Assignment 7 – Governmental actions over LCA (proposition)

Government on LCA

LCA is a representative tool to change the perspective of the BAU (business as usual) to a more circular economy. Free economy market will, under some circumstances be suitable for implementing totally new way of production, but as the human race lacks the time for that to happen, Government is needed to regulate the implementation of tools of IE to a certain percentage.

Four ways that could help society to adapt, but also business to implement LCA will be presented, but before that, it is needed to set a number of prerequisites in order for this suggestion to have the real impact.

Prerequisite No1:

• Mature market that doesn’t have GDP problems.

Prerequisite No2:

• Developed recycling market.

With this setup, application of suggestion may apply. An effort has been put in order to get the wider scope and to tackle the LCA usage from different points, meaning: marketing, financial incentives, controlling and social aspect.

No1: LABELING (Marketing) – Setting boundary conditions

     Every product that is made by a company who takes care of the whole life cycle should have a certain distinguished label on it’s package. In that way, the product is differentiated from the others, and people who care will more certainly take that one, instead of the other that does not stand that ground. In this era of diversification, it is needed that products on shelf or in a commercial are different and to evoke emotions in order to be sold. This small addition to the market could mean a tipping point for increasing a turnover.

     One thing more is to be mentioned. New brands could be developed, which would tackle that target market. (People who care about the sustainability).

No2: Subsidies for investment in recycling and remanufacture. (Financial) – Setting boundary conditions

     Advertising and marketing approaches are made long before results are being visible, meaning, investment could be great, but with no results in near future, it is easier for an idea to be abandoned before main (financial) benefits appear. In order to facilitate the change, governments could financially incentivise producers, so they could feel less pressure when investing.

     One of the possible measures would be tax free measures for capital put in the recycling plant or remanufacturing process, or reduced taxes on products that are being remanufactured. With applying less taxes directly on end products, they (products) become less expensive and more attractive in eyes of a consumer.

     Labeling and possibility to create a less expensive product, already presents a powerful weapon for the market.

No3: Emission control. (Controlling) – External control

     With introducing yearly report controlling the emissions, the government puts the other external system for the companies to be aware of. With complying with the legislation of emission controlling, people of the country should know which company is the greatest polluter, but also which company does the most to prevent greater pollution, or to decrease it’s current level.

     The other side of a coin would be- The fining. With proper penalty policy, all companies will be fined well enough to re-consider they business style and think twice before continuing the usual way of their work.

By now, we should have a situation where companies are treated with a “reward and punishment” system, and they should be incentivised enough to change their approach. 

The final proposal of an governmental action could be No4: Education (Societal factor). – Setting boundary conditions

     Everything written should be boosted with more education about the topic. Formal, informal education and information availability are the key of getting to the thought of people, thus considering options mentioned earlier in the paper.

Two main streams are seen in this case:

     – Formal education where students are thought about the LCT, IE and measures that are undertaken by a government.

     – Informal education mainly through NGOs that communicate with lots of different social groups. Governmental support for the “green” NGOs, should represent a positive strategic way that could be followed by many.

Education of course provides more educated and skilled employees to support the growing market of renewable technologies, but also gives a scientific approval for the whole story about the IE and more precisely-  LCA(LCT).

To sum up:

1. Labeling – marketing
   1. Incentive to be different on a shell
   2. More marketing approaches (options)
   3. New brands
2. Subsidies for investment in recycling and remanufacturing.
   1. financial incentive
3. Emission control (reporting and fines)
   1. Annual reports on emissions
   2. Rules of fining companies that not oblige
   3. Shifting technologies towards the LCA
4. Education about IE (and LCA)
   1. More educated employees and skilled workers
   2. More awareness
   3. Scientific confirmation

Sabatier’s framework:

We will reflect in short on a a Sabatier’s framework in order to see which option is good at what point. Besides External Control (EC), we have Threat of an external control (TEC) and setting Boundary conditions (BC).

Material Variables:
In this part we have numbered tangible structures that affect policies and should be taken in account with every new policy made. Putting that in order, we have

• Technical difficulties
• Diversity of a target group behavior
• Target group as percentage of the population
• Extent of behavior change required

The first one is more technology dependable, but the latter are more social oriented.

EC could be very difficult when talked about technology, simply because it could be so diverse, that EC could only be an obstacle in developing new technologies. TOC comes similar, but the BC could be of a benefit in setting and constantly tweaking boundaries; e.g. punishment and reward system.

Social aspects are more controllable when they are of a small scale. The larger the social group is, the more difficult it comes to control it. It is my opinion that with increasing the number of people, diversity and with the greater change needed, control methods are to be shifted from the EC, to TEC, to BC. In other words, the less controllable factor is, more liberate constraints should be put on it. 

Ability of Statute to Structure Implementation and

Non Statutory Variables Affecting Implementation

As I see this part of the framework as a “necessity tools” for implementing a policy, I am not able to asses the differences in applying the EC, TOC or BC in more details. The way I understand it is that the greater changes of behavior have to be inducted, the more control will be needed for successful implementation. Also, the more strict EC is, the more complicated the controlling structure will become, thus harder it will be to support it, and at one point it will become an easy subject to break. That is why the optimal system, by my opinion will be the proper combination of all TOC, BC and EC.

Also, the more loose the rules are the more media attention is needed in order to educate implementation agencies and target groups. Also, it is needed to have more dedicated personnel, more educated and persistent officials in order the changes to be sustainable over longer period of time.

Conclusion

With everything written before, I would like to conclude that there is always need for the EC, but also we have to have the certain amount of liberalism and freedom for local agencies to implement changes considering different local circumstances. The conclusion is that – the more diverse the nation is, it is more effective to have more loose rules to follow, but then it is needed to have very precise and well thought goals and boundaries set in order to achieve the goal set.