SGS Announces Global Product Mark Program For Carbon Footprint

SGS introduces a new and unique program of three product marks for environmental impact, progressing towards the ultimate tier of greenhouse gas neutrality, to help companies transparently demonstrate their ongoing environmental commitment.

SGS Consumer Testing Services announced today the first Product Carbon Footprint program to offer marks that can be applied to manufactured products that are sold on international markets. As leading providers of sustainability solutions, SGS's new product marks will provide a competitive edge to clients through transparent confirmation of their environmental claims; the program is also the first to offer a comprehensive and progressive three-label scheme, clearly demonstrating continuous improvement in reducing and offsetting a product's environmental impact.

"Consumers today are becoming more and more keen on eco-friendly products. In a recent survey, for example, 74% stated they would like products to display environmental impact information to guide their purchasing decisions," said Charles Ly Wa Hoi, Global Sustainability Services Vice President. "Our new Product Carbon Footprint program enables companies to transparently communicate this information using a universally recognized tool – a symbol indicating that a product's credentials have been verified by a trusted independent organization – while also providing a continuous carbon reduction framework that can both reduce costs and enhance brand reputation."

Three Levels Leading to Carbon Neutral
Most carbon footprint marking schemes are limited to a state, a country or a single phase in a product's carbon journey. By contrast, SGS's program offers a holistic and global approach; covering all countries with a single label and providing three levels of successive environmental achievement:

• SGS Carbon Footprint, indicating the environmental commitment of a brand by applying international standards and tabulating the results on the label to confirm that SGS has assessed the total greenhouse gas emissions over the product's life cycle.
• SGS Carbon Reduction, showing that the product's carbon footprint has been reduced during the 12 months under a continuous improvement scheme, which was established following the initial carbon footprint calculation.
• SGS Carbon Neutral, signalizing the achievement of a significant reduction and any remaining emissions have been offset by programs such as renewable energy credit purchase systems from certified third-party organizations.

SGS sustainability experts at centers around the globe can support companies to formulate a carbon reduction strategy of their own and help to define achievable reduction targets, to pave the way towards attaining the SGS Carbon Reduction and SGS Carbon Neutral marks. Based on a product life cycle analysis, this strategy can include measures such as reductions of raw materials, the implementation of more efficient technologies, energy management and supply chain optimization. It is worth noting that these techniques can also achieve savings in production costs.

Principle Strategic Benefits
The globally unique three-mark structure of the SGS Product Carbon Footprint program promises critical leverage for brands that want to transparently promote their sustainability initiatives with a view to enhancing consumer approval and thereby increasing sales, differentiating their products from the competition on the shelves of stores, and helping to conserve the resources of the planet. Benefits of the SGS service include:

• The SGS mark is trusted as the world's leading verification, testing and certification company.
• The clear visibility of an organization's environmental commitment to address climate change challenges.
• The ability to use a single mark internationally, eliminating the time and expense of obtaining different labels for the various markets.
• Incentives for continuous improvement, given the opportunity to exhibit increasing achievement; progressively minimizing environmental impact while products advance from the SGS Carbon Footprint mark to SGS Carbon Reduction and SGS Carbon Neutral labels.
• Charting a roadmap towards carbon neutrality, driven by the client and supported by SGS sustainability consultants upon completion of a product life cycle assessment.
• A global network of laboratories, facilitating primary data collection from factories and an analysis of raw materials that has not been represented in existing databases.

SOURCE: SGS