Niklas Letmathe

intern

Literature review on management accounting and life cycle assessment analysis (Bachelor)

Management accounting and the pathway to a sustainable economy are intertwined, both on an individual company level and for the economy as a whole. For a company to lead the shift to more sustainable practices, it needs to identify, assess, and implement opportunities for more sustainable processes and products. This is where management accounting can help! Against this background we propose the following final thesis project:
Literature review on management accounting and life cycle assessment analysis – You will explore the current state of the literature related to life cycle assessment through a structured and systematic literature review. Life cycle assessment, also called LCA, has been around since the 1990s to measure the environmental impact of a product, from production to disposal. As more focus is placed on the environmental impact and CO2e footprint of companies and products, techniques to measure this impact comprehensively become crucial, leading to wider adoption of LCA. Over the course of this project you will learn about LCA, what enablers and barriers exist to its adoption, and about the current advancements and future research opportunities in this field.

The following literature can give you a good starting point to begin your research:

- Guinée, J. B., De Haes, H. U., & Huppes, G. (1993). Quantitative life cycle assessment of products: 1: Goal definition and inventory. Journal of Cleaner Production, 1(1), 3-13

- Finnveden, G., Hauschild, M. Z., Ekvall, T., Guinée, J., Heijungs, R., Hellweg, S., ... & Suh, S. (2009). Recent developments in life cycle assessment. Journal of environmental management, 91(1), 1-21.

- Vilches, A., Garcia-Martinez, A., & Sanchez-Montanes, B. (2017). Life cycle assessment (LCA) of building refurbishment: A literature review. Energy and Buildings, 135, 286-301.