Establishing the Technical Baseline

By Nuno da Silva, Managing Director, PE Americas

Nearly every Fortune 500 company along with many others now has established a sustainability department leading the company in developing and implementing sustainability programs. These programs are typically based on an overall plan possibly developed with the assistance of an outside consulting firm or with guidance from an environmental NGO (non-government organization) identifying the areas of focus for the organization. In today's concern about climate change and the associated political situation, there are many drivers for companies to include an initiative to measure and manage the organization's environmental impact. Not only carbon or green house gases (GHG) but other environmental considerations such as usage of clean water, smog, water pollution and recycling efforts. As organizations determine what to measure and the subsequent information requirements, the challenge then becomes establishing the management systems and technical procedures throughout the organization to support such initiatives.

The interview article in this month's magazine is with Steve Yucknut, VP of Sustainability at Kraft who describes how his company's addresses the entire enterprise as well as product system specific environmental impacts. My company, PE Americas has a significant role in assisting Kraft with incorporating the systems and support to collect and manage environmental data as well as assessing product systems to understand their environmental impact. Kraft is an excellent example of a company that fully understands how the company is impacting sustainability globally, regionally and even locally for different sites. What steps do Kraft and others take to establish the technical baseline to achieve an understanding of their environmental impacts?

Well for one they invested in a dedicated sustainability information management system. Companies typically start attempting to collect, track and manage sustainability information with common desktop software tools. Unless the organizational scope is small with only a handful of locations to collect and input data, companies quickly realize managing sustainability initiatives have requirements that go beyond common desktop tools or general data management systems. Sustainability information management systems like PE International's SoFi software have functional attributes designed and dedicated to the unique challenges of managing sustainability information. They are designed to collect data from many sites, globally and from a variety of different users including vendors in the supply chain. Their equipped with report generators that provide on-demand reporting tools to not only support internal initiatives but also external reporting Green House Gas (GHG) registries such as the Carbon Disclosure Project and EPA's Climate Registry. In addition, some companies that offer sustainability management systems can also provide advisory or support services when companies need strategy development assistance especially regarding Carbon management.

The other aspect of establishing the technical baseline is focusing on the company's environmental impact from its products. This includes the entire product system meaning manufacturing, logistics, use and final disposal. Kraft and others use Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as the methodology to evaluate product systems. While LCA has been used as a tool for over twenty years beginning in Europe, it has only recently become commonplace within N. American industry. Some view LCA as complex and difficult yet the reality is with the right training and support it is by far the best way to evaluate a product system. An LCA provides companies a quantified and detailed understanding of the impact of its products. Companies know within the product life cycle where are the biggest contributors of green house gases and the other environmental categories. It will be clearly evident what areas of the product system to modify and target for reducing carbon or other environmental considerations. With LCA results companies can identify operational inefficiencies, impact future product development, address compliance issues, better communicate to external audiences it's sustainability effort and develop programs to educate customers on how best to use and dispose of products for the good of the environment.

Establishing the technical baseline is a necessary and critical requirement to meet today's sustainability challenges. Without it companies will not be able to effectively measure, assess and address the environmental challenges of their organization.

PE Americas will be conducting a 1 hour webinar on April 6 at 1:00 p.m. EST on how to measure and manage environmental sustainable impacts. Attendees will learn how other companies developed their sustainability strategies and established the technical methodologies to support long term initiatives. Go to www2.gotomeeting.com/register/976329219 to register for the event.