The challenge
These days companies are increasingly being questioned by clients, staff and the public about the environmental impact of their products. Failing to respond adequately can have a negative impact on a company's image and lead to lower profits. In order to avoid this, companies have begun to make life-cycle-assessments (LCA) of products. However, these are quite expensive and time consuming.

The solution
With the eco-assessment, Ökopol offers a practical and economical instrument which will help you identify the ecological strengths and weaknesses of your products. Ökopol has already applied and continuously refined this method in companies in various business sectors.

Experience over many years has enabled Ökopol to give reliable ecological rating of products using a clear set of key criteria (e.g. material intensity, energy efficiency or presence of harmful substances). Furthermore, after adapting the method, companies can perform eco-assessments of products on their own through the application of simple and easy-to-understand criteria.

Results
Your company will get the following from Ökopol:

• A handy and meaningful assessment tool, which will enable you to identify the ecologically weak aspects of purchased and self-produced products as well as compare your company's products with those of competing companies (i. e. benchmarking).
• An ecological product profile, which you can use for marketing purposes ("eco-profile").
• Workshops which will enable your staff to apply the assessment tools and get a better understanding of their scientific basis. Moreover your employees will be able to improve their qualifications and identify more closely with their work.
  

Ökopol's Services

• Assessment tools: all aspects of / processes involved in a product's life cycle and their environmental effects will be taken into account. Environmentally related characteristics of products will be identified and assessment criteria will be formulated. In order to evaluate these criteria, a test will be developed to distinguish between desirable and undesirable product characteristics.
• Product Assessment: The tools will be tested in practical applications assessing real products. In this way, both the relevant characteristics of the product and the usefulness of the tools can be tested. It has been proven to be particularly effective to include the future users during this initial testing process.
• Workshops:
  Future users of the assessment tool will be given half- or full day training in ecological product assessment, its scientific basis and practical application.

References

• Holz Naturfarben, Hamburg
• Landis & Gyr AG, Zug (Austria)
• Hagebau GmbH & Co. KG, Soltau
• Landesbetrieb Krankenhäuser, Hamburg
• Bundesverband für Umweltberatung e.V., Bremen
• Beiersdorf AG, Hamburg
• Brennstoffhandel, Hannover (anonymous)