BUSHOR-1176; No. of Pages 14 Strategic sustainability: Creating business value with life cycle analysis Holger Buxel a , Go ¨kc ¸e Esenduran b, * , Scott Griffin c a University of Applied Sciences Mu ¨nster, Mu ¨nster, Germany b Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University, 2100 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, U.S.A. c Chief Sustainability Officer, Greif, Inc. 1. Sustainability management: Fighting against blind spots Scientific research regarding the role of humans on climate change, as well as many lessons learned from industrial pollution and its negative impacts upon the environment, have led to a greater general awareness of the need for sustainability. Customers are increasingly demanding that products be pro- duced in environmentally friendly ways that limit negative impacts on the earth’s resources (Thorn, Kraus, & Parker, 2011). Therefore, companies face a growing need to incorporate sustainability into their business models and marketing efforts. But that is easier said than done. Although today’s customers want more sustain- able solutions and information about the environ- mental qualities of the products and services they buy, many companies struggle to fulfill these requests while concurrently adding value through Business Horizons (2014) xxx, xxx—xxx Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor KEYWORDS Strategy development; Sustainability; Product management; Life cycle assessment; Business development tools Abstract Markets are increasingly demanding more sustainable products and ser- vices, as well as more information about the environmental qualities of the products and services they use. To meet market expectations, modern management needs powerful tools that can create an understanding about the environmental traits of products and services and how these products and services can be made more sustainable. The environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) approach is one such powerful tool that can evaluate the environmental aspects and impacts of a product or service from cradle to grave. While LCA was originally designed to support decisions in the environmental engineering area, it is a tool that can also be used managerially to develop valuable and fact-based sustainability strategies within the company regarding its products and services. Recent examples from industry leaders report exciting evidence of the power of LCA. This article introduces the LCA method as a management decision tool, and illustrates its value creation potential through multiple industry examples. # 2014 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author E-mail addresses: mail@holger-buxel.de (H. Buxel), esenduran.1@osu.edu (G. Esenduran), scott.griffin@greif.com (S. Griffin) 0007-6813/$ — see front matter # 2014 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2014.09.004