the controversy was reached in May 2016 when WWF endorsed the Marine Stewardship Council labeling for the also red-listed and red-lighted prawn. We used ‘controversy mapping’ from the scientific humanities, following the methodology suggested by Venturini (2010) and Latour (2012). The method allows to tracing of statements, literatures, and actors involved in a controversy. By assembling these elements, we described the process of the controversy and identify the networks that 'wrestled' over the scientific interpretation of the (same) data on population size for the Swedish West coast shrimp. Using network visualisation and analysis softwares, we map the extent of the actor networks in the controversy, and analyse the roles and influence of different actors. The material gathered was subsequently analysed through a life cycle lens in order to see how the controversy played out in the shrimp’s product chain organization. This shows advocacy actors seeking to enrol the consumption system in order to protect the shrimp, resulting in many reactions from production system actors. Based on the findings, we discuss implications for life cycle thinking and life cycle management of product chains. Among else, we suggest that controversy study can help product chain actors better understand their production and consumption system. This, in turn, may support shared conflict resolution and problem-solving, for example, in product chain roundtables.Latour, Bruno. “Mapping controversies: syllabus 2012 -13.” MediaLab. Science Po. Retrieved from www.medialab-dev.sciences-po.fr October 15, 2015.Venturini, Tommaso. “Diving in magma: How to explore controversies with actor-network theory.” Public understanding of science 19.3 (2010): 258-273
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2. |
- Lindén, Hanna, 1983, et al.
(författare)
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Product chain collaboration for sustainability – A business case for life cycle management
- 2019
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Ingår i: Business Strategy and the Environment. - : Wiley. - 1099-0836 .- 0964-4733. ; 28:8, s. 1619-1631
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Life cycle management (LCM) is frequently described as a holistic sustainability perspective along the product chain. It has mainly been a company internal practice, however, recent developments reveal a new type of LCM, where companies collaborate in product chain specific initiatives. This raises questions concerning why corporations extend corporate LCM towards product chain LCM. Here, we explore rationales and challenges for corporations engaging in one such coalition: The Sustainable Transport Initiative. The study covers five companies in different product chain positions and practitioners in different corporate functions. The results show a broad range of rationales for engaging in product chain LCM, related both to self-interest and a shared interest in the product chain. The importance of the ‘business case’ both for the individual companies, and the product chain, is identified. The importance of sustainability managers, as actors as facilitators in discussions in-between managers from different corporate functions is also identified.
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3. |
- Chakraborty, Anwesha, 1984, et al.
(författare)
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Science Communication and Social LCA: Can the twain meet? Initial findings from an Oatly study
- 2020
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Ingår i: Collection FruiTrop Thema Social LCA. - 2426-9654. ; 5, s. 206-209
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This contribution aims to propose a possible integration of science communication debates, on deficit, dialogue and participation between different actors, experts and non-experts, in the study of social LCA. The purpose of such an integration stems from the understanding that through the product chain, there are a wide variety of actors that enable the material product to "flow" and that are working with scientific and sustainability-relevant information. This abstract first discusses the key arguments that evolved in science communication debates especially in the last decades leading up to the more recent deliberations on participation, and then proposes reasons why it could be worthwhile to combine these arguments in the growing literature on social LCA. It uses Oatly, the Swedish oat milk company, and the types of communication in its product chain, as the case study to argue the relevance of science communication scholarly frameworks in social LCA.
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4. |
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5. |
- Lindén, Hanna, 1983, et al.
(författare)
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Organizing sustainable product chains: LCM in practice
- 2013
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Ingår i: Presented at the 6th International Conference on Life Cycle Management (LCM) in Gothenburg, Sweden, August 25-28, 2013.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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6. |
- Afrane, George, et al.
(författare)
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A product chain organisation study of certified cocoa supply
- 2013
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Ingår i: 6th International Conference on Life Cycle Management, LCM2013, 25-28 August 2013,Göteborg.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cocoa supplies may become limited in the future. Demands for sustainable cocoa sparked an exploration of the product chain organisation of conventional and certified cocoa from Ghana. The comparison shows that transparency requirements have led to a more complex product chain. Even so, certification has yielded important productivity increases resulting in environmental benefits (e.g. reduced greenhouse gas emissions) and improved livelihoods for smallholder farmers.
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7. |
- Lindkvist, Mathias, 1979, et al.
(författare)
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Complementing LCA with qualitative organisational study for improving waste management governance – illustrated by a comparative case on metal packaging
- 2016
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Ingår i: Life Cycle Assessment and Other Assessment Tools for Waste Management and Resource Optimization, Cetraro, Calabria, Italy, 5-10 June 2016.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- We here present a novel method that combines the life cycle approach with qualitative organisational study for environmentally effective waste management. While LCA is useful for producing a systems overview of the environmental performance, it does not provide further guidance on systems management since the actors and activities that uphold them are not systematically studied. The human dimension is particularly manifest in waste management where many types of actors (private, public, consumers, legislators, sector organisations) interact in complex ways.Our method, with which we study Product Chain Organisation (PCO), is designed to complement LCA. Descriptions and accounts of actors interacting and communicating in the product chain provide a basis for understanding how actions influence overall environmental performance. The method is thoroughly grounded in a socio-material approach well established in the social sciences and the humanities. The socio-material approach considers human organisation to be intimately entangled with material flows, machines, buildings, the environment, etc, and that they all influence each other.We illustrate our method through a comparative study of metal packaging flows in Sweden (SE) and the Netherlands (NL). We first created an overarching understanding of the organisation of different waste management options and their environmental performance. Several field research methods were employed (interviews, field visits, document studies). The empirical material was used to make descriptions of conditions and practices in the product chain in the respective countries. As both a result and a stepping-stone for further analysis and understanding, we produced an overview combining technical, environmental, and organisational aspects (simplified version in Figure 1). Next, we identified a number of situations where management has a significant influence on life cycle environmental performance, for example, where disagreement between public and private actors blocks change, and organisational sources to unreliable data and statistical methods. The study identified that data transparency is low for both countries, but for somewhat different reasons. Further study of organisational practices in the Swedish recycling system and data collection and statistical practices in the Dutch recycling system could be useful. This makes the statistics for SE and NL not readily comparable.mineral miningmetal productionpackaging production: SE & NL: Producers and importers of packaged products have considerable freedom for how to reach EU and national recycling targets. Fees are included in product prices to cover costs of recycling systems.filling, distribution & use: SE: 7 kg/cap (2011). NL: 12 kg/cap (2011).metal packaging waste collection: SE: Source separation. Organised and carried out by several organisations, with different organisation for household and business waste, respectively. NL: Metal separation from municipal incineration ashes for household waste; source separation for business waste. Nedvang, which represents all Dutch producers and importers of packaged products, oversees and organises packaging waste collection and recycling.recycling and other waste mgt: Recycling rates for SE & NL are not readily comparable owing to different methods and data choices. SE: 75% reported to be recycled, but monitoring is incomplete. Discussions to recover metal from incineration ashes have stalled. NL: 91% reported to be recycled. Recycling statistics by Nedvang; estimation methods change over time. Conflict about fees being siphoned to cover budget deficits.Figure 1: Simplified findings for metal packaging waste management in Sweden and the Netherlands.Our case study illustrates how the method by not being limited to LCA study can be used to produce a realistic understanding of even complex systems, such as waste management. It produces accounts that enable the understanding needed for informed action as well as identifies socio-material sources to data uncertainties that hide behind the figures in official statistics and sustainability reports.
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8. |
- Lindkvist, Mathias, 1979, et al.
(författare)
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The influence of organisational practices on environmental performance: A screening of the organising of nodes in product life cycles in six test cases
- 2015
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In the here reported on project, we have screened relations between product life cycle environmental performance and organising traced from technical processes that are nodes by having central roles in these cycles. Thereby, we have aimed both to further an already introduced method for this type of study by introducing an approach that is quicker to use than the thorough design previously deployed and to test it on a broader range of empirical domains.The method used combines life cycle assessment (LCA) and organisational studies, which are coherently integrated with each other using particularly the socio-material approaches actor-network theory (ANT) and action nets. The screening approach was applied to six test cases that covered six different types of services and physical commodities, and for each of these six comparisons have been performed between the organising traced empirically from at least three different nodes and their product life cycles environmental performance. The cases have covered the products and nodes listed in table S.1, further on in this summary.The test case on properties management was based on existing publications on a thorough study using the combination of LCA and organisational studies, while the other five test cases were performed as screenings applying this combination approach for the first time.A large number of practices of this organising have been indicated potentially to considerably influence product life cycle environmental performance. These organisational practices have been indicated to vary considerably between different activities both regarding the practices themselves and regarding the discernibility of their relations to each other and of their influence on environmental performance. The approach used in the project necessarily has limitations due to its screening characteristic, but these can be seen as prerequisites both for identifying the large number of organisational practices with indicated large influence on environmental performance and for reaching the overarching indications made through the project.However, even if no direct quantitative environmental differences were possible and feasible to present, the screening has at least shown that the environmental performances of the studied product life cycles seemed considerably to depend on organisational practices through not straightforward interplays between organising, technology and materials and energy processes. These organisational practices include the examples presented in Table S.2, further on in this summary.Table S.2:Bowling:Ceasing of business or not,Lunch provision or not,Additional games and similar activities degrees;Bread:Supply transport distance,Bread thickness and baking,Overproduction;Bus travel on intercity routes:Eco-driving training and discussions degrees,Number of routes served by the ticket offices,Seats organisation differences on the buses;Cement:Production permits renewal procedure differences,Production permit expiration criteria differences,Organisational practices for handling technical problems at and operation of the plant differences;Properties management:Types of windows related to the handling of cultural heritage requirements,Water taps replacement related to renovation and emergencies, system knowledge and operation and maintenance differences,Insulation differences due to fire protection differences;Road management (operation and routine maintenance of roads):Renewal or not of procurement contracts,Centralisation of contractors activities,Fragmentation of procurement governance.Regarding overall usefulness of screening and thorough nodal LCA organisation studies, respectively, generally the screenings were found to be considerably useful but instead performing thorough studies was indicated to provide considerable additional usefulness although the level and type of this addition were generally found to be difficult to predict. In relation to this, the results have also been discussed regarding whether and if so how they may point towards more overarching ideas on considerable reductions of society’s environmental impacts. This has covered internally driven environmental work within the organising connected to and along product life cycles, substantial amounts of assistance in such work from external experts, and an approach to focus of with a global coverage letting the local activities where the environmentally impacting resource use and emissions occur be monetary targeted. The actual feasibility of each of these approaches, however, have been found to be more or less limited and a uniting requirement seem to be a considerable pressure from the public. Finally, even if such considerable undertakings are made the project here reported on suggests that the environmental effects of a considerable share of actions still may not be possible or feasible to foresee.
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9. |
- Lindén, Hanna, 1983, et al.
(författare)
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Organizing life cycle management in practice: challenges of a multinational manufacturing corporation
- 2018
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Ingår i: International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1614-7502 .- 0948-3349. ; 23:7, s. 1368-1382
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: The environmental life cycle management (LCM) literature proposes many factors considered critical in order to successfully conduct LCM. This study contrasts these vague and general factors proposed as critical to LCM in existing literature, with detailed accounts of LCM in practice. Methods: A literature review of three related research fields, i.e., LCM, life cycle thinking, and sustainable supply chain management, is contrasted with a study of how LCM is enacted in practice in a large multinational manufacturing company recognized for its LCM work. A qualitative study, with mainly a managerial focus, is conducted based on inter- views, workshops, part-time observations, and document studies. Results and discussion: The literature review demonstrates that the three related research fields provide different accounts of LCM: all apply a holistic environmental perspective, but with different emphases and using largely different research methods. The empirical study shows that integration was a common topic at the studied company and that solutions were often sought in tools and processes. Middle management support proved important, and challenging, in these integration efforts. Challenges identified also included further integrating LCM into departments such as purchasing and sales. Conclusions: The constant focus on integration at the studied company implies that LCM work is an ongoing effort. Several integration paths are identified: (1) inclusion of sustainability aspects in tools and processes, (2) finding ways to work around certain organizational levels, and (3) using networks and social interaction to create commitment and integration. Although the concept of LCM implies a holistic approach, LCM in practice reveals a lack of a comprehensive overview of LCM-related initiatives and of involved sustainability prac- titioners within the studied organization.
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10. |
- Lindén, Hanna, 1983, et al.
(författare)
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Translating environmental LCM through an organization - From LCA to LCM
- 2017
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the NTNU Sustainability Science Conference in Trondheim, Norway, October 18-20, 2017.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: The business logic of corporations working with environmental management has traditionally focused on corporate in-house aspects of environmental issues. Some corporations are extending this focus towards all stages of a product life cycle, referred to as environmental life cycle management (LCM) (Hunkeler et al., 2003; Baumann and Tillman, 2004; Poikkimäki, 2006). But research describing LCM integration is rare (Seuring, 2004; Vermeulen and Seuring, 2009) and often fails to describe difficulties of organizing LCM in practice (Nilsson-Lindén et al., 2014). In this paper, we explore the processes of integrating LCM into an organization, using a model of translation (Czarniawska and Sevón, 1996). The traditional diffusion theory of innovation imply that an idea diffuses through an organization with the help only of the attractiveness of the idea itself. This is not reflected in our study, instead we have seen a process of change, where change is a result of the actions of many. Thereby, it is useful to apply the translation model, as another theory for the study of innovation, in order to gain improved understanding of LCM practice.Methods: Using interviews, observations and documents, we studied how the idea of life cycle thinking (LCT) traveled in a multinational manufacturing corporation, and how it was translated into practice in two settings: the sustainability and the purchasing departments.Results: An idea of LCT was picked up when a development unit started using life cycle assessment (LCA) to calculate environmental burden along product life cycles. LCT then got picked up at the Sustainability Department and translated into LCM as new concepts, policies, and practices developed, e.g. the development of a green business portfolio. Here, LCT influenced environmental management from being corporate-oriented to product chain oriented (LCM). Members of the Sustainability Department enacted these ideas and practices with the ambition to spread the idea of LCM into the different departments. At the Purchasing Department, another translation process instead took place, picking up sustainability with LCT elements from standards and regulation. Here, the translation process put focus on the upstream supply chain—the context in which purchasing operates.Discussion and Conclusion: LCM became the ambition of the organization, but the translation processes in different departments were not in sync. We found different varieties of the life cycle idea, picked up from different sources. The ambition was to spread a business idea of LCM in the organization, but in the Purchasing Department only upstream sustainability management was in focus, thus differentiating from LCM with business discussions based in the full product chain. Drawing on translation theory, we suggest that practitioners need to go beyond LCM implementation and diffusion, to engage actively in understanding interpretationsand translations of LCM elsewhere in the organization. Cross-departmental collaboration is one way to enhance practitioners understanding for how sustainability-related issues provides opportunities or challenges for different parts of the organization and thus a way to strengthen LCM uptake in the organization.
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