ESG Strategies Of Durable Goods Manufacturers Elevate The Value Of Responsible Sourcing And Product Stewardship

ESG Strategies Of Durable Goods Manufacturers Elevate The Value Of Responsible Sourcing And Product Stewardship

For more than 20 years, firms have invested in digital solutions to meet chemical compliance requirements, improve product safety, assess scope 3 carbon emissions, comply with conflict minerals regulations and implement responsible sourcing goals. The NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business found that 50% of revenue growth within the consumer-packaged goods industry came from sustainability-labelled goods between 2013 and 2018. Historically firms have invested in these digital capabilities on a tactical basis with business function leaders targeting their own compliance, risk management and product sustainability goals. Now ESG strategies, especially in the durable goods and consumer goods industries, have elevated the potential of these digital solutions. To help buyers understand their options, Verdantix benchmarked 44 corporate ESG and sustainability software solutions and identified providers of solutions for product compliance, circular economy, eco-design, and responsible sourcing.

Corporate executives seeking to maintain and manage product compliance will find the greatest breadth of offerings among existing solution providers. Among the 44 vendors, 14 offer software to ensure compliance across chemicals, ingredients, materials, parts and components. The Verdantix assessment identified Assent Compliance, Enablon, iPoint, Sphera, UL and VelocityEHS as some of the vendors with comprehensive coverage. Among the 15 vendors who offered responsible sourcing solutions, Benchmark Digital, EcoVadis, Navex Global, Sphera and UL were some of the vendors that offered targeted solutions such as pre-configured supplier questionnaires, supplier ESG ratings or digital chain of custody traceability solutions. Only three vendors – iPoint, Sphera, and UL – were assessed as offering comprehensive solutions for product life-cycle analysis with eco-design considerations. Sphera acquired thinkstep in 2019 including the powerful GaBi product LCA solution and UL’s SPOT database provides eco-data for over 130,000 product families. Other emerging innovations include iPoint’s use of blockchain technology to strengthen exchange of verifiable data in product supply chains.

To learn more about the evolving ESG software landscape, access the full report Smart Innovators: Corporate ESG & Sustainability Software.