Improving environmental performance along the supply chain
The advancement of both environmental performance and social responsibility is becoming increasingly important for every enterprise. The question is how to approach the subject in an organized and professional manner.
In the following we provide information on how to find support for improving your business's environmental performance, e. g. by:
Initiatives for improving environmental performance
A variety of alliances and initiatives support businesses in realizing their environmental and social sustainability goals by offering a framework of general guidelines. The "Business Environmental Performance Initiative" and the "Business Social Compliance Initiative", initiated by the Foreign Trade Association, are two such examples.
Business Environmental Performance Initiative (BEPI)
- focuses exclusively on the environmental aspect and is aimed at improving high-risk production facilities
- addresses a total of eleven topics, such as energy, waste, water and land use, transportation and greenhouse gas emissions
- among the members are Lidl, Coop, Esprit
Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI)
- seeks improved social standards as well as better environmental protections along the entire value-added chain
- participating businesses have to apply the BSCI code of conduct to their entire supply chain; the meeting of specific requirements is monitored
- among the members are Aldi, Intermarché, INTERSPORT International Corporation
Determining and reducing the carbon footprint of your products
Essentially, terms such as carbon footprint, carbon balance, and climate balance all describe the same concept. The underlying goal is to figure out how much an individual product, service or business contributes to anthropogenic climate change.
The concept of carbon footprints is already widely used. For example, Thailand’s largest food producer Charoen Pokphand Foods or PEMEX Petroquimica from Mexico already monitor their carbon footprints for a long time. Due to the BSCI and BEPI initiatives, carbon footprints are continuing to gain popularity.
How can your company calculate a carbon footprint for its products?
Carbon footprint consulting
Depending on your goals – whether it is increasing know-how within your business or outsourcing the carbon footprint analysis – carbon footprint consulting can support you with:
- methodical training or project management: To increase know-how and in-house expertise within your business.
- data research: We’ll help you chose the right data sets to accurately calculate greenhouse gas emissions.
- carbon footprint calculation – let the experts do it for you : Do you require a simple or comparative study? Should it be based on ISO, PAS, or GHG standards? Should it include a review or not? We'll find the best solution and calculate a carbon footprint for you.
Determine carbon footprints on your own with carbon footprint software
You already have all the background information needed to create a carbon footprint analysis and are looking for the right software to help with implementation? Umberto is a leading software solution for modeling professional carbon footprints. The software allows you to:
- create material and energy balances
- generate carbon footprints for products according to GHG protocol, ISO TS 14067, PAS 2050, and ISO 14064
- use integrated GWP data sets for emissions and upstream chains
Interested in looking at more than just the climate impacts?
Analyzing complex BEPI topics such as water and land use or waste streams goes beyond the immediate climate change framework and therefore can‘t be evaluated with a carbon footprint. To meet these requirements we will go one step further and use what‘s called a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
LCA consulting
Here, too, the consulting team offers a vast array of expertise to help you reach your goals:
- Training or project management to teach you the know-how needed to create LCAs.
- Data, data, data: Support for the process of data collection and in closing data gaps
- Let us create an LCA for you: Based on your parameters, we will develop a standardized LCA according to ISO 14040/44, either comparative or non- comparative.
Creating your own LCAs
You already have experience with Life Cycle Assessment and would like to compile your own? Then Umberto, one of the leading software solutions for LCAs, is the perfect match for you. This software will enable you to:
- create material and energy balances
- generate LCAs according to ISO 14040/ 14044
- create screening LCAs to identify hot spots
- use integrated LCA databases, such as ecoinvent or GaBi databases
