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• Management = quality can and must be managed.
• TQM = a process of quality management that must be implemented in a
continuous manner and with the philosophy of permanent enhancement
regarding every single activity.

Although ISO 9000 stands as a series of rules for quality assurance, TQM stands
as a concept for continuous improvement (Hansen, 2000). The environmental equiv-
alent to the ISO 9000 standards for TQM is the ISO 14000 series of standards
applicable to the various phases of environmental management. TQEM means apply-
ing TQM to the environmental issues of a business. This is obviously a comprehen-
sive approach because it encompasses the business as a whole plus its management
system (Vasanthakumar, 1998).

1.4.4 LIFE-CYCLE THINKING
Life-cycle thinking is a way of addressing environmental issues and opportunities
from a system or holistic perspective and evaluating a product or service system
with the goal of reducing potential environmental impacts over its entire life-cycle,
as illustrated in Figure 1.3. The concept of life-cycle thinking implies linking indi-
vidual processes to organized chains starting from a specific function. According to
this type of thinking, everyone in the entire chain of a product’s life-cycle, from
cradle to grave, has a responsibility and a role to play, taking into account all the
relevant external effects. From the exploitation of the raw material that will constitute
a new product through all the other processes of extraction, refining, manufacturing,
use or consumption to its reuse, recycling or disposal, individuals must be aware of
the impact of this product on the environment and try to reduce it as much as possible.
The impacts of all life-cycle stages need to be considered when making informed
decisions on production and consumption patterns, policies and management strat-
egies (UNEP, DTIE, 1999).
Many people refer to life-cycle management emphasizing “end of life manage-
ment.” A particular subject area for end-of-life management is the study of the limits
of recyclability, whose environmental benefit disappears when the energy, materials
and pollution involved in the collection, production and recycling processes exceed
those necessary to produce the product. Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is
one aspect of life-cycle thinking. This principle was introduced by Thomas
Lindhqvist, from the Swedish Ministry of Environment, in two reports in 1990 and
1992, when the first world seminar on EPR was organized in cooperation with
UNEP-IE (IIIEE, 2000):

Extended producer responsibility is an environmental protection strategy to reach an
environmental objective of a decreased total environmental impact from a product, by
making the manufacturer of the product responsible for the entire life-cycle of the
product and especially for the take-back, recycling and final disposal of the product.
The extended producer responsibility is implemented through administrative, economic
and informative instruments. The composition of these instruments determines the
precise form of the extended producer responsibility.

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