Life cycle initiative: a joint UNEP/SETAC partnership to advance the life-cycle economy

Abstract

Building awareness of life-cycle thinking and its value will be an important first step towards creating more sustainable forms of consumption and production. We have come a long way—even though the public may not have heard of it as ‘life-cycle thinking’. Articles in the popular press, which elude to life-cycle implications, are beginning to surface. For example, George F. Will (Newsweek, May 6, 2002) describes the ‘most politically correct product’ as being Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. But he also goes on to mention that their ice cream is “made in a factory that depends on electricity-guzzling refrigeration, and the a gallon of ice cream requires eight gallons of milk. While making that much milk, a cow consumes a lot of water plus three pounds of grain and hay, which is produced with tractor fuel, chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticides, and is transported with truck or train fuel.”