We are a group of companies that have formed the Roundtable for Product Social Metrics since 2013; the Roundtable has been organised and facilitated by PRé Sustainability.
The mission of the Roundtable is:
Be the leading, cross-sector initiative to give guidance on how to measure social impacts of products and services, in a way that is recognised for its high quality, credibility and business viability. The purpose is to improve the lives of workers, users and local communities by better insights that enables more balanced decision making.
The project has been funded by the companies. All results and deliverables are non proprietary and available under a Creative Commons licence (BY|ND). We do this as we believe methods like these will only be recognised and accepted on a wide scale if it is non-proprietary and transparent in all its aspects.
Our journey
The current Handbook can be considered to be the fifth iteration since 2013. After each release of the Handbook, the companies tested it in a number of case studies. Each time this learning by doing made clear which improvement should and could be made. Until 2020 we worked in a Roundtable format with just one participation level. As of 2021 we transition to a partnership with three partnership levels.
Facilitator
The Roundtable was initiated and is facilitated by PRé Sustainability.
“At DSM we provide Brighter Living Solutions; products that are measurably better than the mainstream solution on the market in terms of environmental or social impact. We are proud to be co-founder and contributor to the Roundtable that has now created a next stepping stone towards harmonised metrics with this fifth iteration of the Handbook for Product Social Impact Assessment.”
Dave Morris, Global competence leader life-cycle assessment , DSM“One key mission of our team is to support the continuous sustainability progress of ArcelorMittal’s products and processes. This means assessing their environmental profile, and also understanding their positive or negative impact on society.”
Anne-Laure Hettinger, Head of Global R&D Sustainability Department, Arcelor Mittal“We, at Solvay, strongly believe that building a more sustainable business will create superior value for the society at large. We are convinced, as professional, that sustainability can and must be measured in a robust, relevant and opposable way. This is why we have developed and implemented our “Sustainable Portfolio Management” – SPM – tool in the Group for about 10 years. The Handbook represents high valuable guidelines for our future expansions and improvements in our social assessments, within the frame of our overall program for sustainability: Solvay One-Planet.”
Jean-Francois VIOT, Senior principal scientist LCA expert, Solvay“I founded PRé Sustainabilty in 1990 believing that decisionmakers need robust metrics to base their decisions in the field of sustainability on. After developing environmental metrics, I saw social metrics as the next challenge for companies that want to understand, manage and improve sustainability in a life cycle perspective.”
Mark Goedkoop, Founder & Program Director, PRé Sustainability B.V.“To enable our customer to make conscious choices, we will assess both the environmental and the social impacts of our products and work side by side with them to substantiate sustainability claims.
To be able to do this, a credible methodology to measure social impacts along the value chain is essential.”
Diana Visser, Sustainability Director, CorbionAt Nestlé, we have been using life cycle assessment and eco-design to evaluate the environmental performance of our products during their design & development process. We intend to integrate social performance into our product design process as early as possible. Therefore, we want to develop a simplified, yet scientifically sound and externally recognized approach with the support of the Roundtable for Product Social Metrics.
Urs Schenker, Sustainability and Novel Packaging, Nestlé“My motivation is that the collaboration of the companies in the Roundtable in measuring positive and negative impact will bring an acceleration in transparency and will lead to better decision-making that will ultimately result in a better life and more joy for all stakeholders in the life cycle of products.”
Ilonka de Beer, Program Manager“BASF developed sustainability evaluation methods like SEEBALANCE® and AgBalance™, where social indicators are a significant part of. To discuss social indicators and the further development of them together with other industry partners was a main motivation of taking part in this project. ”
Peter Saling, Director Sustainability Methods & Sustainability Strategy, BASF“I’m enthusiastic about working with life cycle assessment because it provides a structured solution for analyzing the impact of products. Thereby, it is an essential starting point for making improvements, coming up with innovative solutions, and driving change. And change is needed. We cannot keep taking from the planet and future generations as we have been doing over the last few decades, without giving back.”
Rosan Harmens, trainer, PRé Sustainability“Fuji Europe Africa sees itself as a member of society. Insight in the effect that our business activities have on society is key to fulfill our core value of working towards a sustainable society.”
Carmen Alvarado, Senior Manager Sustainability , Fuji Europe Africa
