Culture Growth:
Cultivating LCA
from the
Grassroots
LCA XII Conference
David Byrne,
Research Scientist
Sep. 26, 2012
Outline
•Brief Amway profile
•Environmental history
•Challenges
•Introduction of LCA
•Results & Future
1959: Direct-selling Pioneer
Freedom
Family
Hope
•Founded by Rich DeVos and Jay
Van Andel. Based in Ada, MI.
•Privately held and family owned
•Amway’s Vision Statement:
Helping People Live Better Lives
Reward
2012: Global Leader
• Second largest
direct-selling
company in the
world
• Alticor sales of
more than $10.9
billion (2011)
• More than 450
products in over
80 countries and
territories
•300 acres (121 hectares)
Complete Operations
Amway is a full service
company specializing in:
 Research & development
 Product development &
manufacturing
 Product supply
 Logistics
 Core business functions
(IT, Marketing, etc.)
Our family of brands
We create, manufacture and distribute highquality nutrition, beauty and home care products.
Other Amway Brands
Amway’s Environmental History
•L.O.C. (Liquid Organic Cleaner)
•One of the first to use
concentrated formulas & small
packaging sizes
•Use of regrind in plastics
manufacturing
Green from the ground up
•Amway owns more than 6,400
acres of organic farmland in the
U.S., Mexico and Brazil.
•Amway grows natural ingredients
without chemical fertilizers or
synthetic pesticides.
•More than 35 Legacy of Clean
brand products are recognized by
the EPA’s Design for the
Environment program
•10% of energy used at our world
headquarters is wind generated
Green from the ground up
•85.4% of our waste was recycled in
2011. (23,670,373 lbs/10736
tonnes)
•Nearly 180 of our 430 acres
in Ada, MI are managed
as wildlife habitats
•In 2010, employees used our
carpooling program eliminated 6,000
commuter miles and 2.5 million
pounds of CO2 emissions.
Global Citizenship
Since
2003
7 million children
1.3 million volunteer hours
$112 million dollars
“I believe God gave us the world, and
He asked us to take care of it. It’s
pretty simple and straightforward.”
~ Amway President Doug DeVos
Vision
•Entrepreneurial culture –
ownership provides the vision
allows the employees to achieve
the goals.
Challenges
•No experience or tools to measure
product sustainability
•LCA was an unfamiliar discipline
and not part of corporate culture
Introduction of LCA
•Summer 2009 – evaluated
GaBi LCA modeling software
•Performed LCA on eSpring 2
water treatment system on
evaluation
•Results supported product
launch of eSpring 2 in Japan.
Results
•Nearly 35% decrease in
power consumption
•51% decrease in consumer
waste with filter replacement
•46% decrease in GWP over
the original eSpring.
Results
•Case study won SPE GPEC
Design for Sustainability
Award 2010
•Japan repromoted six
months after initial launch
and met sales goals.
Results
•Sustainability training led by Five Winds
& PE Americas
•R&D Subject Matter Expert team
formed in 2010.
•Sustainability & LCA metrics added to
2011 corporate goals.
•Screening LCAs used to support project
decisions and training
Results
Lessons Learned
•Maintain integrity of the process
•Be patient & humble – evolution rather
than revolution
•Use small victories to further the goals
•Learn & teach
•Developing the infrastructure from the
grassroots can be more effective than
arbitrary goals.
Future
•Further education and training
•Life cycle assessment in more categories
and operations
•Continued evolution of sustainability
strategy
THANK YOU!!
IERE/ACLCA
LCA colleagues
PE International
David Byrne
david.byrne@amway.com
(616) 787-6471