Companies have to find ways to capture and measure their sustainability performance. The overall goal of sustainability encompasses the three dimensions of economic, environmental and social sustainability [HAUS05]. Life Cycle Costing (LCC), Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) are methods to assess each dimension. Sustainability indicators evaluate the overall performance in all dimensions. In this study, technology is added as forth dimension to sustainability.
Life cycle engineering (LCE) incorporates concepts, approaches, and methodologies to address environmental challenges, such as generation of waste, releasing hazardous substances, resource depletion, and green house gas emissions [UMED12]. Considering life cycles enlarges the narrow view on product, production, and use onto viewing the whole product life from raw material extraction to disposal [HERR10, p. 83]. Umeda et al. [UMED12] propose that product design and life cycle flow design should be integrated to reduce the resource consumption and environmental loads of the entire product life cycle.