Life Cycle Thinking for Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Challenging Sustainability Measurement: the product level and value chain scope

The class will focus on:
•    the first level of application of Sustainable Performance Measurement, i.e. the product/process level, in terms of:
                                   - An introduction to Life Cycle Thinking and Ecodesign
                                   - Introduction to LCA: origins, development and methodology (ISO 14040-14044; EPD; the four stages of LCA)
                                   - LCA application: case studies presentation

LCA lab
This class will introduce the approach towards a practical application of Life Cycle Thinking and Assessment, by discussing:
•    Sustainability assessment: problem and scenarios identification
•    Hands-on sustainability assessment through LCA: framing out the issue proposed by the challenge, in business’ perspective
•    How to develop the conceptual model behind the assessment: application to the case study

Hands-on LCA
This class will focus on developing a LCA study to make Supply Chain Management decisions for sustainability. It will be organised as a Teamwork, with final presentation and discussion of challenges and main insights from LCA application.

By the end of the seminar, students will be able to:

1. Explain Life Cycle Thinking and position product LCA within sustainable supply chain management decisions.
2. Define goal & scope for an LCA study (functional unit, system boundary, cut-off rules, allocation logic, data quality needs) aligned with ISO 14040/14044 principles.
3. Build a transparent LCI model for an industrial product using OpenLCA (or a structured proxy approach when primary data are missing).
4. Interpret LCIA results (hotspots, contribution analysis) and translate them into supply-chain actions (design, sourcing, logistics, end-of-life).
5. Conduct a Scope 3 screening for the same product system, map relevant categories, and reconcile organizational vs product perspectives (double counting, boundary alignment, data constraints).
6. Communicate results and limitations professionally (assumptions, uncertainty, sensitivity checks, improvement levers).

Attendance to the seminar is compulsory, as the Teamwork will be developed in class.

Attendance is required for all sessions.

Interactive lecture, short case discussions, guided modelling demos, teamwork studio time, coaching/feedback, and final group presentations.

Total: 100 points (minimum 60 points to pass).

• Group project: Product LCA + Scope 3 screening (deliverables + presentation): 70 points
• Individual component (peer assessment + short reflection quiz): 20 points
• In-class contribution (preparedness + participation): 10 point

Please log in with your WU account to use all functionalities of read!t. For off-campus access to our licensed electronic resources, remember to activate your VPN connection connection. In case you encounter any technical problems or have questions regarding read!t, please feel free to contact the library at readinglists@wu.ac.at.

Required readings:

• Guinee JB, Heijungs R, Huppes G, Zamagni A, Masoni P, Buonamici R, Ekvall T, Rydberg T (2011) Life cycle assessment: past, present and future. Environ Sci Tech 45:90–96. doi: 10.1021/es101316v https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/es101316v
• Harding, K, 2011. An introduction to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Environmental Engineering and Management, pp. 22-25. Available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263543571_An_Introduction_to_Life_Cycle_Assessment_LCA 
• Carey, M., Koch, A.D., 2019. The Business case for Life Cycle Thinking. UN Environment Program. Available at https://www.lifecycleinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/unep_nairobi_V7-LR.pdf 

Supplementary readings:

• European Commission. 2012. Life cycle indicators framework: development of life cycle based macro-level monitoring indicators for resources, products and waste for the EU-27. European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability. Executive summary. Available at https://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/uploads/LCindicators-framework.pdf
• UNEP, 2015. Guidance on Organizational Life Cycle Assessment: Executive summary and reports. Available at https://www.lifecycleinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/o-lca_24.4.15-web.pdf 
• Frankl, P. and Rubik, F. (1999). Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) in business. An overview on drivers, applications, issues and future perspectives. Global Nest: the Int. J. Vol 1, No 3, pp 185-194. Available at https://journal.gnest.org/sites/default/files/Journal%20Papers/Frankl.pdf  
• Ferrari et al, 2020. Dynamic life cycle assessment (LCA) integrating life cycle inventory (LCI) and Enterprise resource planning (ERP) in an industry 4.0 environment (Journal pre-proof available at https://parsproje.com/articles/modiriyat/1155.pdf)
• (12.)Mazzi, A. 2020. Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment for Decision-Making - Methodologies and Case Studies, Pages 1-19 Tutorial for the use of OpenLCA: read and operate par. 1, 2 and 3 Available at  https://www.openlca.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/GreenDelta-Bottle-Tutorial_Parameters_1.10.pdf

Team Project: Comparative LCA and Scope 3 Screening of Industrial Products.

Team set-up: Teams of 4–6 students. Each team is assigned one product family and compares two design/supply scenarios (e.g., material choice, supplier geography, energy mix, packaging, end-of-life route).

Objective: Develop a decision-oriented assessment that combines

-          a product LCA (screening to intermediate level) and

-          a Scope 3 screening view (organizational logic)

to identify hotspots and propose credible supply-chain improvement actions.

Products will be disclosed during the class.

Required modelling elements (minimum standard)

A. LCA (product perspective)

Each team must define and justify:

1.       Functional unit (e.g., “1 unit delivered to customer and used for X years / X cycles”).

2.       System boundary (at least cradle-to-gate; cradle-to-grave encouraged if feasible).

3.       Key assumptions: cut-off rules, allocation choices, expected lifetime, transport distances, end-of-life shares.

4.       Data strategy: what is primary vs secondary; data quality discussion.

5.       LCIA outputs: at least Climate Change (GWP) + one additional indicator (e.g., energy demand, water use, acidification—choose based on product relevance).

6.       Hotspot analysis: contribution tree identifying top processes/materials.

7.       One sensitivity test (e.g., electricity mix, transport mode, recycled content, lifetime).

Tools: OpenLCA is recommended; if a team cannot fully model in OpenLCA, a structured proxy approach using Idemat + transparent calculations is acceptable, but assumptions must be explicit.

B. Scope 3 screening (organizational perspective)

For the same product system, teams must:

1.       Map relevant Scope 3 categories (identify which categories are “material” for the product system).

2.       Translate the product model into a Scope 3 narrative: which emissions sit in upstream vs downstream value chain, and why boundary alignment is non-trivial.

3.       Provide a screening estimate of Scope 3 contributions by life-cycle stage (materials, manufacturing energy, inbound/outbound logistics, use phase if relevant, end-of-life).

4.       Identify 3–5 supplier/customer engagement levers (e.g., supplier energy contracts, material specifications, packaging redesign, logistics mode shift, take-back/recycling agreements).

Deliverables:

D1. Group report (max 10 pages + appendix). Structure (mandatory):

·         Product and scenarios (what is being compared and why)

·         Goal & scope (FU, boundary, allocation, cut-offs)

·         Inventory model and data (sources + data quality)

·         Results (graphs + hotspot breakdown)

·         Sensitivity test + interpretation

·         Scope 3 screening mapping + implications

·         Recommendations for supply-chain management (prioritized, feasible, with trade-offs)

·         Limitations and what data would change the decision

D2. Model package: (i) OpenLCA project export or calculation sheet with transparent formulas; (ii) A one-page assumptions log (distances, weights, recycled content, energy mixes, EoL shares)

D3. Final presentation (10 minutes + 5 minutes Q&A): Slides must include: FU & boundary, hotspot chart, scenario comparison, Scope 3 mapping, top actions.

D4. Peer assessment (individual, confidential, 0–5 rating + comments), used to adjust individual grades within the group project component.