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4 LCA Applications 37

certified EMS impose higher demands on their suppliers to adopt environmentally
friendly practices (Gonzalez et al. 2008). The contributions made by LCA to EMS
range from the identification of overall environmental aspects and identification of
the activities in the life cycle that have the largest environmental burdens, to a
comparison of alternative manufacturing routes (Stewart et al. 1999). A major
challenge in this context seems to be putting the results into practice, mainly due to
lack of power or information of stakeholders along the product supply chain
(Nakano and Hirao 2011).

4.3.3 Challenges of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) can use LCA for the same reasons as
large companies. Yet, small- (10–49 employees) and medium-sized (50–249
employees) enterprises generally lag behind large companies in the implementation
of LCA (Johnson and Schaltegger 2015). The major reasons are thought to be the
cost of an LCA, the need for changes in workplace routines, perceived complexity
of the LCA methodology and shortage of qualified personnel to carry out an LCA
(Kurczewski 2013). A study of 10 SMEs revealed that a downside of LCA is that it
becomes too comprehensive and too complex to be easily understood, leaving an
impression in some companies of LCA as a ‘black box’ (Zackrisson et al. 2008).
A closer collaboration with an experienced LCA practitioner and an expert was
found to resolve this problem in some of the cases (Zackrisson et al. 2008).
Similarly, based on a comprehensive literature review, Johnson and Schaltegger
(2015) reported that major barriers for implementation of sustainability manage-
ment tools (including LCA) by SMEs were (i) lack of awareness of sustainability
issues; (ii) absence of perceived benefits; (iii) lack of knowledge and expertise on
sustainability issues; (iv) lack of human and financial resources; (v) insufficient
external drivers and incentives; (vi) unsuitability of formal management tools to fit
the often informal and flexible SME structure; and (vii) complexity of tools.
While the use of LCAs by SMEs was considered marginal (as of 2012), it is
however reported to become more and more common (Baumann et al. 2012;
Schischke et al. 2012; Kurczewski 2013). This may be due to the increased leg-
islative focus on environmental performance, and the potential market benefits from
having an environmentally friendly profile, not least through a market pull from
large companies that are often important costumers. This is reflected by a survey of
146 European SMEs which revealed that most SMEs have limited knowledge of
LCA, and have little internal knowledge of environmental assessments and their
communication (Pamminger 2011). The main drivers for SMEs to start using
environmental assessment tools have been the customer demand or the pressure
from legislation (Pamminger 2011; Schischke et al. 2012). However, industries
focusing on emerging renewable resource technologies, such as bio-based plastic,
had more knowledge and were, in fact, keen on using LCA for communicating the
environmental performance and benefits of their technology compared to