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- Rex, Emma, 1978-, et al.
(författare)
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Tailored for decision – Knowing your target group prior to adaptation
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Life cycle thinking is but one perspective - if at all considered -, in everyday business decisions throughout the organization; in the selection of suppliers, in the strategy of new product ranges, and, in what information is chosen to be highlighted to the customers. Tradeoffs are constantly made between e.g. environment, quality, price and other company goals. Before any successful adaptation and visualization of life cycle information, it is important for internal life cycle experts to identify and understand how other functions of the company perceive and value life cycle information in their specific working situations.To get a better understanding of these internal users of life cycle information, life cycle experts in four multinational companies (Akzo Nobel, Vattenfall, Volvo Cars, Volvo Group) have joined forces with researchers in life cycle management and behavioral science to create a graphical map of how life cycle information is spread and used in different parts of an organization. The aim of the map is to be used as a basis for discussions and recommendations on how to tailor life cycle information in order to support decision making throughout a company.The map is constructed by combining a) inventories on how quantitative data seeks its way to internal users through databases, reports and KPIs, with b) qualitative interviews on goal framing and decision weights of e.g. environmental and economic information. As a result, the map illustrates both the “physical” flows of life cycle information and the “cognitive logics” of this information for different users (e.g. how values, attitudes and norms influence the target groups’ likelihood of including life cycle information in their decision processes).Based on the map, each company can identify and discuss who the main users of life cycle information are and what premises for life cycle thinking these users have: In what decision making situation is, or can, life cycle information be used? How is the information understood? What other sources of information and rationales for decisions are used in parallel to, or in conflict with, LCA-results?Initial analyses on the usefulness of the map point to a better understanding of how life cycle experts can tailor information for decisions in different parts of the company, as well as on its usefulness in illustrating to people outside of the environmental departments the widespread use of life cycle information that already exist in the company. The latter is not least important for creating an understanding in how the organization respond to ongoing external pressure to focus more on a life cycle approach, e.g. new requirements in ISO 14001, new EU Directives on public procurement and current EU work to establish a common LCA methodology.
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- Baumann, Henrikke, 1964, et al.
(författare)
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Implications of an interpretive understanding of LCA practice
- 2008
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Ingår i: Business Strategy and the Environment. - : Wiley. - 1099-0836 .- 0964-4733. ; 17:7, s. 420-430
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite the desirability of a life cycle perspective and many attempts to facilitate life cycle assessment (LCA), industry has been relatively slow to adopt LCA. In this research, we thus set out to investigate the underpinnings of LCA practice in industry. A literature review shows that the present understanding is that structuralconditions such as location and sector determine the use of LCA in industry. However, a field study of two companies in the Swedish forest product industry (thus in the same sector and country) indicates that LCA practice is shaped more by individual preferences and chance events. Our results imply a more interpretive understanding of LCA practice than has been put forward by previous research. The two types of understanding are discussed and their implications for practitioners in industry, organizations promoting the use of LCA and further research are presented.
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- Johansson, Björn, 1975, et al.
(författare)
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SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION RESEARCH: AWARENESS, MEASURES AND DEVELOPMENT
- 2012
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Ingår i: International Journal of Sustainable Development. - 1923-6662. ; 4:11, s. 95-104
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper takes its standpoint in thehypothesis that awareness of sustainability is the keyto create sustainable products, and that this awarenessbegins already at research level. It describes thedevelopment and follow-up of a method forincreasing sustainability awareness in sustainableproduction research. Several activities were carriedout to increase the awareness. Firstly) workshopswith researchers and industry on sustainability.Secondly) development of measures based onliterature and interviews with researchers. Thirdly)monitoring of awareness through concept maps.Progress was evaluated by comparing the awarenessof the population when the project started in 2010,and then again in 2011. The results show that theparticipants had shifted their view from primaryemphasizing technology towards a more balancedview of sustainability where social aspects were moreoften taken into consideration. According to theconcept maps methodology, sustainability awarenessin the population increased with 25%.
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- Rex, Emma, 1978, et al.
(författare)
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Beyond ecolabels: what green marketing can learn from conventional marketing
- 2007
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Ingår i: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-6526. ; 15:6, s. 567-576
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ecolabels have emerged as one of the main tools of green marketing. Although a great deal of effort has been invested in making them more effective and efficient, the market share of ecolabelled products is still low, partly because they have been addressed mainly to ‘green’ consumers. In a theoretical exposition of marketing theory, we find that green marketing could learn from conventional marketing in discovering other means than labelling to promote green products. Examples include addressing a wider range of consumers, working with the positioning strategies of price, place and promotion and actively engaging in market creation.
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- Rex, Emma, 1978, et al.
(författare)
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Energy efficiency along the value chain – ways of working for increased competitiveness
- 2015
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This report presents a project with the aim to develop methods for large companies on how to work with energy efficiency that stretches along the value chain. By studying organizational conditions and physical effects on energy and climate for six cases in three companies, recommendations are given to businesses and governments on how to work for increased life cycle energy efficiency.The results point to a range of organizational and economic challenges, but also to enablers. Four strategies for progress were identified: A) Find and share the life cycle benefits, B) Enable and encourage understanding and action, C) Get focus and priorities in line, and D) Seek or create a way forward. The study points to the need to be strategic, and to translate this strategy into priorities and operational work. Yet, it must be recognized that life cycle thinking is not the work by one company and there is a call for cross-actor arenas to discuss and develop governance of value chains beyond the act of single companies.
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