Manufactured products—how can their life cycle sustainability be measured?—A case study of a bamboo bicycle

摘要: Sustainability is a driver for industry and with a growing internationally awareness of competitive advantage. Nevertheless, to evaluate the sustainability on the product level is still a challenge. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), the well-known life cycle approach, is widely adopted to prevent a shift of the environmental burden. In contrast, taking the economic and social dimensions into account into a comprehensive life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) is still in its infancy. This contribution applies LCA, life cycle costing (LCC) and social life cycle assessment (SLCA) on a case study of a bike. Biking is generally considered as a very environmentally friendly way of transport for commuters and other passengers over short distances. The result highlights the development of a comprehensive, scientifically and globally valid bottom-up method and a set of indicators suitable for the integrated sustainability assessment of value creation networks on the given case study.