Using Life Cycle Thinking and LCA Data in Interdisciplinary Research on Production and Consumption Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Adopting life cycle thinking and using LCA data is becoming popular within different research groups. There are many interesting questions to answer using the variety of tools and methods available in the light of life cycle thinking (see, for example, Blass and Corbett, 2017). Although LCA tools and methods are rooted in the field of industrial ecology, other research groups from different disciplines are interested in using some of these methods and data and combining them with other methods from other disciplines.  The sustainability aspects of production and consumption patterns are studied by a variety of groups from different fields including, for example, industrial ecology, operations management, consumer behavior, geography, innovation, entrepreneurship, public policy, data science, and law.

For this Special Issue, we invite papers that integrate life cycle thinking and LCA data with other research methods to answer important research questions related to production and consumption patterns. We especially encourage submissions from teams with authors from different fields that demonstrate the importance and the enrichment that a multidisciplinary approach can contribute to the studied topic and the rigor of research. 

With this Special Issue, we hope to enrich and enlarge the growing body of literature that uses LCA data in addition to other methods (i.e., sustainable operations, sustainable consumption, big data, etc.) in order to explore possible solutions at different levels in questions related to sustainability and patterns in production and consumption systems.

References

1. Raz, ; Druehl, C.; Blass, V. Design for the Environment: Life-Cycle Approach Using a Newsvendor Model. Prod. Oper. Manag. 2013, 22, 940–957.
2. Ovchinnikov ; Blass V.; Raz G. Economic and Environmental Assessment of Refurbishing Strategies for Product-Service Bundles. Prod. Oper. Manag. 2014, 23, 744–761;.
3. Blass, ; Corbett, C.J. Same Supply Chain, Different Models: Integrating Perspectives from Life Cycle Assessment and Supply Chain Management. J. Ind. Ecol. 2017, 22, 18–30.
4. Raz ; Ovchinnikov A.; Blass V. Economic and Environmental Assessment of Remanufacturing in a Competitive Setting. IEEE Trans. Eng. Manag. 2017, 64, 476–490.
5. Makov T.; Fishman T.; Chertow M.; Blass V. What Affects the Second-Hand Value of Smartphones: Evidence from eBay. J. Ind. Ecol. 2018, 23, 549–559.

Dr. Vered Blass
Guest Editor

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• LCA
• life cycle thinking
• combined methods
• sustainable production
• sustainable consumption