Moritz Ritter, CEO, The Ritter Group. “The first issue is a cost factor since the cost of energy sources along the supply chain has an impact on competitiveness, as

well as the cost and availability of raw materials. About 80% of the total energy consumption comes from fossil fuels. With the exception of natural gas (shale gas) whose price has de-creased in countries such as the U.S. due to frack-ing, companies must deal with the increasing en-ergy prices of fossil fuels. Businesses need to think in the future of a wide range of alternatives which include both fossil and renewable energy sources. Assuming that the real costs of fossil fu-els will ever be accurate and transparent, renew-able energy sources will be seen not only as the most environmentally responsible decision but also the most cost-efficient, and in the long run, the only available.”

Welcome

Symposium Edition1_Welcome Note

2_Expert views – we get the answers to four key questions

3_How to create value from sustainability – PSRT celebrates 20 years of finding out

4_Are you equipped? – Tap into the latest sustainability resources

Neil D’Souza, SoFi Software Product Man-

ager, PE INTERNATIONAL. “I see the im-pact as increased costs of pro-duction in accordance with the basic principles of supply and

demand. It implies changing supply chains and business relationships, elevating the importance of social issues of fairness and equitable distribu-tion of resources, a focus on efficiency to reduce waste and greater importance on monitoring. There will be a case of ‘innovate or die.’ I also be-lieve in the long term it can change how we bene-fit from globalization where companies source materials from one place to deliver products in another. This will be the cornerstone of economic success for major economies and will inevitably change quite dramatically in the next 10 to 15 years.”

Expert views In respect to this year’s Symposium theme we asked the experts four questions.

Q 1. What are the impacts of limited resources on business now and in the future?

Blue Marble The Business Sustainability Newsletter of PE INTERNATIONAL

leaders in advance of our event. The questions relate to the topic of the Symposium “Sustaining busi-ness success and growth in a resource constrained world” and the related program highlights. It is our hope that these casual interviews in this printed edition of the “Blue Marble” newsletter will help to evoke meaningful dialogue of the most pressing topics facing our customers today.

The Product Sustainability Roundtable is another great institution, supporting a leading sustaina-

bility community, founded by PE leaders. Read more about the value it brought to companies over 20 years and the plans for the future.

We hope you are able to take home a lot of food for thought, inspiration and profit from the net-working possibilities within the strong community we are happy to bring together at this occasion.

Enjoy!

Bringing together the best and the brightest sus-tainability thought leaders and practitioners from around the globe is always exciting for us. The opportunity to share success stories, ideas and make connections helps further advance the evo-lution of the market that we all serve; And, ulti-mately helps organizations create further tangi-ble business value from sustainability.

This year we decided to pose some questions to our esteemed speakers, attendees and PE INTERNATIONAL

MARch 2013

www.pe-international.com

Q 2. how do sustainability strategies help to mitigate against a limited supply of resources?

Rodolphe d’Arjuzon, Global Head of Re-

search and Development, Verdantix.

“These strategies help you to understand exposure so that you can create sensible risk

management plans. They also help you to know your suppliers so that you can work with them. There is a lot of this going on in the food sector. companies such as Unilever, Nestle, and Pepsico have created programmes to directly engage, teach and support their agricultural suppliers. It also im-proves the robustness of weak links in the chain. For example, working directly with farmers on bet-ter irrigation methods can help conserve water while boosting yield.”

Robert Gabriel, Director of Corporate Sus-

tainability, PE INTERNATIONAL. “Any sustainability strategy will in-clude the management of ener-gy and material resources in its

core. Understanding consumption, efficiencies and sourcing of resources are keys to evaluating and re-ducing the risks related to limited resource avail-ability and price increases. In addition, a proper sustainability strategy will also address the oppor-tunities to increase the competitive edge, whether by driving the top line with green product portfoli-os, or by growing the bottom line with the reduc-tion of resource-related production costs.”

Gabriella Zahzouh, Global Environmental

Manager, British American Tobacco. “As we rely extensively on natural resources, our strategies help us to forecast future scarcity

issues and ensure supply and demand is in bal-ance. Our local reforestation programmes are good examples. We understand through local as-sessments, what fuels are used for curing our to-bacco and it is vital to us to ensure that our farm-ers have a ready and sustainable supply available to them year over year without negatively im-pacting the biodiversity around us all.”

Q 3. One of the potential hot topics for the near future is the Environmental Footprint. Do you think that this is becoming a game changer in sus- tainability? how are companies preparing for this?

Ramon Arratia, Sustainability Director

EMEAI, Interface. “As written in my book Full Product Transparency, I think environmental product declarations are the biggest

changer in sustainability because they link the en- tire value chain. You can influence demand, you can redesign products, you can transmit priorities through your supply chain, and legislators can re-ward sustainable products or punish products with higher environmental impact. At Interface, we pro-duce EPDs for all of our products and are heavily redesigning each one so that the embodied im-pacts are reduced.”

Michael Spielmann, Principal Consultant,

PE INTERNATIONAL “In my view, it may tackle one critical issue: Green Washing. By developing sector and product group specific guide-

lines that should guarantee the improvements claimed by producers are consistent, solid, and re-producible. This will avoid the risk of green wash-ing which could jeopardize the entire sustainabil-ity issue. I think having a set of product category rules will be a critical component to the impact of this initiative in the future.”

Michael Betz, CEO, PE INTERNATIONAL.

“The Environmental Footprint Initiative as driven by the EU commission might indeed be-come a game changer. Irrespec-

tive of that, sooner or later corporate and prod-uct footprints, declarations or LcAs will definitively become mainstream. Our key clients prepare for that by bringing manual and not integrated ap-proaches to the next level. Our role is to help them automate and rationalize sustainability and com-pliance data collection, transfer, decision making and communication. In this context, LcA data col-lection and transfer in supply chains will achieve the critical importance it deserves.”

Michele Galatola, Policy Officer, EU Com-

mission DG Environment. “Absolutely. There is growing pressure on companies to show they produce in an environmentally friendly

way – both at the level of individual products and as organizations. Information on environmental performance can be used in the management of supply chains as an efficient indicator of how re-source-efficient a company is. At the same time, it serves to show how green a product or organi-zation is, because consumers increasingly want to better understand the environmental impacts of their consumption. The commission will soon adopt and publish consistent methodologies for the calculation of the life cycle environmental performance of products and organisations. Named PEF (Product Environmental Footprint) and OEF (Organization Environmental Footprint), we believe these will become more and more used in public and private initiatives, providing a more consistent and reliable way to communicate environmental information both in B2B and B2c contexts.”

As the Product Sus- tainability Round Ta-ble (PSRT) celebrates

its 20th year, we looked back on the significant changes in sustainability trends over that time and where the journey is expected to lead us in the next 20 years. Looking back, the big change has been the integration of sustainability into business decision making. Looking ahead, while the rules of the game are not expected to change, the field it is played on will be dramatically altered by the availability of information. Those compa-nies who are prepared will succeed through proac-tive and integrated sustainability management.

Jim Fava, Chairman PSRT. PE’s PSRT 1 was founded 20 years ago by Jim Fava and since that time has emerged as the premier community of practice in the

product sustainability space. It brings together the sustainability leads of the world’s most re-spected companies, from across the value chain, in a non-competitive environment, to better un-derstand what sustainability means today, what it is likely to mean tomorrow and, critically, how best to capture the opportunities it creates. To mark the occasion, we asked a number of past advisors as well as Jim Fava himself to talk about what has changed over that time and – more im-

portantly – where they expect sustainability to go over the next 20 years.

The changes since 1993 all tended to focus on the shift of sustainability from being something neb-ulous, conceptual and distinct from ‘real’ busi-ness practice, to being pragmatic, tangible and integrated into management decision making.

Looking forward, the fundamentals are not ex-pected to change; people will continue to be mo-tivated by self-interest – including status, profit, and pride – and companies will continue to maxi-mize returns on their investments. however, the single biggest change will be the availability of information: getting people the information they want when they want it – and it will have a num-ber of significant implications across the value chain.

For consumers it is expected to provide them with customized information at the point of pur-chase covering the full sustainability performance of the product. An early model of this concept can be seen with GoodGuide and in the area of Environmental Product Declarations. As a result, consumers should have full visibility of the im-pacts of their purchase decisions which will drive more sustainable behavior through personal pride and ‘gentle’ encouragement from social networks.

companies are likely to experience the largest changes as a result of this.

20 years of the Product Sustainability Round Table – looking back and looking ahead

In particular, expectations of transparency in-cluding material compositions, suppliers, material sources, and life cycle data will continue to grow. With information technology shrinking the ‘dis-tance’ between countries, performance anywhere within one’s upstream will be tied to the broader brand. Internally operational performance will be driven by real or near-real time data, information and potential corrective actions, with PE’s SoFi platform taking the lead in this exciting field. For designers, improved life cycle information will fit seamlessly within their design process, a glimpse of which we can already see today in the Solid-Works Sustainability and GaBi Envision platforms. Further, implications of design decisions from reg-ulatory issues to availability of recycling routes and technologies are likely to be fed directly to them utilizing smart solutions like the Siemens cPM. As a result, those who are effectively inte-grating sustainability into their strategies, data tracking and practices will be at a distinct market advantage.

For suppliers and upstream material providers, the demands for more detailed and a broader scope of information will continue to grow.

The ability to provide this information – such as sourcing locations – will be supported by techno-logical advances in global tracking systems and innovative partnerships.

Q 4. how do you see the role of Life cycle Assess- ment in de-risking and improving supply chains?

Nigel Topping, CIO, Carbon Disclosure

Project.“The vast majority of com-panies do not have a good un-derstanding of their entire value chain. Everything is connected,

things change so quickly and we are at or beyond limits with so many resources that without proper LcA to understand risk, it can be devastating to business. There is a definite need to both under-stand the risks through LcA and put in place a sound strategy to address the risks throughout the supply chain. With this preparedness, a company has foresight into potential problem areas and can respond by making changes to a product over time throughout the supply chain. This will prevent the devastating impact of getting blind sighted, and help to assure the health of the business.”

Chuck Grindstaff, CEO, Siemens PLM Software.

“The high degree of standard-ization in material selection and LcA reduces design risks and cre-ates a basis for innovation along

the supply chain. It is imperative that the supply chain stay in sync as environmentally-minded de-sign practices evolve from conformance to substan-tial regulations, to multi-domain optimization.”

Harald Florin, Director of Product Sus-tainability, PE INTERNATIONAL.

“LcA is the proven method to bring complete transparency into product life cycles on every level. It helps to offer an understand-

ing of a changing world, changing technologies and their implications. One of the biggest supply chain risks is a failure to think through decisions and understand risks at every level. With LcA, businesses have a tried and tested approach that will provide the visibility needed to effectively manage and improve their supply chain. “

The ability to improve performance will further be accelerated by both greater demands from downstream partners as well as the broader pro-motion of sustainability practices through a vari-ety of networks including round tables such as the PSRT. This will accelerate the transfer of lead-ing practice from a relatively exclusive circle of leaders to a broader set of companies including SME’s and global supply chain partners.

What the world of sustainability will look like in 2033 is hard to predict with certainty, but two things seem likely:

1) PE and PSRT members will be at the forefront of translating sustainability ideas into successful business models; and

2) Sustainability, in whatever its 2033 form is, will be critical and fundamental to business success.

Chris Peterson, Manager PSRT. For more information on the PSRT please contact chris Peterson at c.peterson@pe-international.com

or visit http://www.pe-international.com/acade-my/product-sustainability-round-table/

Further ReadingDô Sustainability introduces The DôShorts collectionExpert. Practical. concise. Inspiring. Written by experts with hands-on experience, DôShorts are concise ebooks that offer practical solutions to business sustainability challenges.

DôShorts are available as individual titles or by subscription to the entire e-library. A subscription gives you access to all titles published to date plus three to five new ebooks added to the collec-

tion every month, for the 12 months of your sub-scription. A total of 60+ ebooks.

Dô Sustainability has teamed up with PE INTER-NATIONAL to offer symposium delegates an addi-tional 5% off these subscription deals. Please pur-chase your subscription at www.dosustaiability.com/shop using code PES5 by 22nd March 2013.

hEADqUARTERS:PE INTERNATIONAL AGhauptstraße 111-11370771 Leinfelden-EchterdingenGermany

Phone +49 711 341817-0Fax +49 711 341817-25www.pe-international.com info@pe-international.com

See the full list of PE´s international offices at www.pe-international.com/company/about-pe-international/sites/

Are you equipped?Tap into the latest sustainability resourcesPE INTERNATIONAL is recognized by its clients as being a thought leader on how sustainability concepts can be applied to organizations and to products. committed to sharing our knowledge, we offer not only our services as consultants but also our insights through numerous whitepapers,

PE Studies and Whitepapers

PE Presentations

PE case Studies

PE Webinars

case studies, presentations, studies and webinars. check out our online resource section www.pe-international.com/resources