Global challenges such as climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss present companies with wicked problems, leading to internal and external tensions.
Climate change, for instance, has led to more unpredictable weather patterns, disrupting the supply of raw materials such as timber. This is particularly problematic in regions that depend on forests vulnerable to fires, pests, and droughts.
Additionally, regulatory bodies like the European Environment Bureau (EEB) are imposing stricter environmental constraints, requiring companies to adopt sustainable practices and meet rigorous carbon reduction goals.
For example, manufacturers now face tighter rules regarding waste management, the use of eco-friendly materials, and the reduction of emissions during production processes.
Compounding these challenges is a steep increase in raw material and energy prices, largely driven by geopolitical factors and inflationary pressures. Indeed, furniture industry has been significantly impacted by rising costs since 2021, due to factors such as raw material shortages, supply chain disruptions, and increased post-pandemic demand.
As a result, many companies are caught in a vicious cycle where compliance costs rise, but margins shrink due to supply chain instability and higher production costs.
Companies strive to reduce environmental impact and increase efficiency through internal tools and practices. Recent efforts focus on involving various actors in value chains to identify collaborative solutions for sustainable and circular products and services, since the linkage between green product strategy and financial performance has already been proved, as well as its overall competitive advantage.
Among the number of ways through which companies can pursuit a sustainable business model redesign, digitalisation stands at the forefront of the recent studies. However, such a transition towards a more sustainable business model has even been propelled by other technological tool like the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
LCA is pivotal in assessing environmental impacts of products and services. As circularity increasingly becomes common ground for competition among companies, LCA serves as a benchmark for measuring circularity performance.
Research highlights the strong link between LCA and circularity, particularly in construction, while LCA-based indices effectively assess the impact of circularity strategies on environmental performance at meso- and macro-levels.
LCA also supports standards like ISO 59020 and UNI 11820:2022, providing clear criteria for evaluating resource efficiency and material circularity. As a result, then, LCA plays key role in enhancing competitiveness through measurable progress toward sustainability.
No wonder, then, demands arise for LCA's adaptation to even more ambitious uses igniting the spread of lifecycle-based managerial approaches, particularly Life Cycle Management (LCM). LCM proves more effective, incorporating environmental, economic, and social aspects of products, processes, and organisations.
LCM is an integrated concept for managing the total life cycle of goods and services toward a more sustainable production and consumption. LCM is applicable for industrial and other organisations demanding a system-oriented platform for the implementation of a preventive and sustainability-driven management approach for a product service system.
Previous studies have recognised Organisational Learning (OL) as an essential factor influencing knowledge management processes, such as knowledge acquisition, creation, storage, transfer, and utilisation, positively.
Besides, based on the previous studies’ results, these effective implementation processes positively affect sustainable organisational performance.
However, since parameters in LCA may vary significantly across different product categories, the managerial effects on a broader scale can also vary considerably. Therefore, case-specific approaches are required through case studies.
The study, then, is designed to explore how an organisational learning process can aid enterprises in embedding life cycle management practices by building on their experiences with life cycle assessment.
This investigation delves into the connection between learning processes and the adoption of sustainable management practices within organisations.
Starting from this concept, our research introduces the ECOFURNY case study, an Italian furniture company that, beginning with an LCA, adopted an LCM approach through OL.
The company embarked on a pathway (from 2017 to 2022), following an “internalisation” trajectory where LCA spread throughout the entire organisation, reaching top-tier management. This led to the adoption of LCM, which encouraged managers and workers to shift towards a new life-cycle-oriented mindset and reshape the company's strategy accordingly.
Through a four-phase framework described in the results section, the ECOFURNY case study offers a unique understanding of how OL played a functional role in embedding LCA insights across the organisation, driving the adoption of LCM in the furniture industry.
The applied method is the longitudinal single case study that allows to detect changes in the organisation during the process of life cycle concept internalisation.
ECOFURNY case study reveals drivers and barriers met in the LCM implementation process and the achieved outcomes. The research reveals the support that the OL provides in this process to fully sustainability internalisation.
ECOFURNY
To maintain anonymity, the selected company was assigned the fictitious name ECOFURNY.
ECOFURNY is a small business (54 employees, revenue 22 million in 2018) based in Milan, Italy, specialising in the production of office furniture for international brands.
ECOFURNY is an Italian interior design company founded in the 1969. Company involves around 180 workers and is primarily concerned with large orders in office furniture, which it exports to Europe and many other countries around the world.
Its sustainability journey began in 2015 with LCA and commenced the implementation of Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) in 2017, setting in motion an internalisation process of LCM.
The ECOFURNY office desks (laminate or wood) are its main products. They are equipped single desks with a very simple and accurate structure. The details are few and light.
The metal structure consists of under-top rails and shaped aluminium legs and is equipped with a special fastening system that allows the various elements to be positioned according to different requirements. Office desk is realised in wood or laminate.
The functional unit for the PEF study is a product unit corresponding to a single-seat office desk.
The reference flow is an office table supplied with its packaging. The system boundaries considered in the study include all phases of the desk life cycle, from cradle to grave.
Empirical evidence was supported by technical and quantitative data, including product environmental footprint based on LCA and performed using the PEF Method.
Customers’ Request For Life-Cycle-Backed Certifications
ECOFURNY embarked on the adoption of LCM driven by LCA insights. The company's focus on sustainability and the need for environmental performance information prompted the application of LCM, particularly in response to customer preferences and LEED or EPD certification requirements and following the new knowledge on the positive opportunities related to life-cycle logic.
The company's managers expected improved reputation, marketing opportunities, and economic value as LCM adoption would consolidate trust with customers, satisfy data requests and improve the supply chain approach.
The transition from LCA to LCM proved effective, with ECOFURNY implementing practices reducing raw material usage, increasing company effectiveness and streamlining manufacturing processes.
This integration led to organisational changes, enhanced communication and knowledge transfer with stakeholders increased employee awareness of sustainability and mainly changing the internal decision-making processes introducing a more participative and shared model.
Identity change was even prompted by both external and internal drivers. Initially, ECOFURNY business strategy aimed to reduce the natural resources input and increase the company's environmental efficiency.
At the same time, the company's managers have emphasised the need to affirm ECOFURNY as sustainability leader in office desk furniture sector demonstrating its environmental commitment. So, the efficiency needs to be combined with the external pressures for better information on product environmental performance from suppliers and customers has encouraged the company to apply an LCM approach.
Additionally, the mindset changes and the increasing of LC’ knowledge among the ECOFURNY managers allows to start the LCM adoption process.
ECOFURNY mainly operates in business-to-business areas and with interior designers. From these stakeholders emerged the main external pressures concerning the need of environmental data on office furniture.
Recently, large buyers (companies and public institutions) and retails introduced requirements on the environmental performance for furniture products; the customers, mainly from the US (12,5%), select furniture products with the LEED certification that encourage the use of products and materials for which life-cycle information is available. So, for ECOFURNY, requests for technical data on the product environmental performance of are increasingly frequent.
Additionally, public institutions through the Green Public Procurement (GPP) have represented another driver to ECOFURNY environmental commitment. The product's compliant to GPP criteria has represented a significant business opportunity.
By starting from these external pressures, the internalisation process through which ECOFURNY has consolidated its LCM is depicted as a pathway divided into four phases.
Drawing On LCA
ECOFURNY's strategic realignment toward environmental sustainability, anchored in the insights drawn from a LCA conducted in 2018, has led to transformative changes across the organisation.
The LCA results, identifying key impact categories and process stages with the highest environmental impacts for office desks made of wood and laminate, have informed significant shifts in operations, design, and supply chain management.
Notably, the PEF study highlighted that the most relevant life cycle stages cumulatively contribute more than 80 percent to each impact category for both products. Climate change emerged as a significant impact category, with the "components" phase (mainly aluminium-machining components) and the "use and maintain" phase for the laminate version contributing most to this result.
In response, ECOFURNY has undertaken strategic product eco-design, optimising company efficiency through operations optimisation, and improved environmental criteria in supplier selection.
These measures include adopting sustainable components and packaging, reducing raw materials, replacing energy-consuming machinery, and streamlining assembly processes.
Moreover, ECOFURNY has focused on packaging reduction for the laminate version of the office desk and integrated environmental criteria into the choice of suppliers, highlighting an organisation-wide commitment to sustainability.
Drawing on LCA, indeed, has become a cornerstone for ECOFURNY in embedding sustainability into its operational ethos, guiding the company through three significant areas: selection criteria for providers based on sustainability, integration of environmental sustainability in the design stage, and strengthening the eco-innovation process.
The foundation of ECOFURNY's approach lies in the principle that: “The choices are based on data from the LCA study" as cited by CEO. This philosophy not only prioritises sustainability as a selection criterion, but also ensures that operational decisions, from the ground up, are informed by environmental impact assessments.
Such a data-driven strategy underscores the importance of LCA in identifying and implementing changes that align with sustainability goals.
In the realm of design and construction, ECOFURNY has placed a premium on collaborations that prioritise environmental consciousness. The company asserts, "Working with environmentally aware architects and workers is a priority for our company and the adoption of LCA has supported ECOFURNY in this process" as confirmed by R&D manager.
This approach emphasises the integration of environmental sustainability at the design stage, ensuring that projects are conceived with ecological considerations at their core.
Lastly, the company's environmental ethos extends to its supply chain management.
The supply chain manager: “We have environmental criteria when choosing suppliers, where we go for water-based paints, etc. For the company, environmental impact is now criterion in the choice of partners (suppliers, distributors, customers, etc.) that guides us in our selections and purchases” declared supply chain manager.
This statement underlines the comprehensive impact of LCA in fostering a sustainability-driven culture within ECOFURNY, influencing decisions across the spectrum of its operations, from design to supply chain management.
Trigger A Process Of Identity Change
Triggering a process of identity change within a company, particularly in the context of environmental sustainability, involves a multifaceted approach centred around consolidating corporate environmental image, developing a collaborative approach to sustainability, and changing the company's relations with its stakeholders.
ECOFURNY's journey exemplifies how these concepts are not just theoretical ideals but actionable strategies that lead to tangible outcomes.
Firstly, consolidating the corporate environmental image is crucial in a market that increasingly values green features and high environmental performance.
ECOFURNY recognises this shift, as reflected in the statement by CEO, “The international market is increasingly interested in office furniture with high environmental performance and green features. Customers ask us for scientific data and reports on product environmental performances before purchases and we must be able to give it. So, our LCA has this goal” explained the environmental manager.
This approach not only responds to customer demands but also enhances the company's image and competitiveness by aligning with ethics and social responsibility, which are "essential to its long-term profitability", as cited by environmental manager.
Developing a collaborative approach to sustainability is the second pillar, emphasising the importance of engaging with various stakeholders.
ECOFURNY's engagement with its trade association and suppliers illustrates this principle: "We frequently held meetings with our trade association on sustainability and our process on environmental sustainability started with the association involving us in various initiatives and interesting projects. Our suppliers are now familiar with LCA and have experienced this methodology, which they see as a tool to improve trust and collaboration among stakeholders" (as cited by CEO).
These actions foster a culture of cooperation and shared goals towards sustainability.
Lastly, changing the company's relations underscores the transformative impact of LCA on stakeholder trust and collaboration.
The certification of an LCA study, as noted by environmental manager, "consolidates trust with customers and suppliers and increase the business opportunities. PEF also includes institutional value as well as role at European level" confirm the supply chain manager.
Moreover, "LCA has helped us improve our corporate image and communication with our international customers, demonstrating the vital role of transparent, science-based communication in enhancing relationships” (from CEO interview).
Spotlight On PEF Advancements
Circling back to PEF, ECOFURNY has devoted its effort to reducing component and packaging, increasing energy efficiency through the implementation of new technology and changing internal and external relations such as stakeholder engagement and increased employees’ involvement in decision-making processes.
By drawing on these research results, we can assert that ECOFURNY LCM approach does not consist of a mere product update according to LCA results. In fact, PEF study represents the ignited lit that spreads lifecycle principles.
ECOFURNY defined the improvements actions based on the results of the first PEF studies in 2018. From this assessment emerged the environmental performance of the office desks to identify the main issues to improve. Climate change was as the main significant issue in the two desks. Contributing most to this result is “components” phase (mainly Aluminum-machining components) for both products and “use and maintain” for the laminate version.
Resource use, mineral and metals and resource use, energy carriers were two other relevant impact categories for the laminate office desk. Finally, the packaging contributed enough to environmental footprint of the ECOFURNY desks.
So, the improvements of the office desks interested the most significant issues emerged from the first PEF that can be summarised in the following results:
•1.Reducing the amount of metal parts (−25%) used to produce the structures and identifying finishes that require less processing and raw materials. These actions aim at improving the “components” phase of life cycle assessment.
•2.Wood dust removal is a major source of energy consumption. These machines have been replaced with more efficient and less energy-consuming ones. So productive stages as “use and maintenance” can improve.
•3.Reducing the energy consumption. This measure aims at improving the climate change impact category in all productive stages.
•4.Reducing processing stages concerning assembling of the components and machining the desktop and substitution of virgin raw materials with recycled to reduce the environmental footprint in “assembly” stage.
•5.Reducing packaging amount (−20%) in the laminate office desk to improve the relative life cycle phase.
Generally, with the LCM adoption, the environmental performance of ECOFURNY office desks improve. The wood product achieves a result of −25 percent compared with the first PEF.
For this product, the “Resource use, mineral and metals” impact category obtains a reduction around by 27 percent linked to minimisation of metal components.
Climate change and acidification improve by 25 percent in the life cycle and in the “Component” product stage. Concerning the wood desk the improvements are linked to the adopted measures in the “component” phase as the reduction of metal component and the energy efficiency solutions.
The comparative PEF (2021) analysis of laminate desk shows improvements by 11 percent in the life cycle compared to the PEF in 2018.
The study, completed in the 2021, summarises the evolution of products to greater environmental sustainability. Indeed, eutrophication freshwater impact category reduces by 13 percent and many others included the climate change improve by 12 percent.
Contributing to this result were not only measures on metal components and energy efficiency changes but also the packaging's replacement. Three productive stages (component, packaging and end of life) obtained significant reductions in all impact categories.
“Thanks to the PEF results, we have been able to understand the effectiveness of our production choices and will be able to rely on a scientific information base in our decision-making processes” confirmed CEO.
Other result consolidated in ECOFURNY concerns the mindset.
ECOFURNY conducted an intensive internal training programme for workers in each department. Two events in 2017 on the life cycle concept and PEF and three more events in 2018 involved around 100 of the 180 employees and specific initiatives for managers. The aim of this process was to make workers aware of how to apply the LCA information to produce better furniture products.
Additionally, to environmental results, ECOFURNY declared improvements in the external relations. The ECOFURNY managers detected most customer satisfaction, improving company's image and new business opportunities during the LCM adoption process, “Our customers and suppliers have shown a significant interest in the research and the achieved environmental improvements.
The data produced was provided to confirm our path by providing scientific data and guarantees” declared supply chain manager. Stakeholder engagement improves through the involvement of architects, suppliers, consultants and other organisations in the PEF and then LCM implementation process.
Cooperation with universities, trade associations and suppliers gave the company access to a set of knowledge and experience that was valorised in the internalisation process of the LCM, “Several barriers faced in the implementation of the LCM were overcome by the support and sharing of knowledge with the research team” explained the environmental manager.
The OL supported the company in making choices based on the LCM, problem solving and staff involvement promoting the cooperation and the knowledge transfer among organisational level and departments.
Cooperation about LCM made ECOFURNY’ managers more available towards dialogue and meeting customer needs.
Reshuffling Organisational Tasks
ECOFURNY's strategic realignment towards environmental sustainability illustrates the transformative power of integrating LCA into organisational processes.
The company's journey highlights three main pillars that have been pivotal in reshaping its organisational tasks, each underscored by insights drawn from LCA studies.
Firstly, “The choices are based on data from the LCA study, in operations, the LCA established changes, modifications to installations” cites environmental manager demonstrates the foundational role of LCA in informing operational decisions.
This approach not only anchors strategic choices in robust environmental data but also directs tangible alterations in operational practices, ensuring that sustainability is woven into the fabric of ECOFURNY's daily activities.
Secondly, the challenge of distilling critical insights from complex data is acknowledged, as noted by environmental manager: “According to the LCA study, there are few relevant impacts and precisely those require our commitment… My colleagues find it difficult to understand which things are most important” explains environmental manager.
This statement reflects the organisation's proactive efforts in demystifying LCA findings through internal collaboration. By translating the LCA data into accessible formats, such as graphs, ECOFURNY enhances its collective understanding of key environmental issues, facilitating targeted improvements.
Lastly, the quote “Despite the difficulties in understanding the results, there has been enthusiasm among the company's various departments in sharing the LCA studies and the work done, also because it is linked to a certification we are trying to obtain” (as explained by CEO) highlights the motivational impact of LCA studies across the organisation.
This enthusiasm for shared environmental goals, spurred by the pursuit of certification, signifies a cultural shift within ECOFURNY. It underscores the importance of LCA as not only a tool for environmental assessment, but also a catalyst for organisational unity and commitment to sustainability.
In summary, ECOFURNY's strategic refocusing around LCA findings exemplifies how data-driven insights, collaborative understanding, and organisational enthusiasm are crucial in transitioning towards more sustainable operations.
These pillars underscore the importance of embedding a lifecycle perspective into every layer of the organisation, ultimately guiding ECOFURNY towards achieving its sustainability objectives and consolidating a new organisational culture based on the acquisition of new knowledge and awareness.
Reconfiguring Business Strategy
In the wake of Covid-19, businesses are compelled to rethink their operational models, particularly in terms of integrating environmental sustainability with health and safety measures.
This revaluation has led to a strategic reconfiguration of business units within organisations, focusing on a holistic approach that blends environmental considerations with health and safety requirements.
This evolution is underpinned by three interconnected concepts that become the core of business environmental strategy: combining environment, health, and safety; strengthening environmental, health, and safety management; and changing the environmental and safety management framework to better meet contemporary challenges and customer expectations.
So, the reconfiguration process follows an integrated strategy combining environmental, health and safety management.
The pandemic has notably shifted risk perceptions, prompting companies to apply a longer time horizon to their planning and operations.
This shift acknowledges that “Since Covid-19, risk perception has changed and a longer time horizon is applied,” declared CEO illustrating the newfound emphasis on comprehensive risk management strategies that encompass not just immediate concerns but also future sustainability.
This approach necessitates a nuanced balancing act, as "The environment is taking a bit of a back seat to health and safety issues", declared the company CEO.
Organisations are navigating the complexities of meeting customer demands while ensuring that procedures account for both environmental sustainability and health safety. The innovative development of sound-absorbing panels from recycled fabric exemplifies this dual focus.
However, the challenge of sanitising these environmentally friendly options compared to laminate counterparts underscores the operational complexities introduced by health considerations, as noted: "For example, one of our sound-absorbing panels is made of recycled fabric and has been very popular in the market but the difficulty of sanitising it favours the laminate one."
This period of transformation signifies a critical juncture for businesses, compelling them to integrate environmental, health, and safety considerations more cohesively into their operations and strategies.
By doing so, companies not only respond to the immediate challenges posed by the pandemic but also pave the way for more resilient and sustainable business practices that can weather future uncertainties.
The reconfiguration of business units along these lines represents a forward-thinking approach to corporate sustainability, emphasising the need for an adaptable, integrated management system that aligns with evolving global standards and stakeholder expectations.
Discussion And Conclusion
ECOFURNY's strategic realignment towards environmental sustainability, driven by a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) conducted in 2018, highlights the impactful integration of LCA insights across its operations, design, and supply chain management.
This research contributes to the scientific literature by exploring the pathway from LCA to Life Cycle Management (LCM) and its consolidation into the organisation's decision-making processes.
First, our findings confirm the effectiveness of LCA. Continuous product modification, supported by advanced methodologies, is essential for improving environmental performance.
ECOFURNY utilised the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) process to identify opportunities for improvement, emphasising collaboration between R&D and production to reduce raw material usage.
Product design, exemplified by eco-designed office desks, plays a pivotal role in this process. Managers should adopt PEF-based LCA changes to enhance manufacturing efficiency and reduce the environmental footprint.
Beyond individual operational improvements, LCA offers scalable insights that could be effectively applied across diverse industries, including construction, textiles, and electronics, to address environmental challenges while enhancing economic and operational efficiency.
However, in today's context, where institutional and market pressures are prevalent, these efforts alone are insufficient. Companies must embrace a holistic approach to sustainability.
ECOFURNY's commitment to LCM demonstrates how organisations can meet emerging demands from customers, suppliers, and competitors.
Addressing increasingly complex environmental challenges requires businesses to extend their efforts beyond organisational boundaries and adopt a life cycle perspective.
This transition necessitates collaboration across stakeholders and industries, leveraging LCA insights to guide decision-making processes and foster circular economy practices. For instance, digitalisation and tools like Waste Flow Mapping (WFM) have been shown to enhance the application of LCA, facilitating its integration into broader LCM frameworks across manufacturing sectors.
ECOFURNY's organisational learning (OL) journey from LCA to LCM exemplifies this transformative shift, showcasing the pivotal role of LCA in fostering a deeper organisational commitment to sustainability and life cycle management.
OL enabled ECOFURNY to engage stakeholders, reconfigure business strategies, and adopt eco-innovative solutions, offering a replicable model for other industries.
Additionally, rigorous scientific methodologies like LCA play a critical role in enabling organisations to adapt, learn, and thrive in a rapidly changing industrial landscape.
This research also contributes to the academic discourse on the role of stakeholders in LCM adoption. LCM is inherently collaborative, requiring engagement with multiple stakeholders throughout its implementation.
Scholars have emphasised the complexity of embedding LCM in practice, noting that diverse phases and actors across the product life cycle play a crucial role.
Collaboration with both internal and external stakeholders is consistently identified as a key success factor for effective business strategies.
The OL pathway identified in this case study provides concrete evidence of these arguments, demonstrating how collaboration among managers, workers, associations, suppliers, and other stakeholders consolidates LCM adoption.
From a global perspective, LCA's scalability enables its adoption in industries with varying levels of complexity. For example, its application in the furniture sector offers a replicable framework for industries such as automotive and electronics, which face similar regulatory and market pressures.
Insights from this case highlight the importance of aligning national and international policy frameworks, like Green Public Procurement (GPP) in Italy and ISO standards globally, to support LCM adoption.
For practitioners, our findings outline a process and collaborative approach to adopting LCM and implementing sustainability in a holistic manner. Collaboration and organisational learning emerge as crucial factors, enabling managers to better anticipate and manage the change process.
This includes understanding the stages, enablers, and barriers associated with embedding sustainability into operations. LCM requires collaboration across the product life cycle with stakeholders both inside and outside the organisation, fostering stronger relationships and improving operational outcomes.
The research also has substantial managerial implications. Implementing LCM requires companies to undergo significant organisational and managerial changes, which may introduce new structures, skills, and working methods.
These changes establish systems of knowledge that enable managers and workers to manage and monitor sustainability-related transformations.
By internalising efficiency-driven logic promoted by LCM, organisations can improve production processes, enhance competitiveness, and boost both environmental and economic performance. Managers may face new organisational scenarios, as demonstrated in the ECOFURNY case study.
From a policy perspective, the research identifies actions institutions can take to facilitate LCM adoption. Financial incentives, technical and technological support, and training programs are among the key areas where institutional interventions could drive broader adoption of LCM.
