COLLABORATIVE LCA. Rachel Arnould and Thomas Albisser. Hop-Cube, France

Transcription

1 COLLABORATIVE LCA Rachel Arnould and Thomas Albisser Hop-Cube, France Abstract Ecolabels, standards, environmental labeling: product category rules supporting the desire for transparency on products environmental impact are multiplying and increasing the need for recurrent and agile life-cycle analysis (LCA). Naturally, tools implementation and market participants have followed the same trend. However, when these standards and tools are used in a real situation, the end user is paradoxically often lonely. And isolation will worsen the slowness of LCA already well known: long data collection, difficult dialogue with suppliers, internal approach misunderstood and undervalued. Based on this observation, Hop-Cube has developed HopMedia: the first fully collaborative platform, integrated into the information system, which brings together experts and non-experts around a common goal. On HopMedia, the LCA approach is organized around a user: the "pilot". He is responsible for creating and leading a group of people following various profiles: expert ensuring methodological rigor, environmental contributors who are supplying the tool with data but also "consumers" who use the resulting information for improving the production or sale by ensuring the traceability of the process. Each contributor or consumer has a custom interface in which only the elements that concern the latter are represented. The pilot meanwhile has comprehensive interface where he can manage the access rights of each, and a personalized dashboard to facilitate the data collection in a quick and easy way. If he has one product to analyze or thousands: the collection effort is the same. This step is greatly accelerated, the time spent is reduced and the final impact of the analysis is increased due to the collaborative aspect of the tool: all stakeholders are included from the upstream project. Keywords Collaborative LCA, agile, industrialized, ergonomic Page 1

2 Résumé en français L ACV collaborative Ecolabels, normes, affichage environnemental: les référentiels supports de la volonté de transparence sur l impact environnemental des produits se multiplient et augmentent le besoin d analyses de cycle de vie (ACV) récurrentes et agiles. De manière naturelle, les outils de mise en application et les acteurs du marché ont suivi la même évolution. Néanmoins, lorsque ces référentiels et outils sont utilisés en situation réelle, l utilisateur final se retrouve paradoxalement souvent esseulé. Et cet isolement va révéler et aggraver les lenteurs de l ACV déjà bien connues : collecte des données interminable, dialogue difficile avec les fournisseurs, démarche mal comprise en interne et peu valorisée in fine. Sur la base de ce constat, Hop-Cube a développé HopMedia : la première plateforme entièrement collaborative, intégrable dans le système d information, qui réunit experts et non-experts de l ACV autour d un objectif commun. Sur la plateforme HopMedia, la démarche d'acv s'organise autour d'un utilisateur "pilote", chargé de créer et animer un groupe de travail qui rassemble : des experts environnement garants de la rigueur méthodologique, des contributeurs qui approvisionnent l'outil en données mais aussi des "consommateurs" qui utilisent les informations résultantes de la plateforme pour améliorer la production ou la vente en garantissant la traçabilité de la démarche. Chaque contributeur ou consommateur est doté d une interface personnalisée sur laquelle seuls les éléments qui le concernent sont représentés. Le pilote a quant à lui une interface globale où il peut gérer les droits d accès de chacun, et un tableau de bord personnalisé afin d animer la collecte de manière simple et rapide. Qu il ait un produit à analyser ou plusieurs milliers: l effort de collecte est le même. Cette étape est donc considérablement accélérée, le temps passé est réduit et l impact final de l analyse est augmenté grâce à l aspect collaboratif de l outil : toutes les parties prenantes sont inclues dès le projet amont. 1. Introduction The search for environmental information and assessment is not new, yet the average need for environmental transparency has recently taken another level - especially in Europe - with the recent projects regarding environmental labeling in this political area. We have gone from a state where LCA was used for eco-design purpose only and for a limited number of products to a state where environmental impact analysis is needed on every single product made. The methodological issue is currently being tackled by different institutional working groups in both France and Europe. What we are going to look at here is the practical aspect of having to apply LCA to a large number of products in a quick amount of time. We are going to present the solution we have developed: HopMedia, which take the perspective of collaboration in order to tackle the issues mentioned. Collaboration is already the driver of any LCA-based project through the number of actors and stakeholders involved. The innovation here is to gather all these actors, but also a wider stakeholder community on a unique platform and enhance the instant collaboration between them in order to achieve the goals more rapidly, thus erasing any lack of optimization in the whole process. After detailing how HopMedia works on the paper, we are going to present you a case study of HopMedia in action. This will enable us to precisely describe how the solution was made in a perspective of a highly collaborative environment. Page 2

3 2. HopMedia: how does it work? HopMedia enables fast LCA publication on various format and large product number thanks to inputs from diverse actors. These actors will have access to the whole platform or only to the part that concern them, periodically or for an unlimited amount of time. Figure 1: User s interaction within HopMedia 2.1 Inputs from the marketing department Marketing division is one of the central part of a product environmental labeling project. It will usually have the role of the pilot 1. As the department defines what story the product will tell and how, people in the marketing development area will define the main goals and 1 Of course if the internal organization of a company defer from this example, the pilot role can be lead by another division. Page 3

4 perimeters of the project in terms of category of product, eco-design innovation, publication supports etc Moreover, they will define the role of each other stakeholder and their interaction with the platform in collaboration with the environmental expert team: both iterate to get the specifications together. The interface show them global steps the projects has made, how each team and/or contributor is evolving, and at the end, all the results that they can use through different supports for publication or other purpose. They can use the platform to exchange with each participant. 2.2 Inputs from R&D environment or quality/security department Input from the environmental team - aside from the interaction with the marketing team described above - will include data collection and sometimes environmental expertise. If data are not yet known by the team, they can easily and automatically send questionnaires/questions to suppliers or others people that might have the information. This can be done for one data or for several data at the same time. The key is that when suppliers bring information, data are not directly shown, especially is there are confidential data: the pilot and other core members of the project will only see consolidated data at the end. This ensures that all data entered by one user won t be used by another one, except defined access that can only be done by Hop-Cube s team. The data contributor will then have a space to enter the data required, seeing only the necessary information. At the end of the process, the environment team can use as well all the results defined at the beginning of the project on different format. Figure 2: Data sheet 2.3 Methodological canvas LCA experts inputs Page 4

5 After having collected the data, calculations and filters can be applied. Thus, data can be transformed into consolidated information. This existing work was made prior to any further use of the platform. Processing modules can be created according to the specific needs of each company. More processing modules can be applied simultaneously. And of course all these calculation modules are update by environmental experts including LCA experts. 2.4 Consumers / end users input Quantitative and qualitative measurement of the impact of communication on the company's business can be applied: mobile and web statistics, crossed with business performance, A / B testing, administration of web surveys. This qualitative and quantitative info will directly and continuously be show on the platform, thus enabling a better understanding of the impact of the publication but also providing helpful information in order to improve the information continuously. Figure 3: Result sheet 3. Case study In order to illustrate how HopMedia is working, here is a business case on how BUT has implemented environmental information on GEM products, high-tech and bedding in stores and on BUT.fr The goal of the project was to make available environmental information on GEM products, high-tech and bedding in order to guide consumers in their purchases, with the following constraints: environmental information had take into account the entire life cycle of the product, and had to be understood and used by consumers: a pedagogical approach was necessary. BUT has created its products environmental information through HopMedia. The following steps have been made through the platform: Page 5

6 1. Analysis of the life cycle of GEM products and bedding, and editing a calculation of standardized environmental impact; 2. Collection of product characteristics required to calculate the environmental impact from the brands and databases; 3. Creation of environmental and economic indicators for each product sold; 4. Publication of paper labels + mobile (via QRCode) for bedding products; 5. Publication of interactive virtual labels on BUT.fr; 6. Monthly statistical reporting to judge the interest of users for environmental information; 7. Administration of questionnaires in store to assess understanding and attracting visitors to environmental information (outsourced) 8. A / B test in three iterations in order to choose the best practices in environmental communication. All steps include a combination of producers, consumers and LCA expert, when needed. Each of the stakeholders had access to the platform in order to perform a one shot configuration. The rest of the process was done automatically, with regular quality check from Hop-Cube s experts. On a long term basis, the platform can use some updated information, done by respective experts, or done directly by the organization using it. 4. Conclusions The only way to use LCA efficiently and easily enough for all the new purposes is to do it through an effective collaboration between all the stakeholders Collaboration works at its best when a platform ease the exchanges between all involved parties A strength of HopMedia relies in its industrialized process: thousands of products can be analyzed simultaneously HopMedia can be used within corporation but also for LCA consultants searching a solution to manage future projects HopMedia is the first platform to test the collaborative approach with the following stakeholders: marketing, environment and R&D experts. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The present work benefited from the input of Romain Vailleux, co-founder & Managing director at Hop-Cube, who provided valuable assistance to the undertaking of the research summarized here. REFERENCES No particular references are included in this article. First Edition: Page 6