These life cycle accounting efforts are gaining momentum because they reveal opportunities to reduce direct, hidden and contingent costs that can occur throughout a company's supply chain according to Battelle management expert Joseph Fiksel, Senior Director for Life Cycle Management. Fiksel and his colleagues at Battelle have been collaborating with industry since 1992, conducting detailed analysis of product and process life cycles in search of ways to reduce material and energy use, minimize wastes, and reduce capital and operating costs. Battelle's work with the EPA is focused on the pragmatic application of life cycle accounting to materials management, which includes the acquisition, handling, storage, processing, disposition, and recovery of materials that are used in industrial processes.
Materials management is a natural area for applying the principles of environmental accounting.
Environmental accounting often reveals opportunities to prevent pollution and eliminate wastes in ways that contribute to profitability and competitive advantage. Life cycle accounting is an extension of environmental accounting that systematically addresses all quantifiable costs and benefits throughout a company's supply chain, including material acquisition, manufacturing, distribution, customer support, and final disposition. More recently, Battelle has acquired expertise in the managerial accounting methods that are necessary to identify and quantify life cycle costs and benefits. Preparing case studies that provide in-depth understanding of how leading U.S. firms have implemented such practices and improved their supply chain performance. Battelle, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, focuses on technology development and commercialization and product development.