ARRIVING AT OPTIMAL COST FOR A SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT USING AN INTEGRATED LCA-SCM MODEL

Abstract

Globalization has unleashed a new era of prosperity in economic terms. This has completely changed our outlook towards lifestyle. The recent surge of consumption in the past few decades has led to the escalation in the production of goods which in turn puts a huge burden on the environment. The increasing over consumption of resources has created a sense of urgency to track the level of expenditure as well emissions from a product. One of the major concerns related to the development of green products is the cost factor that comes into play while sourcing the alternate green materials. Identifying the alternate green material increases the overall manufacturing cost for the company. There are a lot of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) models that look into the environmental quality of a product. Similarly, there are many Supply Chain Management (SCM) models that look into the cost of the product. However very few have researched the combination of both LCA and SCM. There is a need to establish a balance between the cost and the environmental quality of a product. This paper investigates the cost of manufacturing sustainable products by looking into existing LCA and SCM models.