Nearly 200 professionals from throughout Europe, North America, Asia,
Africa and Latin America participated in what has become one of the
best events to learn about using life cycle information to improve both
your company’s and your products’ sustainability performance. Building
on the first Symposium where the focus was on LCA and carbon footprint,
this years symposium illustrated how far the companies have advanced in
integrating life cycle information into their core business practices.
Below we share the key take away messages from a day full of insightful,
candid and inspiring presentations.
Sustainability is THE new business imperative
Almost all of the speakers spoke about how sustainability is no
longer just the right thing to do, but how it is THE new business
imperative. We heard about the role that institutional purchasing,
greener buildings, and retailers are playing to create a pull for both
sustainable products and for sustainably managed firms. Les Hayman
addressed this in his opening presentation which put sustainability in a
global context, showed how business is different today as a result of
these developments and ultimately how sustainability is and will
continue to be a driver of business effectiveness and competitiveness.
Sustainability is a journey
Sustainability is not a destination where you know when you get there
and you are done. Instead sustainability requires a continuous
examination of where you interact with the environment and society to
identify how best to reduce one’s risks and capture ever changing
opportunities. Presentations by Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Disney
and many more demonstrated how companies are continually evolving and
innovating solutions along their journey regardless of where they are.
Further, the success stories of leaders were often tied back to their
beginnings emphasizing the importance of ‘starting’.
The triple bottom line is essential but not sufficient
We heard throughout the day from companies like Daimler, Tesco,
AkzoNobel, to name a few, that to ensure long term alignment and
improvement in their sustainability goals, they must have efforts
underway in economic, social and environmental fronts. However, they
also spoke to the importance of these operating within a
governance/management framework (e.g. senior leadership support,
strategy, programs (DfE), tools (GaBi, i-reports, PLM, scorecards), and
foundation data). The framework ensures continual improvement,
commitment, engagement of a broad set of internal actors and alignment
of corporate activities all of which are critical to maximize the
success of any sustainability effort.
We are moving beyond understanding to improvement
Throughout the day speakers such as Siemens, Zumtobel, Puma, etc.
spoke to the informed actions that they and their companies were
taking. Consistently this involved translating an understanding of life
cycle impacts into specific actions and actionable tools to support
improved decision making (e.g. material selection, supplier management,
marketing, etc.).
Standards and regulations continue to play a key role
By providing a means of measurement and a level playing field
standards and regulations help companies to move along their
sustainability journeys; as well as, to provide direction for future
efforts. Presentations by WBCSD and The European Alliance to Save
Energy showed the power these can hold, the responsibility – and
benefit- sustainability leaders have in driving these forward, and the
paths to participation.
There is a growing awareness of use stage and consumer behavior impacts
Sustainability efforts particularly in the environment and human
health protection have traditionally focused on upstream manufacturing
processes. However there is growing awareness of the relative scale of
consumer use impacts in a variety of sectors. Addressing the impacts of
one’s customers will require tools and techniques to engage, educate,
and include them in reducing impacts across the value chain.
Fortunately, there is a growing body of best practice to draw upon from a
variety of leaders – many of whom spoke at the symposium.
Finally to achieve true change requires alignment of many elements of business management
From studies by change management experts and confirmed by our
experience - we have found that effective change requires a vision,
skills, incentives, resources, and action plans. Without all of these
we often get confusion, anxiety, gradual change, frustration, and false
starts (Figure 2). As demonstrated throughout the day these elements
are critical in internal efforts and if anything even more so when
striving to achieve change across the value chain and its variety of
actors.
Save the date! We hope to see you there.
Moritz Ritter, CEO, The Ritter Group. 
