ECR - Measurement and Assessment of Product’s Quality of Sustainability

An initiative of Austrian enterprises in the context of ECR Austria for the development of a feasible and consistent methodological standard

The topics sustainability, environment and climate change have gained importance in the economic, public and political debate. Because of this development the ECR Austria (Efficient Consumer Response), an Austrian platform for producers and retailers with the aim of optimizing the whole value chain in order to satisfy customers needs faster and at lower costs, decided to take the topic “sustainability” on their agenda. The company representatives within ECR Austria believe that aware costumers – on condition that well-grounded information on the sustainability performance of the product is given – “sustainable” products are preferred and so contribute to reaching the global objectives.

Since summer 2007 SERI has consulted the initiative ECR Austria—a cooperation platform dealing with the optimization of the whole value chain in order to serve consumers better, quicker and at lower costs—on sustainability. In a number of workshops the basic conditions have been worked out to form a working team with the aim to develop a standardized comprehensive method to measure a product’s quality (or soundness) of sustainability on the basis of existing or currently being developed European norms. The information shall also serve as decision support for consumers.

An expert panel consisting of Friedrich Hinterberger (SERI), Stefan Giljum (SERI), Eva Burger (SERI) and Christopher Manstein (Factor 10 Institute Austria) performed between April and June 2008 a pilot study commissioned by ECR Austria. The objective of the pilot study was the assessment of the adequacy of a selected indicator set consisting of the ecological footprint, the carbon footprint, the ecological rucksack and the water rucksack for the measurement and assessment of the sustainability performance of products based on two selected products. In the pilot study the dimension of the indicators should be demonstrated based on real data and the effort of the data ascertainment for the company estimated. Furthermore, the strengths and weakening of the assessed indicators were elaborated and the major influences (“hot spots” of the value creation chain) on the indicator results were identified.

The key results of the pilot study contain interesting findings for the measurement and assessment of sustainability quality of products in cooperation with companies, which contribute to the current international debate. To find out more about the pilot study please download the Information Paper ECR AG Nachhaltigkeit.

In the follow-up projects (August – November 2008) more application experiences with the calculation methods and the four deducted indicators should be made, in order to test the usability for companies and recommend standard for the methodology. At the ECR Infoday 2008 the interim results were presented to a wider audience of company representatives of major manufacturing and trading enterprises.

Find the ECR Infoday 2008 presentation “Sustainability Indicators for Product Assessment” (in german) by the ECR working group here

From the 3rd to the 5th of June 2009 the ECR Europe Conference 2009, with more than 2500 participants from retail and production, took place in Barcelona.  “Our world is changing - our shoppers demand more”. Fritz Hinterberger (SERI) and Jörg Greimel (bauMax AG) presented the current results of the work of the Austrian ECR working group sustainability at the breakout session “getting lean by going green”.

Information- and Discussion Circles

Since the year 2010, SERI is organizing Information- and Discussion circles around the subject „Footprinting“.

The “Carbon Footprint” was the initial subject, further processes such as the use of water, and later on even other sustainability indicators (e.g. material input) are under consideration.

The object of the circles is to introduce and deepen the knowledge on sustainability indicators to the members of ECR Austria. In the course of the discussion, important issues on the usage of Carbon Footprinting labeling on an array of products shall be discussed scientifically as well as practice-oriented.

Speakers were amongst others Dr. Klaus Radunsky about the ISO Norm 14067 Carbon Footprint of products or Dr. Thomas Lindenthal on practical experiences of the Carbon Footprint for full assortments on the example of the CO₂ label “Zurück zum Ursprung”.

In the year 2011 the Information- and Discussion circles don’t only focus on the carbon footprint, but on more comprehensive concepts.

First information and discussion circle in 2011

On tuesday, 17 May 2011, the first ECR information and discussion circle on ecological sustainability, organized by SERI, took place. Various company representatives of trade and production took part.

The first presentation, held by SERI (Fritz Hinterberger, Eva Burger), dealt with „Practical examples of the SERI set of indicators”. Projects on european level as well as cooperations with trade chains like REWE, SPAR or RZB/ZHS were presented. You can find the presentation here.

The second presentation was held by Wolfgang Pekny (Platform Footprint). He explained the thresholds of growth, illustrated the difficulties and urgency of common solutions and gave an account about the “Network Footprinting”, a network that connects different actors from science and practice who want to enhance the concept of “ecological footprints”. The presentation can be downloaded here. Read the Mission Statement of the “Network Footprinting” here.

Another invited lecture was given by Graham Sinden (Carbon Trust) who is involved in the important standardizing processes  (PAS 2050, GHG Protocoll und ISO Norm). Sinden stressed the importance of methodologic standards and presented the cooperation with TESCO which is regarded as the pioneer concerning carbon footprinting on product level. His presentation can be downloaded here.

Finally an ECR member company, Henkel (represented by Petra Madlé), presented its activities in the field of sustainability.