The institutional logic of life cycle thinking

Abstract

This article considers the role of LCA in environmental management and policy. Organization theory and the social studies of science and technology are drawn on to gain an understanding of LCA as not only an instrumental tool, but also as an emerging institutional logic that influences the way environmental problems, and responsibility for them, are conceptualized. Empirical data from interviews with wholesale-retail purchasers are used to illustrate how the life cycle approach influences economic agents. The article concludes with a discussion of whether the life cycle approach has the power to infuse more responsibility into atomistic and fragmented markets.