LCA IMPLEMENTATION BY THE GOVERNMENT

Using external control as coordination

The government could make mandatory for the companies the declaration of data on solid, liquid and aerial wastes per production or monetary unit; by doing this it would allocate value on the environmental aspect of supply chains.

       This new policy accompanied by a new governmental entity, the ‘LCA department’ would encourage LCA implementation by providing theoretical and technical support to companies. The success of this process would generate a certificate of compliance that could mean a reduction on taxes. The failure on the implementation of clear processes (like LCA) to declare wastes and emissions could be penalized by an increase in taxes, a fee or temporary financial blockage with banks. These measures would alter the market conditions in a company-individual basis.

Other mechanism can be a policy that establishes top limits on emissions and wastes. This must provide reasonable deadlines to reach those goals, during which companies would seek for solutions, among those hiring a consultancy or implementing their own environmental department that would approach the problem with tools such as LCA. This policy can also have the goal to improve the statistics that can support the country´s participation on international meetings on environmental issues.

Setting boundary conditions

Altering available information:

The government can start a media campaign to exert pressure on companies to reach sustainability by the implementation of tools such as LCA. This public governmental program can also include the promotion of links between companies and educational institutions. Little by little these mechanisms can be ruled so companies will be audited (monitored) for it, and will generate a certificate which will be the way to acknowledge population about the company´s practices and therefore will improve or not its image and sales.

The analysis of the previous options with Sabatier and Mazmanian (1980) Implementation process flow diagram, presents the following insights:

For all the options to implement LCA through external control, the availability of technology and technical theory wouldn´t be a constraint since there is abundant information on LCA theory and case studies; although preference should be given to the literature developed in similar contexts. This is crucial to avoid unambiguity on the interpretation of the policy. The target companies would be varied in terms of their activities but in order to promote and consciously monitor the policies’ implementation it would be important to narrow the target companies by criteria such as their relevance in the market, time of operation, level of industrialization, profits, etc. This selection would avoid failure for example in the case of financial constraints when new personnel be needed to implement the policy. In the long term and according to the feedback on the first experiences, more companies can be included.

It is important that the given options can develop for a time frame that considers the requirements in economic and social investment to comply the policy in a company’s practices; also they must be constantly informed about obstacles in general and specific cases, otherwise the policy implementation would fail.

In one of the options provided, the hierarchical integration among integrating institutions is intrinsically contemplated with the idea to develop links between companies and educational institutions. This integration could also happen based on existing social networks, or not happen at all. In this order of ideas, the decisions or rules to implement the new policy can also be completely innovative and/or easily copied and adjusted.

The way considered in the options for outsiders (population) to have access, is by the certificates. Many companies include these symbols in the packages of their products or in their propaganda.

As the options only consider a relative small percentage of the population, the strategy of the media campaign would focus the attention on this group. This can work on contexts where big companies have even more power than the government.

The last consideration is about the availability of people with the knowledge and leadership to implement the policy, since this is a common topic for developed countries but very recent for developing countries.

References: 

Sabatier, P. and Mazmanian, D. 1980. The Implementation of Public Policy: A Framework of Analysis. Policy Studies Journal 8(4):538-560