From Assessment to Innovation:The Role of LCA and Co-Design in Sustainable Development

Businesses increasingly face demands for sustainability and regulatory requirements like the CSRD, prompting environmental assessments of their products and business models. Some organizations find that Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) as tool alone are insufficient, and the belief that they could drive sustainable innovation on their own is exaggerated. This paper, based on five case studies from diverse sectors, examines how LCA can drive sustainable development when integrated with Life Cycle Management (LCM) and Scandinavian participatory design (PD) methodologies. Based on co-design activities involving stakeholders such as users, managers, and suppliers, we develop a typology business can use as an analytic and strategic guide to leverage LCA and LCM into actionable strategies for sustainable business development. Our findings reveal that LCA, when combined with LCM and PD, not only facilitates environmental improvements but also drives business model innovations, with an iterative co-design process often proving as critical as the LCA outcomes.<br/>