Life cycle thinking is a driver and pathway to sustainability as a business practice vis-à-vis products portfolio . Life cycle thinking is analyzed from the Beginning of Life (BOL) , Middle of Life (MOL) and End of Life (EOL). Most folks enjoy the benefits of the Middle of Life (MOL) of a product which is highly service oriented (usability), many actually have no thinking about the Beginning of Life (BOL) of a product which is largely on massive resource usage (tragedy of the commons) and End of Life ( eg ocean plastics etc). Plastics yes that plastic water bottle you are holding , yes that single-use plastic disposable you call, is made from petrochemicals through the process of burning hydrocarbons from fossil fuels, that’s the beginning of life of plastics FYI. The annoying fact about the end of life for plastics single use or multiple use is they end up in our beautiful Oceans and affecting the survival of aqua-marine life!
Anyone know the BOL of Tesla? Where material resources for battery or building body parts are sourced? The type of energy consumed in the manufacturing process of a Tesla? Water consumption during this process?The mode of transportation to deliver to their respective global outlets ? What’s the end of life of Tesla? Disposability? Recyclability? Thinking via this process at the initial phase (search/select and design) of product development from the BOL to MOL and finally EOL is the so-called Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) and it’s the golden key for unlocking sustainability-oriented business practice!
Not writing against Tesla Motors I love Tesla Motors innovation. I live in Norway , a grad in Energy and Environmental studies from the University of Stavanger. Everything I was taught is the expanding El-bil (norwegian for electric cars) sales in Norway. I studied transitions to a low carbon future using the MLP (Multi-Level Perspective) a framework for societal transitions and envisioning Tesla as a niche innovation trying to breakthrough and change the automobile regime to mitigate the sócio-technical landscape problems. And I applaud the efforts of the Norwegian government for enhancing and promoting clean tech innovation to meet their National and Regional Climate Target!
However, my concerns are not just for Tesla Motors but all product development industries to ethically think through responsible innovation the beginning of life of their innovation , and the end of life. Yes, people and planet over profits that’s responsible innovation! Profits will manifest if you care about people and planet! That’s the buzz word sustainability, swept under the CSR carpet and massive green washing, claiming to be environmentally friendly etc.
News flash , the world is changing! Greta and all the kids striking on Friday’s will change your business campus and the ball is in your hands. Strikes on Friday will continue on Mondays and Tuesday til Friday , the laws on carbon emissions will be tighter! As a business corporate , investor , hedge funder , stock trader , your time to invest in regenerative sustainability investments is NOW! If you reading this You are Warned. Time for lip-servicing for sustainability Is OVER!!!
Enjoy the Middle of Life of Tesla but always take time to think of the Beginning of Life and the End of Life, that’s means alot for the state of people & planet!!! 🎤
#sustainability #LCT #LCA #valuechains #innovation #MLP #Tesla #responsibleinnovation #climatechange #lifecyclethinking
