Roundtable for Product Social Metrics launches “Handbook for Product Social Impact Assessment”

In The Netherlands, group of member companies in Roundtable for Product Social Metrics announced the publication of the Handbook for Product Social Impact Assessment, a practical tool for sustainability professionals. The handbook describes an innovative methodology for assessing a product’s social impacts throughout its life cycle, and is the result of a unique collaborative effort of a group of multi-industry market leaders.

As large, multinational organizations, the Roundtable participants – Ahold, Akzo Nobel, BASF, BMW Group, DSM, L’Oréal, Marks & Spencer, Philips, RB, Steelcase, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and a chemical company, led by sustainability consulting firm PRé Sustainability – understand the need for a social impact assessment method that is capable of screening a product’s entire supply chain across continents and throughout its life cycle.

“Stakeholders increasingly demand transparency about the social impacts of products,” says João Fontes of PRé Sustainability, spokesperson for the Roundtable. As supply chains and product life cycles span the world, businesses need a practical, reliable way to systematically analyse risks and identify improvement opportunities. “Research on consumer preferences, like The Nielsen Global Survey on Corporate Social Responsibility, shows that half of the world’s consumers are prepared to pay a premium if products have an ecological or social benefit,” says Jacobine Das Gupta, Corporate Sustainability Manager for DSM.

The Roundtable will now focus on Phase III of the project: finding solutions for cross-cutting implementation issues, exchanging experiences with other practitioners and experts, and continuing to improve the methodology. The Roundtable participants invite interested industry companies to join the group and collaborate in Phase III.