Life Cycle Assessment and Supply Chain Management for Tourism Enterprises

An integrated LCA and SCM framework for tourism is proposed. LCA and SCM have their own strengths and limitations. LCA considers environmental impacts contributed over the life cycle of a product or service. The life cycle of a product or service consists of four stages, which are raw material extraction, manufacturing, use and disposal. However, LCA requires comprehensive inventory data in identifying hotspot, hidden cost and tradeoffs. SCM helps reduce an organization’s cost and support customer’s demand, however, SCM requires significant level of stakeholder involvement in increasing an organization’s effectiveness. The combination of LCA and SCM can uphold strengths and lessen limitations of each other. The tourism industry not only serves the needs of visitors and local community, but also is economically viable and environmentally-friendly. The combination of LCA and SCM is an appropriate approach to reduce cost via different mechanisms to drive tourism towards sustainability. Different kinds of tourism enterprises can operate their businesses following the LCA-SCM framework. How LCA-SCM framework can be applied to each tourism enterprise, such as accommodations, restaurants and transportation are presented in this chapter.