Beyond Environmental Metrics: Integrating Life Cycle Thinking into Ethical Governance of Religious Service Institutions

Purpose: This article aims to extend the application of life cycle thinking beyond its conventional environmental and industrial orientation by examining its relevance for ethical governance in religious service institutions. Rather than focusing on material flows or emission inventories, the study explores how life cycle perspectives can be used to evaluate institutional practices, decision-making processes, and responsibility distribution across different stages of service provision. By doing so, the article seeks to bridge the conceptual gap between life cycle assessment frameworks and normative discussions on ethics, accountability, and governance in non-industrial organizational settings. Method: The study employs a qualitative analytical design based on document analysis and interpretive institutional assessment. Regulatory texts, organizational guidelines, and operational practices of religious service administration are examined through a life cycle thinking lens. Analytical procedures involve mapping governance processes across pre-service, service delivery, and post-service phases, followed by an ethical evaluation grounded in principles of responsibility, transparency, and stakeholder protection. This approach allows life cycle thinking to function as an evaluative framework rather than a purely quantitative assessment tool. Findings: The findings indicate that institutional governance often concentrates on compliance at discrete operational stages while overlooking cumulative ethical implications across the service life cycle. Life cycle thinking reveals hidden governance gaps, particularly in responsibility transfer, monitoring continuity, and post-service accountability. The analysis demonstrates that ethical risks emerge not from isolated failures but from fragmented governance across institutional phases. Significance: This study contributes to life cycle assessment scholarship by introducing an ethical–institutional application of life cycle thinking that expands its analytical scope. It offers a novel conceptual pathway for integrating LCA principles into governance studies, opening opportunities for interdisciplinary research and policy-oriented evaluation in service-based institutions.