Investigation of the prospective use of the Eco-Care-Matrix: An empirical study at the Wind Power and Renewables division of Siemens AG

A variety of different environmental assessment tools have been developed and used by companies over recent years in order to assess and communicate product related environmental impacts. One example is the Eco-Care-Matrix (ECM) which was developed by Siemens AG, using life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost (LCC) methodologies, in order to assess the environmental and economic effectiveness between two product or technology designs.It can be stated that from a methodological perspective, much attention and effort has been given to develop the
ECM methodology but less attention has been given to its application in an organizations and its effectiveness from a user (designer) perspective. A pilot project investigating the prospective application and use of the ECM in the Wind Power and Renewables division of Siemens AG was recently conducted to assess this claim. Feedback was gathered from stakeholders of various organizational functions throughout the product lifecycle management (PLM) through a set of focus groups. The perceived usefulness of the ECM as an eco-tool for both internal and external purposes is presented and discussed. It remains too early to speculate if the ECM will be adopted as a routine eco-tool in this Division. However, insight is given regarding an eco-tools changing role over time and how adoption and routine use is very much connected to the learning processes within an organization.