Sevenster Environmental provides consultancy and research services internationally, applying 15 years of experience in life-cycle thinking and sustainability assessments to meet your needs. We have worked with industry, government and NGOs. We believe that tailor-made approaches, that align with what drives our clients, are key to long-term sustainability for "profit" as well as "planet".
Working on sustainability is about increasing efficiency and value, and reducing risk. The only sustainable business is a thriving business. A major fast food company started developing their CSR strategy 10 years later than some competing brands. When asked With hindsight, do you wish you had? they replied :
Yes. It would have absolutely been the right time to do it because some other brands have been doing it for a long time now.
Read the whole interview
Life-cycle management (LCM) is increasingly embraced by the private as well as the public sector, with activities ranging from greenhouse-gas foot printing and reporting, ecodesign and energy scans to environmental assessments of renewable energy and waste treatment options. Environmental damages to human health and ecosystems are included in social cost-benefit analysis (social return on investment) and external cost evaluations.
Within LCM, life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a decision-support tool, not an oracle, although as with oracles the importance of interpretation should not be underestimated. An overarching vision of where you want to go is essential to be able to ask the right questions and make useful calculations.
For business, NGO or government, life-cycle management
has many purposes and applications. Please read more....
Do you think an LCA will cost an arm and a leg ? Be pleasantly surprised
... find out.
For our company's carbon footprint, see here
When drinking tea or coffee, consumers with an eye for environment may worry about what to do with the organic waste as the bulk of the actual "product" ends up in the bin. However, a far more important factor in the overall foot print is the boiling of water. Limiting that to the precise amount needed for your cuppa is the best thing you can do.
In a scan LCA of end-of-life carpets, the environmental impacts and benefits of incineration and recycling of polypropylene (PP) and nylon (PA) materials were estimated. Because of high calorific value and low production energy requirements, recycling of PP is less attractive environmentally than incineration with energy recovery, contrary to PA. Against a future low-fossil energy scenario, however, PP material recycling may be prefered to energy recovery.
For more examples see Projects.
March 17, 2017 Activities that make the economy more "circular" almost always involve trade offs. Can LCA contribute to building trust in proper process? Read this article on the Sustainability Matters website.
July 11, 2016 ASICS includes the strategic results from our Social LCA in sustainability report. Read more..
For all news items click here.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
has standard guidelines for LCA as well as
more specific standards for carbon and water foot printing.
While ISO provides generic
guidelines at project management level, other organizations provide handbooks,
common methodology implementation, best practices
and rules that guide the practitioner in tailoring the methodology to the specific issue
that is being addressed.
See Links.