Sustainability and the Life Cycle Management: the Soya Milk case study

A company pursuing cost abatement through eco-efficient choices raises the environmental variable to a critical dimension, thus considering the environment an opportunity of profit and not a variable to be “suffered”. Therefore, applying the “life cycle thinking” concept that re-shapes companies’ entire structure in a “cradle to cradle” perspective helps improving the product performance along the whole pipeline. It is with reference to this context that the Life Cycle Management (LCM) of the 1 litre Valsoia Soyadrink Original has been implemented in this study, carrying out a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and using the results to reorganise the energy policy with reference to the UNI CEI EN 16001:2009 (now ISO 50001:2011) norm. This permits the enterprise to attain a better productive (eco)-efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of the product during its entire life cycle.