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WHAT IS LIFE CYCLE THINKING?
When these factors become part of a company's
raison d'être, as they are at Alcan, it becomes
critical to examine the life cycle impacts while the product
is still being defined, designed and developed, rather than
during the manufacturing or recycling processes.
The life cycle of a product starts with raw material extraction,
continues with the fabrication of the relevant semi-finished
products, includes finishing and assembling of the final product
as well as its use and maintenance, and concludes with the
end-of-life operations. This last stage includes recycling
of materials and, after adequate treatment, final disposal
of waste.
For recyclable products such as aluminum products, a life
cycle can be modeled "cradle-to-cradle" by a product
system where the recycled material can substitute primary
material. Only the material that is lost at the different
stages of the life cycle needs to be replaced by primary material
as illustrated in the figure below.
Life Cycle Thinking
At each stage of the product or service
life cycle, there is resource consumption
(as indicated by the green arrows) and production impacts
(as indicated by the blue arrows).
Life Cycle Thinking is an approach to address and analyze
all these activities in regard to risks, opportunities, and
value creation in order to find the best overall solutions.
It involves internal decision-makers from R&D, production,
marketing, or management, as well as external stakeholders
such as suppliers, retailers, customers, consumers, and the
general public. Life Cycle Thinking should enable Alcan to
concentrate on sustainability actions that can bring the greatest
overall benefits from its products, for its long-term profitability,
the natural environment, and global society in general.
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