Actor’s behavior matter – organising green product chains.

Conference poster, 2011

The industry in general and products are facing some major challenges in the coming years, such as consumer demands and scale of industrial systems, reduction of waste and climate change. Life cycle assessment (LCA) has emerged as a key method for environmental assessment of products, processes and technologies, and all material flows through society. The project includes the development of an Actor Based LCA methodology with focus on actors and their behaviour. Here recent results from a literature study and case studies from the building chain and the food chain are presented. Previous results show that environmental improvements can only be reached by changes of the chain as a whole e.g. changes in storage, transport or waste behaviour. Results also show that relationships between the actors of the life cycle may enable, or hinder, environmental improvement towards green chains as a whole. Future studies in the food industry will include questions on environmental organising of product chains: What is environmentally better - small scale or large scale chains, efficient supply chain or efficient chain as a whole?