Tools to Advance Product Sustainability
In this Q&A, Doug discusses the challenges presented by LCA, surprising ways companies are leveraging product sustainability techniques, and what attendees can expect from his session.
Why is LCA important for climate disclosure?
Climate disclosure is critical at the company level. New regulations, incentives, standards, codes, and even eco-labels are also leveraging product sustainability techniques such as LCA for benchmarking, improvement, and even comparisons.
During the FORUM24 session, we will guide attendees through real-world case studies showing how several major companies were able to scale their product sustainability efforts, while also leveraging their findings to inform new product development and have the deliverables act as a product differentiator.
What are key challenges and opportunities in this area?
LCA is currently the best way to assess the overall environmental footprint of a product. However, the availability of data, complexity, trade-offs, and uncertainty remain significant issues. One reason is that product sustainability and methodologies such as LCA are highly technical and rapidly evolving sciences. Despite this, LCA is already being leveraged (generally in the form of EPDs) by regulators and seeing sharp increases in demand from customers. For industries like building materials, chemicals, and basic materials, having EPDs available for products is almost required.
What are you looking forward to most about your session?
The group of experts on the panel come from organizations that represent different positions along the value chain. Their organizations have been able to not only successfully scale LCA/EPD development, but also utilize it to inform their R&D processes. In addition, one of the panelists is going to touch on social, hazard, and transparency disclosures and share firsthand experiences of how these different assessment techniques can complement each other.
What will people who attend your session walk away with?
Our goal is to show attendees examples of how they could develop their own LCA or product sustainability programs internally. Many sustainability professionals still view methodologies and assessment techniques such as LCA as requiring a consultant or taking years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to complete. However, when executed properly, these efforts can be done faster, better, and cheaper internally and add value to both customers and internal stakeholders such as R&D.
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Join Doug and other EHS and Sustainability leaders from around the country at FORUM24 to share real-world experiences, proven strategies, and key lessons learned to advance the success of your organization. >> View full program
Topics:
Sustainability Management
