Familiarizing with the Navigator - The Navigator Toolbox

Toolbox Overview

This presentation bridges the status quo analysis (core business issues, tools known/applied, main life cycle issues, stakeholder relationships) and the part of the seminar aiming at enabling companies to manage and improve their environmental and social (and often simultaneously their economic) performance. Since the tools are the key to steer management processes towards performance improvements, this and the following presentations intend to familiarise the participants with several life cycle management tools. Furthermore it aims to give guidance on how to select appropriate tools for the specific business environment the participants are confronted with in their daily business.

The overview of the tools included in "The Life Cycle Management Navigator" is given along a scheme, which separates them according to the focus (internal-external) on the abscissa (x-axis) and the area of application (measure-communicate) on the ordinate (y-axis). Concerning the scheme the trainer should emphasise that it is not possible and therefore not the intention of the classification to draw a clear dividing line between the tools. The tools overlap and cannot be separated strictly.

In the following sessions of the workshop, several tools will be presented according to the steps of the so-called "Knowledge Wheel". Because of the limited time frame some tools will not be dealt with. When preparing for the workshop, the trainer must adapt the presentation to the selected tools.

Life Cycle Management Navigator

"The Life Cycle Management Navigator" presented in this session is one of the workshop's core elements. The navigator helps companies to select appropriate tools for improving their environmental performance. The pathway and the single steps companies have to follow are graphically shown on the first slide of the presentation.

From the very beginning of the presentation, the trainer should make sure that the participants view the bigger picture. The navigator should be easily understandable to the participants, because three of the five steps are elements the participants will already have passed through in the course of the workshop. Steps 1 and 2 take up earlier exercises; step 3 refers to the toolbox overview given previously in this session and places it in the navigator. To sum up, one may say the first three steps are known elements put together in a framework for tool selection, whereas steps 4 and 5 contain new elements to be dealt with.

In the following sessions selected tools for life cycle management will be introduced and illustrated with examples. The core aspects will be highlighted in exercises.

TIPS for the trainer!

• Spend enough time to introduce the tools and try not to confuse the participants!
• Remember that the aim is just to give an overview!