Life Cycle Management - Task Force 3: Communication of life cycle information

Aims

The task force will position the existing tools for the communication of life cycle information and identify the best options to initiate changes of consumption and production patterns. In particular the task force will examine the mutual reinforcement amongst the tools and within the larger LCM framework, specifically within management systems.

Motivation

Communication of life cycle information is one of the key approaches discussed in industry and in the public sector to promote sustainable patterns of consumption and production. Communicating to the different stakeholders, including the value chain actors, regulators, opinion leaders, consumers, NGOs, is a critical success factor to stimulate the supply and demand for innovative products and services. Different approaches have been developed and introduced successfully (be careful, many labels, particularly of Type I were not successful at all), including environmental labels (ISO type I labels), environmental claims (ISO type II labels), product declarations (ISO type III labels such as EPDs) and environmental certifications (such as FSC, MSC).

Work program and work process

The task force will become effective end 2003 in an inaugural stage. The term of the task force is foreseen to be active for two years. Depending on user needs, the term may be extended.

The task force will concentrate its activities around the following themes of interest:
- Role and abilities of communication tools
- Target audiences and respective needs
- Specifications for different product groups
- Input for the establishment and co-ordination of an international forum on Sustainable Product Information Schemes

The TF will focus on environmental and social-economic aspects since international promotion of Sustainable Product Information Schemes means:
a) To include all three dimensions of sustainability to support human development,
b) To facilitate capacity building in developing countries,
c) To not forget the trade issues (relevant in WTO discussions and for tax reductions).

Communication of life cycle information within the LCM programme contains the aspects:
1) Target- and product-dependent communication,
2) Change-initiating communication,
3) Communication with capacity building for human development.

The following questions will be addressed:

1) Who are the target groups, both internal and external to the firm?
• Internal: LC information can be used for management (and here there is some overlap/collaboration needed with TF 1 and 3 of course), but we should not forget that the same information might also be used for firm sustainability reporting.
• External: There a variety of stakeholders, public and private, from suppliers to final consumers.

2) How can the different target groups be reached?
Of course this is also matter of TF 3 and 4, however the key question for TF 2 is that each target group might need a different format of communication

3) Is the communication format just target-dependent or also product-dependent?
My answer is clearly yes, it is product-dependent indeed. The life cycle information you might want to provide on toilet paper is certainly very different from the one you want communicate on Mercedes cars. The basic idea is that different product categories need different communication strategies.

4) What kind of information should be included?
Is environmental quality / profile enough? In my opinion, also detailed information on performance of products / services should be included (this is one of the main criticism opposed to ISO-I labels). Moreover, the possible educational role of environmental product information should be exploited: for example, if (eco-labelled) paper is thrown away and goes to landfill - which unfortunately still mostly happens in Southern European countries - the whole benefits of having bought an eco-labelled paper is vanished. Is the consumer informed about this?