Post by account_disabled on Mar 14, 2024 0:44:41 GMT -5
Products are undoubtedly the best medium for companies to both manage their sustainability performance from within their own organization and from without. Products are the avatars that encapsulate a business’ sense of social and ecological ethics—locally and globally. Large businesses are becoming increasingly aware of the power of “product sustainability,” demonstrated by progressive efforts such as Organic and Fair Trade labeling, WalMart’s Product Sustainability Index, Nike’s Materials Sustainability Index, and GoodGuide.
The science of product sustainability has evolved considerably due to the increasing focus in this arena. Product carbon footprinting is an increasingly common term CG Leads referring to the method of life cycle assessment (LCA). The LCA procedure evaluates a product’s impacts on the environment from “cradle to grave,” meaning all the way from raw materials extraction, through production, transportation, consumer use, and through end-of-life recycling or disposal. There are prominent consulting companies, laboratories in top universities, and academic journals dedicated to LCA. New LCA software tools appear by the month.
Unfortunately, as long as product sustainability analysis requires substantial domain expertise, it will remain a one-off, independent activity that is not capable of being integrated into business decision making. Having worked as a life cycle analyst for years, I know that the supply chain process maps, environmental impact graphs, and attempts to predict indirect and future effects often lead to analysis paralysis. I have spent upwards of months studying a single product, collecting data and building complex models, all to finally synthesize clear, implementable recommendations based on sound scientific analysis.
So it is disarming and even depressing for a client to conclude that the identified impacts are too distant from their sphere of control to be able to reasonably do anything about them. All of my hard work just became a report that sits on a desk to collect dust.
There are five attributes that a product sustainability management system requires for successful operation. It needs to be quantitative, integrated, empowering, simple, and standard. These five key points aim to identify common roadblocks in product sustainability systems, in order to provide a compass for best management practices.
Alex Loijos is director of LinkCycle, a company that built and tested a variety of ideas for making product sustainability analysis practical and scalable, and that has refined the idea through a combination of harsh feedback and solid advice from large businesses, TechStars mentors, and experienced consultants and professors. We have developed algorithms which take data that companies already have, and deliver a breakdown of energy and resource consumption into each of the production lines.
This enables plant managers to identify production lines with high consumption patterns, and to make production and reengineering decisions that reduce costs and enhance margins. Product managers can understand their product’s cost structure without having to resort to inaccurate cost allocation techniques, or install expensive meters in the facility. By design, the Footprinter software is quantitative, integrated, empowering, simple, and standard – all of which are the products of nothing more than a hard day’s work.
The science of product sustainability has evolved considerably due to the increasing focus in this arena. Product carbon footprinting is an increasingly common term CG Leads referring to the method of life cycle assessment (LCA). The LCA procedure evaluates a product’s impacts on the environment from “cradle to grave,” meaning all the way from raw materials extraction, through production, transportation, consumer use, and through end-of-life recycling or disposal. There are prominent consulting companies, laboratories in top universities, and academic journals dedicated to LCA. New LCA software tools appear by the month.
Unfortunately, as long as product sustainability analysis requires substantial domain expertise, it will remain a one-off, independent activity that is not capable of being integrated into business decision making. Having worked as a life cycle analyst for years, I know that the supply chain process maps, environmental impact graphs, and attempts to predict indirect and future effects often lead to analysis paralysis. I have spent upwards of months studying a single product, collecting data and building complex models, all to finally synthesize clear, implementable recommendations based on sound scientific analysis.
So it is disarming and even depressing for a client to conclude that the identified impacts are too distant from their sphere of control to be able to reasonably do anything about them. All of my hard work just became a report that sits on a desk to collect dust.
There are five attributes that a product sustainability management system requires for successful operation. It needs to be quantitative, integrated, empowering, simple, and standard. These five key points aim to identify common roadblocks in product sustainability systems, in order to provide a compass for best management practices.
Alex Loijos is director of LinkCycle, a company that built and tested a variety of ideas for making product sustainability analysis practical and scalable, and that has refined the idea through a combination of harsh feedback and solid advice from large businesses, TechStars mentors, and experienced consultants and professors. We have developed algorithms which take data that companies already have, and deliver a breakdown of energy and resource consumption into each of the production lines.
This enables plant managers to identify production lines with high consumption patterns, and to make production and reengineering decisions that reduce costs and enhance margins. Product managers can understand their product’s cost structure without having to resort to inaccurate cost allocation techniques, or install expensive meters in the facility. By design, the Footprinter software is quantitative, integrated, empowering, simple, and standard – all of which are the products of nothing more than a hard day’s work.