Filed Under Measuring progress towards sustainability

3 New Reports Signal We’re Making Progress With Sustainability- A blog by sustainability expert Bob Willard

Stephanie Mindorff — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 14:27:49 -0500

For the original post and to leave Bob a comment, please click here.

Three recent reports provide positive reinforcement that traction on sustainability is building in the private and public sector. This news reenergizes our efforts. We live on hope that our combined efforts as sustainability champions will accelerate the take-up of environmentally, socially, and economically responsible strategies. Usually, during economic recessions, we lose ground. Strangely, in the current recession, the opposite has happened: sustainability-related strategies have been embraced more strongly.

I attended the GreenBiz State of Green Business Forum 2011 in San Francisco, February 2-3. GreenBiz Group’s Chairman and Executive Director, Joel Makower, reviewed the highlights of GreenBiz’s fourth annual State of Green Business 2011 report, released that same week. Its findings reveal a “sea change in corporate sustainability efforts:” 89% of companies expect their investments in environmental affairs to be the same or larger in 2011 than in 2010; 56% of companies expect their investments in green product development will be greater in 2011, compared to 28% who expected it to be the same as in 2010. That’s encouraging news.

Click on image to access report

Then on February 10, the MIT Sloan Management Review and the Boston Consulting Group (BSG) released their winter 2011 research report: “Sustainability: The ‘Embracers’ Seize Advantage.” Based on a survey of 3,000 corporate leaders, the report describes two kinds of companies: “embracers”— those who place sustainability high on their agenda — and “cautious adopters,” who have yet to focus on more than energy cost savings, material efficiency, and risk mitigation. Many of us wondered whether the economic downturn and lack of progress toward international agreement on how to combat climate change would push sustainability off the corporate agenda.

Click on image to access report

The MIT-BSG survey results indicate that the opposite is true: 59% of companies in all industry sectors increased their investments in sustainability in 2010, versus 25% in 2009. Even more striking, almost 70% expect their organization to step up its investment in and management of sustainability in 2011. Impressive.

Similar momentum is happening in municipalities in Canada. On February 16, Joanne DeVries released her Fresh Outlook Foundation’s “Community Sustainability Snapshot: 2010 Survey Results from Local Governments.”

It found that:

44% of respondents have sustainability plans, compared with 23% in 2007
59% have sustainability programs and projects, compared with 42% in 2007
52% have sustainability policies and/or regulations, compared with 34% in 2007
51% have staff devoted to sustainability, compared with 37% in 2007

Click on image to access report

If Canadian municipalities are upping their focus on environmental, social, and economic issues, it’s very likely that a similar dynamic is happening in other countries. Nice.

We are going in the right direction. Let’s take a minute to bask in the glow of these positive reports about how momentum is building around sustainability strategies in the private and public sectors. Then let’s redouble our efforts to contribute to it.

Bob

Canada

Announcement: International Wineries Sustainability Benchmarking Project launches

Richard Blume — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:24:44 -0400

Calling all winemakers and wineries! We're pleased to announce the launch of the International Wineries Sustainability Benchmarking Project, and we invite you to participate.

The project aims to compare 15 wineries per country with each other and with global best practice. Each participating winery will receive a baseline measurement with regard to their sustainability performance, the ability to compare with peers and world class levels of sustainability, and identify areas of strength and weakness as well as capacity for early improvement.

Wineries will be represented by both the largest in country as well as mid/medium size community wineries, drawn from the target regions:

Europe - France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, UK
Americas - Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, USA
Australasia - Australia, New Zealand
Africa - South Africa

The initiative is being led by the PROBE Network and uses a proven method - the PROBE for Sustainable Business benchmarking tool developed with the aid of The Natural Step. Advisors from The Natural Step will be involved in carrying out the assessments and are available to provide further support.

What is the value to a winery?

Savings in operations cost – recent studies show PROBE provides up to a 5:1 return on investment and average savings of $30,000 a year in medium size manufacturers
A smarter and broader application of sustainability in the business beyond a simple “carbon reduction” focus that’s backed by the TNS methodology.
On-going support to achieve their goals the facilitator people can be with them for the whole journey
The ability to use the 3-tier scalable PROBE for Sustainable Business to map the winery’s performance against their supply chain and smarter, achievable targets for improvement
International Best Practice Transfer enabling recipients to identify specific areas for improvement and the potential to collaborate (with other wineries in the regional project) and reduce costs in exporting
Increase in sustainability credentials potentially opening new brand/marketing opportunities and reducing in country carbon/other government tariffs
Identifying reductions of scarce and/or harmful substances to reduce safety, liability and regulatory oversight issues
Easily translating the heretofore complex language of sustainability into a coherent business process and performance framework

The PROBE Benchmarking Methodology

The PROBE (PROmoting Business Excellence) methodology has a long history of providing organisations, governments, change agents, academia and many other institutions with a proven framework for business improvements.

The benchmark is based upon a set of questionnaires that ask factual data questions; and questions about the company’s practice and performance covering all aspects of the winery’s sustainability. Questionnaires are sent out prior to the benchmark and a selected team complete them, at an agreed date the facilitator will conduct the benchmark which will last approximately 5-6 hours.

The benchmark will position the winery against its peer groups and against world class levels of sustainability. It will also identify area of strength and weakness and the winery’s actual capacity for early improvement. All of this information will be encapsulated in a client confidential tailored report.

All benchmarks are client confidential and data will only be used in non-identifiable and aggregated manner, this data will be used in an overarching industry report which will be jointly authored by TNS and The PROBE Network LLP.

Contact us

Interested to participate, learn more or be part of sponsoring the study?

You can make contact with accredited Advisors at The Natural Step here: http://www.thenaturalstep.org/probe

Alternatively, you can reach the lead contact for the study here:

Gerry Oates
PROBE Network LLP
6th Floor, Building 8, Exchange Quay, Salford,
M5 3EJ. United Kingdom
Tel No. +44 (0)161 932 1196. Fax No. +44 (0)161 932 1100
Mobile +44 7921 387214
www.probe-network.com

Sweden

FOODNavigator.com: Sustainability targets more important for flavours and fragrances, Givaudan chair

Neil McCallum — Wed, 04 May 2011 08:29:53 -0400

The Natural Step has been working with Givaudan to establish an overarching strategic systems approach to sustainability.

This week Givaudan launched their latest sustainability report entitled Translating Vision to Action. Read about it in the article below from FOODNavigator.com.

And learn more about how Givaudan has implemented their sustainability plan, by reading our blog, "Translating Vision to Action – Next Steps for Givaudan".

***

Sustainability is becoming a hotter topic in the flavours and fragrance sector, with customers posing more questions about the supply chain and targets than ever before, says the chair of Givaudan’s sustainability programme.

The world’s biggest flavour and fragrance company published its second annual sustainability report entitled Translating Vision into Action last week, using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G3 Reporting Guidelines.

Speaking in general terms about the industry, Joe Fabbri, global head of human resources and chair of the sustainability programme, told FoodNavigator.com that 18 months ago sustainability was a less common topic.

Now more and more customers are asking about targets for improving environmental performance – and a minority are moving beyond checklists to ask deeper questions and request presentations and contacts.

“Clearly the trend is that it is more important,” he said, adding that, as head of HR, he has noticed many people come to job interviews with a copy of the sustainability report and ask questions about it.

Givaudan drew up its sustainability strategy in 2008, and dedicated 2009 to articulating and developing it. Last year it turned to executing it across five pillars: Raw materials, employees, innovation and development, operations, customers and markets.

In the earlier strategy phase Givaudan worked with The Natural Step Institute, a consultancy it described last year as a “critical friend”. As the company moved towards action, TNSI’s role has become one of “sparring partner and sounding board”.

“We felt TNSI’s contribution was good, but we have to take ownership. It can’t be seen as a consultant-supported project, but needs to be internalised”. To this end, the company has developed three layers of implementation: corporate-driven initiatives, eco-efficiency teams in the operations group, and ‘green teams’ at its facilities.

The use of GRI reporting provides a benchmarking for the company’s environmental performance – and while in 2010 it met the requirements for application level C, Fabbri said the aspiration is to move to a GRI-certified B+ level.

Targets

The new report sets out Givaudan’s first targets for improving environmental performance. By 2020 it aims to:

Reduce CO2 emissions per tonne of production by 25%

Reduce energy consumption per tonne of production by 20%

Reduce incinerated and landfill waste per tonne of production by 15%

Reduce municipal and groundwater usage per tonne of production by 15%

Reduce lost time injury rate to below 0.1 per 200,000 hours worked.

The baseline against which performance will be measured are taken as 2009 levels.

Critical supply chain

In 2011 Givaudan is conducting a risk assessment of its entire sustainability impact, including the perspectives of stakeholders. Fabbri said it thinks about lifecycle analysis of its products in three ‘buckets’: raw materials, compounding of products, and distribution of products.

Raw materials make up about 93% of Givaudan’s carbon footprint at present, of which 2% is transportation to its facilities and the remainder processing.

Around 6% of the impact relates to compounding, and the remaining 1% to transport to customers’ sites.

“The supply chain is critical. That’s really where you perform in this game.”

He added that even though Givaudan’s flavours and fragrances make up only 2 to 4 per cent of the finished product, and the total carbon footprint per kg of product is “probably less than the margin of air”, the reduction is still all important.

“That’s material. That’s what the customer wants to know”.

Canada

Greening Our Workshops: TNS’s Efforts to “Walk the Talk”

Dwayne Hodgson — Fri, 14 May 2010 16:33:07 -0400

At the Natural Step Canada, we organize a lot of learning events on how individuals and organizations can take meaningful actions to become more sustainable. Where possible, we encourage our clients to make use of our award-winning eLearning programs and online webinars, thus minimizing the need for travel and reducing their carbon footprint.

However, we still find that the quality of learning and community-building that face-to-face workshops provide is hard to beat, and so we continue to offer in-person sustainability leadership programs across the country.

Of course if you are going to talk about sustainability, you have to do your best to walk that talk. We strive to make these meetings as sustainable as possible with regards to decisions around travel, food and beverage, energy and other resource use. For example:

1. We choose workshop locations that are easily accessible by public transit (bus, intercity bus and train where possible) and cycling.

2. We purchase carbon offsets annually for all of our air, rail or car travel undertaken as an organization. While not a perfect solution, the money raised from carbon offsets supports projects that reduce greenhouse gases. Here are two gold-standard providers of offsets for Canada: Less and Offsetters.

3. We do our best to reduce waste by avoiding disposables, and reusing and recycling what we can of any workshop materials (e.g. name tags, flip chart paper, post-its, tape, handouts).

4. We print any handouts and guidebooks on post-consumer recycled paper.

5. For every learning event that we host, we estimate how much electricity we’ll use for A/V equipment and lights. We then purchase the equivalent amount of "green electricity" from Bullfrog Power, a company that produces small hydro and wind-powered electricity. TNS Canada also uses Bullfrog Power for its day-to-day office operations.

6. We ask that our caterers, where possible, should:

Purchase fair trade, organic coffee, tea & sugar.
Recycle cans, metal tins, bottles, and paper
Purchase local products -- organic if possible -- for meals and snacks
Use bulk condiments wherever possible (vs. individual packets for sugar)
Have pre-consumer composting in the kitchen (what is PRE-consumer composting??)
Use reusable mugs and glasses instead of Styrofoam containers , as these are derived from petroleum.
Provide pitchers of tap water and glasses instead of water in plastic bottles.

7. In our pre-course Learning Needs & Resource Assessments, we describe what we are doing to become more sustainable and invite our workshop participants to choose one action that they'll undertake to reduce the impact of their participation. We then discuss this during the workshop. It's a great way to get people thinking about -- and acting on-- the topic.

Some Good Initial Steps, But We're Not There Just Yet
Making our actions truly sustainable is an ongoing process. Although we haven't figured it all out (for example, we still need to find a recyclable marker supplier, and we still rely on flying facilitators to courses in other cities), we're pleased that with a bit of creativity, and a modest extra cost, we are able to walk the talk.

For additional ideas on how to green your learning events and meetings, please see:

Your Turn:
What is your best idea for making learning events or other meetings more sustainable? Please post your comments below.

Dwayne Hodgson is the Manager of Sustainability Learning Programs at The Natural Step Canada. He also blogs about learning design and facilitation at www.learningcycle.ca

Canada

Putting Sustainability at the Heart of Company Strategy: Case Study of Group Roger Wickler

Renaud Richard — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:10:42 -0400

by Renaud Richard, TNS France

The Group Roger Wickler recognized both the urgency and the opportunity of transforming into an organization with sustainability at its heart. As a company with multiple organizations and plants, working in two languages in three countries, they looked to The Natural Step to develop a coherent vision of sustainable development. My colleague Stephan Kinsch of Bebop contacted TNS France about a year ago, saying he had identified a client that would be ideal for a process that combines organizational change expertise with strategic sustainable development. We submitted a proposal, and Stephan and I were brought in to facilitate.

The Group Roger Wickler is composed of four companies of 15 to 70 employees--based in Luxembourg, Belgium and Germany-- working in natural stone, ceramic tile, wood flooring, and road construction. In the course of four meetings over a period of six months, along with committee work in the interim, the Group’s four objectives were met:
1.    A shared understanding of sustainability
2.    A sustainable vision for each company
3.    A baseline analysis of the current status for company vis-à-vis this sustainable vision
4.    Financially sustainable actions to fuel next steps

TNS’ methods of stakeholder employee engagement led to the discovery of new talents within the group and to a more inclusive sense of ownership in the company’s progress. At the end, it was recognized that:
•    Controversial issues were tackled in a constructive manner
•    Initial actions (e.g., recycling) were put in place
•    A vision and action plan were created and implemented.

Participant feedback was positive, with many staff noting sharing with each other the applications of the sustainable development model to their personal as well as professional lives:
“I realize that we need to act, and quickly—and now I know how”
“I am applying the four principles of sustainable development in my daily life more than I could have imagined.”
“We are able to prepare for coming trends…and there is much to be done.”
“The group dynamic is completely changed…we know our colleagues in a different, better way.”

The Group recognized that this process is a first step, with much left to do. Group President Roger Wickler notes:
“I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the collaboration in the groups. And the work has reached much further than what I had imagined.”

Note: A case study is available in French and German.
Please contact The Natural Step France contact@tns-france.org

France

The 5-Stage Sustainability Journey - A weekly blog by sustainability expert Bob Willard

Marieke — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:29:54 -0400

For the original post and to leave Bob a comment, please click here.

As companies progress toward being sustainable enterprises, we can position them on a five-stage sustainability continuum. They evolve from an unsustainable model of business in Stages 1, 2 and 3, to a sustainable business framework in Stages 4 or 5. Executive mindsets also evolve from thinking of “green,” “environmental,” and “sustainable” initiatives as expensive and bureaucratic threats in the early stages, to recognizing them as catalysts for strategic growth in the later stages.

We will use the 3-nested-dependencies model of a sustainable society, described in my July 20, 2010 blog, to describe the characteristics of companies in the five key stages on their sustainability journeys.

Stage 1: Pre-Compliance

In this stage, the company cuts corners, and tries to not get caught if it breaks the law or uses exploitative practices that cheat the system. It ignores any notions of sustainability and flouts environmental, health, and safety regulations. This stage is the norm in corrupt jurisdictions. In developed countries, it is a risky stage and not a wise one to linger in. Most smart companies move quickly to Stage 2 in order to avoid fines, prosecution, and public embarrassment for illegal acts.

Stage 2: Compliance

Here, the business manages its liabilities by obeying all labor, environmental, health, and safety regulations. It reactively does what it’s legally bound to do, and it follows these laws well. Companies install pollution abatement equipment and provide a safer, healthier, more respectful workplace for employees. However, environmental and philanthropic social actions are treated as costs; pollution abatement projects are end-of-pipe retrofits; and corporate social responsibility is given lip service—at best.

A Stage 1 company’s actions are illegal and unsustainable. A Stage 2 company’s actions are legal but they’re still unsustainable. Companies in both stages use a linear take-make-waste model of commerce that violates the fundamental principles of a sustainable enterprise as shown in the adjacent slide. They treat Nature as a dump site for the waste created when extracting the natural resources required for their products. They treat Nature as a dump site for the waste created from their manufacturing processes. Nature’s dump site fills with the end-of-life disposal of their goods when consumers are finished with them.

With this model, we risk drowning in our own waste. Over-consumption by the haves causes social unrest and violence among the have-nots. Companies happily externalize many of their ecological and social impacts that arise from this model of business. However, society is starting to demand that they be more accountable for their collateral social and environmental damage.

Stage 3: Beyond compliance

A company voluntarily moves to Stage 3 when it realizes that it can save money with proactive, operational eco-efficiencies. These incremental savings can be reaped in four ways: 1. saving energy and reducing its associated carbon footprint; 2. saving water; 3. saving materials in its products and packaging; and 4. saving waste-handling costs. A company increases its community investment, thereby enhancing its reputation and maximizing shareholder value. However, sustainability initiatives are still marginalized within specialized departments. They are tacked on as green housekeeping, rather than being institutionalized in the company’s governance systems. This is still an unsustainable business, just less so. Stage 3 companies prolong the time it will take to drown in our own waste, rather than stopping their fundamentally unsustainable practices.

Stage 4: Integrated Strategy

By Stage 4, the firm has transformed its business model into a sustainable borrow-use-return design. It re-brands itself as a company committed to sustainability. It injects sustainability principles into its values and company DNA. And, it coordinates sustainability approaches with key business strategies. A Stage 4 company captures added value from breakthrough sustainability initiatives that benefit all stakeholders. Instead of seeing “green” costs and risks, it sees investments and opportunities. Stage 4 companies make cleaner products, apply eco-effectiveness and life-cycle stewardship, and enjoy competitive advantages from their sustainability initiatives.

Stage 5: Passion and Purpose

Driven by a passionate, values-based commitment to improve the well-being of the company, society, and the environment, a Stage 5 company helps build a better world because it is the right thing to do. Company values mirror founder / CEO values. Some founder-owned and founder-led companies start and end in this stage without ever entering the other four stages, such as Seventh Generation led by Jeffrey Hollander; Patagonia led by Yvon Chouinard; and my publisher, New Society Publishers, led by Chris and Judith Plant. Publicly-traded companies may evolve to Stage 5 once the legitimacy of social and environmental metrics is embraced in the business community.

Stages 4 and 5: What’s different?

About 90% of the behaviours of Stage 4 and Stage 5 companies look the same. They both adopt the cyclical, sustainable borrow-use-return business model. They both deploy business strategies that respect the environment, the community, and the ongoing business health of the firm. It’s the motivation that differs. Stage 4 companies “do the right things” so that they are successful businesses. Stage 5 companies are successful businesses so that they can continue to “do the right things.” The dotted line between Stage 4 and Stage 5 in the above slide denotes this motivational difference.

Does it matter whether a company is in Stage 4 or Stage 5? We’d all like companies to do the right things for the right reasons, but it really doesn’t matter for results. Our priority is to quickly achieve a critical mass of companies that behave more sustainably, so that we can reach the tipping point of momentum of sustainable firms for a sustainable planet. Whatever works to get us there will do. We’ll work on motivations some other time.

In next week’s blog, we’ll examine why the take-make-waste model used by Stage 1, 2 and 3 companies is fundamentally unsustainable. With that background, in the week following, we’ll show why the borrow-use-return business model used by companies in Stage 4 or 5 is preferable and sustainable.

‘Til then…

Bob

Canada

Think Globally Radio - Dr Elisabeth Corell: Rethinking Globalisation in the light of contraction and convergence

Richard Blume — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 10:34:22 -0400

Start: Apr 18 2010 - 7:00pm

End: Apr 18 2010 - 8:00pm

Timezone: Europe/Stockholm

Brought to you by Think Globally Radio, Sunday April 18th at 19:00 on 95.3 Mhz. in Stockholm (and now on demand by podcast): Rethinking globalisation in the light of Contraction and Convergence: With Dr Elisabeth Corell, Converge Project Leader, The Natural Step.

"How, given the current situation, do we manage and allocate, today, the Earth’s resources for the survival of a projected global population of 9 to 10 billion people in 2050 - and for their offspring indefinitely?"

An exciting research project from the European Union has been launched to explore a new framework for globalization. Dr Elisabeth Corell, Converge Project Leader at The Natural Step, joins Think Globally Radio to discuss the concept of contraction and convergence and the planned outcomes from this four year project.

Dr Corell will also discuss her hands-on experiences of international environmental negotiations, her view of the recent developments in the climate change negotiations and the recent alleged scandals related to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC.

Think Globally Radio is heard every Sunday evening at 19:00 on THS Radio 95.3 MHz in Stockholm, and on K103.1 in Gothenburg at 16:00. An extensive archive of past programs can be listened to on demand on the completely redesigned www.thinkgloballyradio.org. Podcasts can also be downloaded via iTunes.

Feel free to join the “Think Globally Radio” group on Facebook.

For more information, contact Eric Paglia eric@rocket.fm or Dave Trouba dtrouba@gmail.com.

Please forward this to anyone who might be interested in issues of the environment or sustainability!

Sweden

Translating Vision to Action – Next Steps for Givaudan

Richard Blume — Fri, 06 May 2011 03:31:19 -0400

New announcements by Swiss flavours and fragrances giant Givaudan show that the company is well on the way to embedding sustainability as a strategic concern across the company. Last year, we reported progress from our work together to establish an overarching strategic systems approach to sustainability. This week Givaudan launched their latest sustainability report entitled Translating Vision to Action. The report emphasizes a number of promising developments, including:

Clear statements of commitment coming from the very top levels of the company
Improved institutional anchoring of sustainability through ‘layers of implementation’
Greater ownership for the work across the various functions of the company
Progress toward the vision in areas right across the company and along the value chain in both directions.
Use of GRI guidelines for best practice reporting of progress

The theme of this report is of particular significance as it shows Givaudan has got the order right – starting with the vision first. With so much attention to particular sustainability issues - from climate change to contaminated melamine in milk - and increasing and often-changing demands from customers, ‘being seen to be doing something’ is critical. Yet it can also put companies in a reactive mode and prompt reporting on a disconnected set of peripheral ‘good initiatives’ without getting the fundamentals in place first.

Companies need to know where they are heading using an overarching framework for sustainable business connected to a clear definition of sustainability. Givaudan should therefore be acknowledged for its 'backcasting' approach. It has set a strong vision aligned with the science of sustainability, followed now by increased emphasis on institutionalization and action to make progress in the desired direction.

Related items

Givaudan Sustainability (Givaudan)
Givaudan Sustainability Report 2010 and 2009 (including Third party commentary from The Natural Step).
Givaudan senses the challenge and opportunity in getting it right (Blog post, March 2010)
Sustainability targets more important for flavours and fragrances, Givaudan chair" (from FOODNavigator.com)

Visit our Canadian site for a good overview of how we help companies like Givaudan identify and capture the value from sustainability and then embed it within core business processes.

Sweden

VinylPlus - the European PVC industry's voluntary commitment to sustainable development

Richard Blume — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:15:56 -0400

On 22 June 2011, the European Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) industry launched VinylPlus – a new voluntary commitment to enhance the sustainable production and use of PVC by 2020. It's no secret that PVC is a controversial material that has both critics and supporters, so when an entire industry consortium mobilises around a voluntary commitment such as this, it is surely a positive sign that sustainable development is being taken seriously in the board rooms of major corporations.

Lifting the level of ambition.

On top of this, the VinylPlus initiative represents an expanded scope and level of ambition over prior efforts. Targets are derived from The Natural Step System Conditions for sustainability, and build on our previous work in the sector (see links below).

Over the last two years, through a series of activities, The Natural Step has worked with the Board of the initiative to review and map out the challenges for PVC, offer capacity building workshops, gather stakeholder views and provide recommendations on the formulation of the new industry charter.

Applying the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development

We used the ABCD planning process to help industry leaders apply the framework and arrive at the priorities. We did this by first beginning with a vision of where the industry wants to head, identifying challenges that must be overcome, generating ideas on what needs to be done and finally arriving at priorities and targets for the period to 2020.

Engaging stakeholders

Before deciding on the priorities and actions to be undertaken we contacted 113 stakeholders across Europe on behalf of the board of Vinyl2010 with a briefing on the challenges we had identified together with industry representatives. These stakeholders included representatives of the public, PVC users, regulatory and policy-making institutions across the EU and sustainability-related NGO's.

Following feedback from stakeholders, the priorities and concerns were reported to the Board of Vinyl2010 and used in the formulation of exact goals and targets.

Building on past achievements

VinylPlus builds on the achievements and results of Vinyl 2010, the first Voluntary Commitment of the European PVC industry. The following video describes the industry's progress over the years and the accompanying press release contains more detail as the initiative was announced (press release: European PVC industry meets ten-year targets on sustainable development and looks to the future with optimism).

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Moving forward with VinylPlus

We are pleased to see an increased level of ambition in VinylPlus and believe it sets out a clear roadmap for the industry. Proof will nevertheless be in the action and it will be judged by whether targets are met and stakeholders feel their views are being heard. David Cook, Executive Ambassador for The Natural Step, shared his views on the challenges that lie ahead of the industry at the launch of VinylPlus in June 2011:

Moving forward The Natural Step's role will be to follow the new initiative in the following capacity:

Critical Friend - challenging and advising the industry to make progress while ensuring the initiative retains the direct link to The Natural Step system conditions for sustainability.
Stakeholder intermediary - encouraging constant external monitoring and communication with external stakeholders
Capacity builder - supporting industry to integrate sustainability principles into their operations in order to achieve the goals set out in the initiative.

We welcome feedback on the initiative and particularly our role as outlined above.

> Read our blog from the launch: European PVC Industry launches new ten year sustainability commitment

> For more information and background about our work with PVC, visit www.thenaturalstep.org/pvc.

> For more information about VinylPlus, visit: http://www.vinylplus.eu/

Sweden