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Ecospace Audit - An input Analysis for Products

3. Testing the company - the product

3.1 Introduction

Assessing whether a company is contributing to more sustainable production and consumption is difficult but is essential to the challenges of sustainable production and consumption in the coming decades. Obviously international and national legal and financial frameworks need to be put in place to enable producers and consumers to produce and consume sustainably. But companies that want to ‘surf the upcoming curve of real eco-innovation’ and that want to be ahead of governmental regulations need more clarity about what the sustainability challenge means for their company. Although currently eco-innovation at companies is largely driven by (inter)national regulations, companies can drive (inter)national regulations in an eco-innovative direction as well. By publicly promoting factor 4, 10 or 20 improvements, companies can put pressure on governments to change regulatory and financial incentives in the direction of a dematerialisation course.

The Ecospace Audit presented here can build upon existing practices in industry. In most companies with complex operations, environmental improvements now evolve from a thorough examination of unit or company processes. This is accomplished by first identifying all inputs and outputs to/from a process and then quantifying them (UNEP, IISI, 1997 Technical Report No. 38).

This audit will provide you with drastic reduction targets. Setting drastic resource reduction targets at the business level and demanding this improvement over the whole life cycle of a product obviously needs to be accompanied by meeting basic environmental and social criteria. The main thought is that drastic reductions of the input of resources into products/services will bring about environmental improvements anyway.

As drastic as these decreases are, some substances will nevertheless have to be fully eliminated. For example, a factor 20 decrease in CFC use in refrigerators is an improvement, but from an ecological point of view still unacceptable: in the end the ozone layer will still be damaged. For this reason a separate screening of the use or emissions of dangerous substances is still needed. In the Ecospace Audit, we use the category ‘toxins’ as a reminder of these aspects, and if relevant, traditional instruments to assess potential dangers of pollution and toxicity should be applied.

3.2 Ecospace Audit at the company or product level

To assess your sustainable input requirement, several steps need to be taken. It is assumed that the Ecospace Audit is being carried out by existing companies testing existing products over the whole life cycle. In the case of a new company or a new product, one needs to draw a comparison with existing companies and existing products/services to determine several crucial elements - for example, the penetration level of a product.

The Ecospace Audit can in theory be used both at the company level (over the whole life cycle of the aggregated products) and on a product-by-product basis. In the case of a product-by-product approach, the product assessments can be aggregated at the company level if desired. At the company level it can be decided to improve certain products more than others. As long as the overall achievement in resource use is complied with, this is not problematic. The Ecospace Audit can be carried out at the company level if resource use at the entire company is sufficiently transparent and homogenous, and if consumer markets of the products are comparable (e. g. a furnitu re company producing wooden chairs and tables for retail). The total company can then be taken as a unit in a sup ply chain of which the inputs over the life cycle of the whole range of products or services are analysed. However, this audit has not yet been applied to a whole company. Accordingly, the following steps are described at the pro duct level or reasons of clarity.

It is important to note that this audit is primarily occupied with assessing and/or enabling clear discussions on sustainable resource use. It has not been designed to replace existing environmental monitoring and management systems. This audit is a tool to analyse, qualify and quantify your sustainability challenge and encourage you to rethink your products and services to become more sustainable. It will not assign your products or company a final score in absolute numbers and therefore no 'sustainability 'claims can be based on the outcomes of this audit. Still, we believe that if all current products were to be assessed and improved according to the Ecospace Audit a much more sustainable world would become reality within the coming decades.

3.3 General outline

The general outline of the Ecospace Audit can be shown in a scheme as follows:

Look here!

3.4 Data

The Ecospace Audit requires that you calculate, analyse and estimate the quantities and qualities of the main resources used during the life cycle. For your own factory or location this should not pose a problem, but further along the chain, the ability or willingness of suppliers or customers to deliver the required data will form one of the obstacles.

If precise data are not available, we need to continue with estimates based on the available general data. Some general data will be available through easy accessible LCA data bases.

At present, you can for example use:

www.pre.nl,
www.ec.gc.ca/ecocycle,
www.eea.eu.int/frproj.htm,
www.leidenuniv.nl/interface/c,
www.tiac.net/users/tgloria/lca/lca.htm,
www.unite.ch/doka/eca.htm.

LCA data base literature: See SAEFL, Boustead, Frischknecht.

Still, even if few quantitative data are available, the Ecospace Audit will be useful as it seeks to guide you to ret hink your product and your company policy with respect to a broad, environmental and social sustainability con cept. In any event it is important to check the sensitivity of the outcomes for variations in the input data. The sustainability challenge is likely to outnumber the possible variations in input data.

3.5 Explanations of terms used in the Ecospace Audit

It is advised to read this before starting the Ecospace Audit, as it will make you more familiar with the basic appro ach applied in the audit.

Caution: although we sometimes use broad categories such as minerals in the text, we would like you to specify each relevant material separately (copper, iron, glass, etc.)in the tables.

Energy, water, land and raw materials. For this audit, these are considered crucial resources for the human econo mies. Land (surface area)as such is considered to be a resource, be it natural, agricultural, or built-up area.

Primary materials:

Materials that are directly produced from new raw materials (virgin materials). The other category is secondary materials: made from reused or recycled materials.

(Non-)renewable materials:

Raw materials originate from the earth, with a mineral, vegetable or animal source. They can (partly)consist of recycled material.

Renewable: new raw materials or energy can be produced by a stable source infinitely (considering a human time scale), as long as the source is well protected and managed (such as orests, agricultural land). Renewable raw mate rials are vegetable or animal.

Non-renewable: on a human time scale the source of the raw materials is inite. Non-renewable materials include minerals.

Minerals: substances found naturally in the earth, neither vegetable nor animal. All petrochemical substances rom a fossil source (such as coal, oil and gas)are also put in the category minerals. Some minerals are scarce (in both economic terms as well as in the concentrations that they can be found in the earth 's crust). Their exploration pro duces large amounts of overburden and involves the use of a growing amount of other resources such as chemi cals, energy, water and land surface. Other minerals are more widely available but their extraction still involves relatively large amounts of other resources. Social aspects such as labour conditions, conflicts with local people, regional environmental and health aspects are often serious problems facing mining sites.

All sources of energy (excluding animal or human powered), renewable and non-renewable are analysed. In the qualitative section energy is subdivided into origins and the social aspects of the various energy sources are analy sed. It is often useful to divide between energy used for transport and other energy applications.

Land:

Land is a limited and crucial resource for humankind. First of all, the production of vegetable or animal materials requires a certain amount of land. This can be agricultural land (arable land, pasture land), forestry or natural area. Built-up area is a land category where human influence is maximum.
Natural area is land where natural processes are dominant and human interference minimal. Some but not all forests belong to this category.
If land is managed well and its character stays intact, it delivers renewable materials, of which food is the most cru cial. About 80%of global cropland is needed to provide the world 's population with minimum dietary require ments. A given area can supply a certain harvest annually. But if the character of the land is destroyed, then renewability is not the case. Even if the products can be considered 'natural ', they are not 'renewable '. The exploration of mineral resources, which consumes a certain amount of land in the process, clear-cutting natural forests and dig ging peat are examples. Be it factories, roads, parking space, land-fills or a recycling workshop: in various phases of a product 's life cycle, human activities use land surface. In this audit an estimate of this amount of 'land input ' is made. Also the qualitative aspects of land use are analysed, which provides insight into the sustainability of the way the land is used. This applies to 'environmental 'aspects such as farming and forestry methods as well as to 'social 'aspects such as labour rights and the needs of local people.

Water:

We only consider water that is extracted from the natural system and used in the human system. How much water is used in each phase of the life cycle? If the same water is used in a closed loop, only the replenishments count. Qualitative aspects are important: for example, is the source fed by new rainfall, or is the (perhaps fossil)source (gradually)depleted, irreversibly changing the original natural system?

This audit focuses on resource inputs. The category toxins is added simply as a reminder. Substances that are used (input)or produced (output)in a relevant quantity which are listed as toxic for humans, terrestrial and/or aquatic ecosystems should be taken note of and wherever possible eliminated from the life cycle. Literature which can be helpful is Council Directive 93/67/EEC, Annex III and associated Guidance.

Relevant:

Caution: there is no absolute guideline here. The aim is to think about the main inputs in your product 's life cycle and to trace at least 95%of the (mass and volume of)inputs within each of the four resource categories (mass, J, hectares, litres), avoiding unnecessary burdens of data gathering in the next part of the Ecospace Audit. Consider it also from the cost point of view and see if that makes a difference.
Beware of seemingly small quantities with big impacts: toxins and scarce (expensive!)resources. If in doubt about what you should fill in, choose for the score 'relevant '.

Consider whether there are substances that make up a small percentage of the mass of a product (process)but or the individual end-user of a product or service still form a relevant percentage in their total usage of such a sub stance, because of the unique character of the substance or product (for example platinum in a catalytic converter in a car). Also, compare the amount to the available resources per capita (see table 3. 9, for an example).

For the sake of simplicity, no more than five phases are distinguished: extraction, semi-final production, produc tion, consumption/use and waste/recovery. Make your own subdivisions as necessary to clarify the various stages in the life cycle of your product.

Social aspects:

We see a growing demand for transparency and social acceptability of all the phases of production. The more cru cial your resource input, the more details you need to know about the qualitative character and the four social (PLED)aspects. In this audit we ask you to give a three-tiered rating for the combination of these four aspects: high, medium or low risk of exploitation of people and the local environment.

PLED:

P =respect rights and participation of local people: it is often easier to give examples where this aspect is not obser ved. Oil exploration in Ogoni land in Nigeria is a well known example where the local population only feels the negative consequences of the activity and has not been able to participate in the decision-making with respect to the development of the area. Local people should be informed and be able to participate in democratic decision making on production locations, processes etc. Their rights in the broadest sense -traditional ways of (earning a) living, access or ownership to land and water, the right to know, human rights, legal rights, cultural heritage, etc. -should be respected. The UN has a long tradition of defining such rights and also 'Agenda 21 'gives guidelines especially with respect to local sustainability (www.un.org).

In general, opportunities for local rights and participation are better in democracies, but this is not always the case.

L =labour conditions: the SA 8000 gives a clear overview of basic labour conditions that should be respected worldwide. Either implementation of this standard or the application of strict regulation in a country contributes to a 'low risk 'score. Partial or no application gives a 'high risk 'score. References: www.sa8000.com, www.ilo.org

E =local environmental and health performance: in the quantitative part of this audit you have probably used data which already gave you an indication of these aspects, perhaps related to an 'average 'resource input. But in this case you need to discover the impact on the local environment of your relevant sources of resources. For examp le what is the score for your main supplier of iron?
This covers all sorts of aspects that can affect local quality of life: amenities, noise, pollution, heavy traffic, wildli fe. Beware that just having an ISO certification does not guarantee that your supplier is a good performer in this respect, as ISO does not prescribe a certain environmental quality.

D =democratic level of country or region: what is the character of the country or region in general: can people influence political decisions in their country?

A certain level of literacy and equitable access to knowledge and resources is required for a good score. Unlike the first three aspects, this social aspect is difficult to influence or an individual supplier. This score can be a useful general indicator, especially if the other scores (PLE)are unknown for certain suppliers, usually upstream in the product chain. Resources coming from clearly undemocratic countries pose a high risk or the quality of all social aspects.

In the explanation of the various steps in this audit, you will find examples from the two companies that helped us in trying out the Ecospace Audit: Ecover and Xerox Europe.

Ecover is based in Malle, in northern Belgium. Around 40 people work in this company that produces a range of 40 cleaning and washing products for household, professional and personal care. Active ingredients are for 98% based on plant derived compounds which have a high degradability and a low impact on water life. The factory is largely built from wood and has a grass covered roof. Products are exported to some 17 countries on 4 continents. Ecover is privately owned and associated to Group 4 Securitas.

Xerox Europe is the European arm of Xerox Corporation. The Company operates in Europe dealing with all the Western European countries. It has 21, 000 employees and a turnover of USD 5. 5 billion (1997). Xerox Europe is based in the UK. The production site for the DC 220/230 is located at Mitcheldean and the general office is in Marlow.
Xerox offers a wide array of document-related business solutions, product and services. Xerox sees the document as a tool for productivity which is at the heart of most business processes, whether the tool be electronic or paper. The company has recently moved into the digital market from Light-Lens technology. Xerox produce copiers, printers, scanners, faxes and provide solutions for document transfer. The company has been working for many years to minimise its impact on the environment and its resource utilisation.

3.6 Ecospace Audit

Step 1: Define product and life cycle

Definitions

Define here which product and service is being analysed in this audit. Each product should also be defined in terms of the service it provides. This should include a description of which needs are being fulfilled with this service. Also include the needs fulfilled for the end-user, even if you do not produce for or deliver to consumers. This is rele vant for the potential range of alternatives that exist or can be designed as alternatives to the analysed product.

Ecover:

As precise statistics lack, an estimate of average consumer use had to be made on the basis of experien ce and related to general data on consumer expenditure for cleaning agents. This is 1 litre per person per year. The bottle can be used at least ten times for refill at some retailers shops, but this option has not been taken into account in this audit.

Xerox:

The printers/copiers are produced by Xerox. There are two models;Document Centre 220 and Document Centre 230. These are digital machines that allow the user to print, scan fax and copy documents easily. DC220 copies at 20 pages per minute (ppm)and the DC230 at 30 ppm.

The service unit was chosen to allow consideration of typical use. The number of copies made in a year was taken as the projected average number of copies that the machines would make. The machine is deli vered to the consumer on a reusable steel tote. The tote is returned to Xerox and reused. At the end of its life the tote is recycled. Xerox machines normally contain a large part of reused and recycled components. However the recent change rom analogue to digital technology has made it harder to reuse components until a critical mass of reusable parts is established for this machine. For ease of completion of this audit only virgin materials were considered.

Life cycle

Make an initial description of the life cycle which is analysed in this audit. This general scheme should be adapted to your situation. Consider all major elements of your product.

In the examples below, only the main elements of the product are shown in a simple diagram. The additional resources which are needed in each phase are not shown: energy, water and various materials are used in each phase and will be analysed in the next steps of the Ecospace Audit

Ecover:

Look here!

Xerox:

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Step 2: Assess relevant resource inputs for each phase

Assess which inputs are important for each phase in the life cycle as described in step 1. This requires more detail ed understanding of the processes involved in each phase, using knowledge available in your own company, rom suppliers or from other sources such as technical handbooks.

Fill in Table 3. 1 in draft form. This step is needed to help you select the relevant inputs for further analysis. An input that forms part of the product should only be applied once: the first time it enters into the life cycle. In the Ecover example, the vegetable materials already enter at the extraction phase so this is the only column where they are listed.
Consider if there are possibly toxins involved.
Fill in 0 for inputs which are not relevant or too small to be considered.
Fill in +for relevant inputs that need to be considered.

Tabel 3.1.a
Ecover resource inputs

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Xerox:

In this preliminary step, the following inputs were identified as relevant for further investigation. In future steps it was possible to identify the importance of these inputs.

Table 3.1.b
Xerox resource inputs

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For the extraction phase, there was not enough insight into all related production processes to assess all the rele vant inputs. This was done in the subsequent steps after more detailed information had been obtained.
The components which make up more than 98%of the product 's weight were put to further analysis: steel, plas tic, glass, copper and the printed circuit board.
Also the use of paper during the consumption phase is important to analyse further as these represent large inputs as well. As the further analysis of copper and printed circuit board could not be completed within the available time, you will not find details for these elements in the next steps.

Step 3: Assess relevant resource inputs needed for resource production

In step 1 and 2 we have obtained a general overview of the resource inputs that are relevant over the life cycle of our product. We only considered the major inputs.

Now we take one step urther back and see what we need to know more about these inputs. Did these inputs in their turn require large resources to deliver them? These are in fact 'hidden resources ', about which we easily for get, but they need to be taken into consideration as well.

Ecover example:

Palm oil is one of the important inputs for the production of surfactants that are least damaging to water life. Basic data from suppliers were not available, but from Unilever we obtained the following data on palm oil production:
Fertilisers are used for the production of palm oil. Over the life cycle of palm oil production, the fertilisers account or about 0, 5 GJ of energy needed to produce, or transport and refine the oil. The agricultural acti vities account for 0, 6 GJ, the refining 0, 9 GJ and the transport for 1. 4 GJ of energy use.
Overall production and transport of one ton of palm oil requires 3. 5 GJ, excluding the process energy deri ved from burning crop waste. Transport energy volume is high because of the distance from Asia to Europe. Another important resource is land. To produce 1 ton of oil, 0. 25 hectares of agricultural land was needed. Similar data were available for coconut oil, another requently used input. For example for 1 ton of this oil, 2. 5 hectares of cropland is needed.
Please keep in mind that these data do not necessary apply to the analysed product, but they give the best approximation that is available.

Xerox example:

The Xerox DC 220/230 steel frame is made in Japan and contains 87. 5 kg of steel.
Details on the production processes and the origin of raw materials could not be obtained from the sup plier within the research period. Therefore, general European data on steel production have been used rom SAEFL (SAEFL, 1998). The most important material inputs for the production of 1 kg of steel are: crude iron ore (2. 4 kg), scrap (0. 122 kg), limestone (0. 28g)and coke (1. 3 kg)Total energy use for steel production (transport not included)is 0. 03 GJ per kg. We had to make a very rough estimate of the land area connec ted to the exploration of these inputs, partly based on data from Frischknecht. Our estimate resulted in 0. 00008 m 2 per kg steel. This amount we considered insufficiently relevant to take into further account.

As you see, some of these data might be difficult to obtain. Ask your suppliers or use general LCA sources. In futu re, we hope a software version of this audit will be developed that will provide future users with this basic infor mation for a large number of resources.

Step 4: Quantify the relevant resource inputs

At this point you shall have gained some more understanding of which inputs are relevant for further analysis. These need to be quantified and specified or each resource separately. For the toxins we simply copy the scores 0 or +.

Ecover example:

The ingredients which make up 98. 5%of the weight of the product were chosen for further analysis: water, surfactants and alcohol. The other ingredients all occur in small percentages and have no special proper ties which suggest that they have large 'hidden inputs '. Also the additional water use in the use phase will have to be looked at, although we fear that the lack of data will pose a problem there.

Allocation to service unit

The table needs to be filled in with the defined service unit as a basis (as defined in step 1).

Xerox example:

For Xerox the service unit is one years 'life of printer/copier DC 220/230 used and produced in the UK (1yr life =84, 000 copies).
Data have been calculated so that they refer to this unit. As the factory in the UK actually produces many other products as well, assumptions had to be made for the allocation of inputs to the production of this type of machine. This was estimated to be 15%of the total, which we know is a rather high estimate. The next step is to divide this by the number of machines produced. The lifetime of the machine was assumed to be five years.

Concerning other surface area and building materials required, it was not known whether they might be relevant, so an approximation was made. It was estimated that Xerox sites occupied 100 acres and con tained 80, 000 kg of aggregates. We used a figure of 60, 000 for the annual Xerox DC production rate. There are 404, 700 m 2 used by Xerox. Divided by 60, 000 and multiplied by 0. 15, the result is 1 m 2 of land. This is roughly split 80-20 between production and recycling/reuse. The same procedure was carried out for the quantity of aggregates, giving 0. 16 kg and 0. 04 kg of aggregate for production and recycling/reuse respectively.

Data

All inputs, including the 'hidden inputs 'have been analysed with help of specific data from the factory, various sup pliers, some earlier Xerox research, specific and general LCA data as well as general information. Many estimates had to be made, especially with regard to land use, as precise data were often not available.

In some areas where your (supplier 's)knowledge is limited you will have to use standard data or even estimates. Please keep aware of the assumptions made and do not use the resulting figures as absolutes. The figures will nevertheless still help you to gain insight in the chain, to see where important resource inputs occur and where your knowledge needs to be improved.
Each relevant resource as well as similar resources from different origins are listed separately. For example: both secondary (recycled)paper and virgin paper are used in relevant quantities, making two types of materials to be listed.

Table 3.2.a
Ecover household cleaner -1 year of cleaning household surfaces per person

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Table 3.2.b
Xerox DC 220/230 -main resources input *-1 years service

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Schematic of Resource Flows for Ecover household cleaner during one year of use

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Step 5: Qualify the sources of the resource inputs

Qualitative aspects

In step 5, the qualitative aspects are analysed in two ways. First the character of the source is examined in more detail from an environmental/technical perspective: what type of source and what methods of production are used? For example, does an agricultural product come from ordinary methods or is it produced with certified 'organic ' methods? The most common alternatives are listed in the tables.

Secondly, we ask you to come up with a score for four social aspects: PLED. This can only be done in a draft ver sion. The aim is to analyse what the 'social quality 'is of the main inputs in the product life cycle and ascertain where improvement is most urgent. We suggest that a complete lack of knowledge of these aspects for your main inputs is a bad score ("high risk "of exploitation)and an urgent issue for evaluation. The scores are rough and no exact calculations are expected. What is important is that you make your own analysis of the social and environ mental quality of the sources of crucial resources, taking into account information and views from citizens 'orga nisations near these sources.

If similar sources are from completely different origins and this is relevant, you can introduce extra categories. This would be the case, or example, when petroleum is an important input and 40%comes from Nigeria and 60%from Norway, with completely different production circumstances. In many other cases you can assume that you use the average mix that is delivered in your country or is available on the world market.

The main goal of this step is to go down the list of resources as drawn up in step 4, find out from which regions they come and determine which you should be concerned with in regards to the social and environmental cir cumstances. Try to define the category in which they should be ranked: low, medium or high risk of exploitation. Take account of the next our aspects:

P =respect rights and participation of local people

L =labour conditions
E =local environmental and health performance
D =democratic level of country or region

5.A Energy sources

Types of energy

Indicate how the energy used has been produced. Apply this only to relevant quantities.

For Ecover, no specification for energy sources has been made because of lack of data.

Table 3.3
Energy sources Xerox DC 220/230 per service unit

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Social aspects of energy use

Only for relevant sources: indicate the quality of social aspects as follows:

	high risk of exploitation: bad conditions, no standards
	medium risk of exploitation
	low risk of exploitation: for example average West-European practices. Labour conditions: minimum is SA 8000

P =respect rights and participation of local people
L =labour conditions
E =local environmental and health performance
D =democratic level of country or region

Table 3.4
Energy sources risk rate social aspects (PLED)

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No elaborated examples are available here. For Xerox DC 220/230, the extraction phase for the energy input is unknown -a reason for concern. For the other phases, a UK energy mix or European energy mixes apply: no assessment could be made in the time available as to the potential risks of exploitation.

5.B Land products sources

How is the area managed or cultivated? Which guarantees can be given? Are pesticides, ertilisers or genetically modified organisms used? Only for relevant quantities. In percentages of the total.

Table 3.5
Xerox DC 220/230 origin of land products 

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Social aspects of land use

With the help of a table similar to table 3. 4, the social aspects of the various locations of origin for the most impor tant resource inputs can be analysed.

According to the International Labour Organisation, in 1990, 47%of the world 's economically active population worked in agriculture. "Labour in agriculture is vulnerable. Contracts of employment are generally precarious in daily and casual work. Labour is mostly unskilled. The application of basic labour laws is tenuous and labour inspection services are usually weak in most countries. ""Child labour in commercial agriculture is reported to be widespread in Africa, Asia and Latin America, in plantation crops (tea, coffee, sugar, cotton, rubber)and on fruit, vegetable and flower farms. ""Rates of fatal injuries in agriculture are above the all-industry level in many coun tries. Farm machinery, implements and agro-chemicals are among the main causes of injury. "

Ecover example

For Ecover in Belgium, the basic agricultural resources are: sugar, vegetable oil and starch, used as inputs by large enterprises to convert to compounds that are bought by Ecover as ingredients for the household cle aner. They typically come from 100%intensive, modern agriculture. The sugar is used to produce alcohol and comes from sugar beets produced in this region of Europe. This means a low risk for social aspects. The origin of the starch is unclear. A world market for starch exists and it could come from a variety of crops and countries. That means there is need for further research. The vegetable oil is mainly derived from either palm or coconut. Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines are likely countries of origin. This gives reason for concern as to the social circumstances, which will of course differ per country. A few years ago in Germany, concern over the position of Philippine coconut farmers led to discussions with the chemical industry Henckle a producer of surfactants -and consequently to the establishment of PalmPool, an organisation in which Ecover also participates. Another problem is the transformation of forest into palm oil plantations, for example in Sarawak, Malaysia. Ecover rates its vegetable oil sources as a 'high risk 'both in environmental and social terms.

Xerox example

With regard to the social and environmental aspects of wood production, Xerox Europe sources its paper for resale from companies that are committed to the practice of sound environmental and sustainable forestry management. These practices are designed to protect forest integrity -including the ecosystem, bio-diversity, water resources and soil protection -and maintain sustainable yield. Companies must be in ull compliance with governmental environmental regulatory requirements in the countries where they operate. Xerox requires its suppliers to match certain environmental criteria. These include conservation of natural resources, minimisation of environmental impact, compliance with all applicable government regulations, and a commitment to conform with the ISO 14001 standard for environmental management. Xerox therefore rates its wood sources as a 'low risk 'for the local social and environmental aspects. (Nevertheless, the total amount used is a point for concern.)

5.C Water sources

What is the origin of the water used? Only for relevant quantities.

Table 3.6
Ecover type of water source

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Xerox could not, within the given time, assess the water sources. In general in the UK surface water accounts for about 70%of the water supply.

Social aspects of water sources

Rate the risks involved in the local social and environmental aspects of the relevant water sources.

Ecover rates its own water use as a low risk. The other sources in the chain are difficult to assess.

5.D Minerals, social aspects

All over the world, mining companies are coming into conflict with local communities and environmental groups. Mining is usually a damaging and hazardous activity or the local environment as well as for the workers. The International Labour Organisation : "Although only accounting for 1%of the global workforce, mining is respon sible for about 8%of all fatal accidents at work (around 15, 000 per year). No reliable data exist as far as injuries are concerned, but they are significant, as is the number of workers affected by occupational diseases (…)whose premature disability and even death can be directly attributed to their work. "

Only for relevant quantities as specified in step 3. Distinguish between similar materials if the origins are quite different.

Please note that here only the PLED risk scores are asked for.

Table 3.7
Xerox DC 220/230 Mineral sources risk rate social aspects (PLED)

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Step 6: Designing growth scenarios

To assess sustainability targets for resource input in the specified product or service, we first need to consider its market development and assess which influences that could have on the resource use. To this end, one or more growth scenarios are developed.

Take into account that in a more sustainable world, material welfare is much more widespread and thus market penetration of products can potentially increase dramatically.

The following elements are combined in a scenario:

1. Current resource use
2. Current penetration of a product in the global market
3. Expected penetration level in the future (2010, 2030, ect. )
4. Expected increase in the intensity a product/service is used
5. Growth of global population in the target year compared to 1990
6. Potential increase in resource use

Market penetration

Assess current market penetration of the product. Not just penetration of your product but of all similar products. Therefore a rough subdivision in comparable types of products or services needs to be made. What is the poten tial penetration grade in a growth scenario?

User intensity

Besides market penetration, increased user intensity is an important factor that needs to be taken into account when designing sustainable products/services. Take for example the car. Increased user intensity is not only a mat ter of more cars on the road, but also of individual drivers driving more. As is similar with many electronic applian ces, we are using them for a longer time during the day.

Sometimes a realistic increase of user intensity can be estimated. For example, the time (e. g. TV)or distance (e. g. car)a product will be used in the future, based on present trends in high-consumer countries.

But do not restrict yourself to 'realistic 'scenarios. For example, extrapolating present trends to a maximum, but also assuming (gradual or abrupt)economic or cultural changes can form the basis of interesting 'what if 'scenarios.
Please do not attempt to make predictions of the future, because nobody can do that. Investigating likely and unli kely scenarios should provoke new thoughts and challenges, rather than speculation about the 'real 'future.

Assess user intensity in relation to each relevant resource:
a. current user intensity (in minutes, kilometres, or other relevant quantity), and
b. expected/possible/desired user intensity in the target year (e. g. 2030)as a factor driving resource use. Beware: the exact year is not that important!The targets are. You can also omit an exact year or choose several different years.

Population growth

Population growth is also a driver of consumption. Assess which numbers will have to be applied. Nine or 10 bil lion is often mentioned for the final stabilisation of the world 's population in 2030/2040.

Combining the various elements in a calculation:

Resource use x Market penetration change x User intensity change x Population growth =Increased resource use

Example: Xerox DC220/230

This machine is a typical office machine for departmental use. It is difficult to assess how many office wor kers make use of a single machine, but in many cases between five and 20 people will probably share the machine or printing, copying, axing and scanning. Various scenarios for future usage were developed, but we present only the 'middle scenario 'as an example here.

1. Current resource use has been estimated in table 3. 3.
2. Current market penetration of all similar machines (all branches)is estimated at 800, 000 machines for 5 billion people. This is equal to 0. 16 machine per 1000 persons.
3. In a 'middle scenario 'or 2010, it is estimated that 0. 5 machine per 1000 persons will be on the mar ket. This is a growth in market penetration of 0. 5 divided by 0. 16 =3. 125.
4. In the middle scenario a modest increase of 10%in paper use is assumed: a user intensity change of 1. 1. The energy use of the machine is assumed to be unaltered as the same pattern of time in the slee ping mode/in the active mode was assumed, user patterns varying widely in practice anyway (user intensity change for machine =1). User intensity or materials remains unaltered (1). (This could chan ge substantially if the lifetime of the machine was increased. )
5. Population increase estimated from 5 to 7 billion people in 2010: a growth factor of 1. 4.
6. Calculation for potential increase in resource use for machine components (present resource use =1): 1 x 3. 125 x 1 x 1. 4 =4. 375.

Thus, these assumptions result in a more than fourfold increase in the production of machines, so in a urt her unaltered situation resource use would increase equally. A total of 3. 5 million machines are expected to be 'in the field '.
The potential increase in paper use: 1 x 3. 123 x 1. 1 x 1. 4 =4. 8125.
The potential increase in energy use associated with the machine is similar to material use, but total ener gy use increases more as the energy connected with paper production goes up by a factor 1. 1.
As the energy for paper production is about 75%of total energy input, total energy potentially goes up by a factor of 4. 7.

In step 7 we will take a more differentiated approach and consider which substitution or compensation fac tors will have to be applied that alter the potential resource growth. For Xerox this could be the projected high reuse and recycling grade of machine components.

Example: Ecover household cleaner

1. The situation for growth in Europe only (excluding the European part of the former USSR)was conside red, as global penetration is thought to lead to different product characteristics.
2. Current market penetration of this type of product (household cleaner with vegetable oil based ingre dients compared to all household cleaners)in Europe is estimated at 0. 4%of a total population of about 500 million people (1990). Penetration of all household cleaners is about 100%: a household cleaner can be found in virtually every home.
3. For 2010, an increase to 15%market penetration in Europe was assumed: growth actor =15/0. 4 =37. 5.
4. A change in user intensity is not expected (=1).
5. We assume that the total European population in 2010 has grown to about 600 million. Growth factor 600/500 =1. 2.
6. Calculation for the potential increase in resource use: 1 x 37. 5 x 1 x 1. 2 =45.

Thus, this scenario leads to a potential resource use which is 45 times higher than the present resource use.

In step 7 we will take a more differentiated approach and consider which substitution or compensation fac tors will have to be applied which alter the potential resource growth. For Ecover this will be that the pro duct will substitute similar products with fossil oil based ingredients.

Step 7: Assess the product sustainability challenge

For the social aspects (PLED)of sustainability, we have not made an attempt to quantify targets. The challenge is here to reach the best score ("low risk ")level for each aspect that has been defined as relevant in the process of working through step 5. Bad scores or 'unknowns 'for crucial inputs pose an urgent challenge. Evaluate the out comes in step 9 on evaluation and improvement.

Qualitative challenge of resource use

For the other qualitative aspects as defined in step 5, the most sustainable options will have to be targeted. However, it should be considered that reducing quantities of resources input is the first priority, and that choosing the best (sources of)resources is the second best option. Ideally, the input consists of the lowest possible volume of resources stemming from the most sustainably operated source. In the process of evaluation and improvement, more quantitative targets can be established as benchmarks or improvement, for example a specific increase in the percentage of renewable energy, or a certain percentage of certified orest products.

Quantitative resource use targets

Based on various publications by FoE (Buitenkamp, 1992; Spangenberg, 1995; Carley, 1998) the following GLO BAL targets compared to 1990 can be used for an assessment. (In some areas the policy debate on targets has not even started (e. g. on land use) and some targets are disputed by other parties (e. g. phase-out of persistent chemi cals/chlorine)) . Sensitivity or changing targets can also be analysed by using different scenarios. Many problems require urgent action, thus the years 2030/2040 are only an indication of the lengthy period needed before the world can achieve this.

Table 3.8
Global sustainability targets (ref. yr. 1990)

Look here!

Looking at effects on other products or services

Before defining the sustainability target for the product, it is also necessary to analyse whether and how increased penetration or user intensity of your product will lead to a lower penetration and/or use of other products/servi ces. These may be similar products, but can also be completely different products. If this effect is significant this might reduce or increase the sustainability target for your product.

If disposable income keeps increasing then new products/services will increase global resource use without any substitution effect. If your product is so cost-effective, it might create additional disposable income for resource intensive products or services such as air travel. We do not propose to solve this theoretical question here and now, but rather intend to make an estimate which can be considered in the evaluation.

Below examples are presented of the types of thought processes one could follow to consider effects on other pro ducts or services. They are of course not comprehensive for the analysed products.

Example: Ecover household cleaner

Probable substitution effect on other products and services outside this company:

Petroleum based products will be substituted. Assuming a similar use of these products, this means that (fossil)plastic bottle and content together deliver a net reduction of around 30%per unit of service. But population and thus units of services delivered have grown to 120%. A reduction of 30%thus results in a remaining 84 %: an overall reduction of 16%.

If we exclude the fossil energy included in the plastic bottle and only consider the contained product, a similar calculation shows a reduction of 45%per unit of service resulting in an overall reduction of 34%in a grown population.

(As the market share was 15%, this only refers to the 15%of the population that uses the product. )

Example: Xerox DC 220/230

Probable substitution effect on other products and services outside this company:

The volume of materials used in the Xerox DC 220/230 is hardly more than in a comparably sized copier, but this machine can also print, fax and scan. This can result in substitution for a separate printer, fax and scanner in many offices. However, in other offices perhaps either some of these machines were not (yet) available or a copier was not yet available. Also, with increasing living standards, paper use, printing and copying is expected to increase dramatically on a global level. We therefore have no good reason to assu me an overall substitution effect. Production growth should be considered to cause a net growth in resour ce use of machine material inputs as well as of the energy and paper involved.

Compensation factors

Apart from a comparison with substituted products of a different character, a comparison with the reference group of similar products can be made. In practice this is a difficult task, as information about the life cycle of average similar products is usually not available. At the same time, it seems unfair and unsatisfactory if the product has some major advantages in resource input (or: major disadvantages)while this is not incorporated into the target setting for the product.

For Ecover and Xerox a compensation factor was not chosen due to the lack of reliable data. However, you can easily see the difference it would make in the outcome: or example if Xerox were to assume that it currently uses 20%less materials than the average for one unit of service, this could already be incorporated in the final target.

Product sustainability challenge

Finally, the product sustainability challenge can be defined by combining the outcome of the growth scenario with the suggested sustainability targets, taking possible substitution or compensation aspects into account.

Please note that the numbers presented below are all approximations. The main reason for using precise numbers with decimals here is that they enable you to understand the method of calculation.

Example: Ecover household cleaner

The Ecover growth scenario leads to a potential resource use which is 45 times higher than the present resource use. However, the product will fully substitute similar fossil oil based products and no change in user intensity is expected. Accordingly, we can assume that the only absolute change in resource use will be caused by the growth of the population and possible changes in the vegetable ingredients.

No substitution or compensation occurs for the vegetable materials and thus for the amount of cropland involved. Hence, the net increase of cropland use for an unaltered product is indeed the factor 45 from the scenario. For agricultural area, a stabilisation target was suggested: consequently the target is a 98%reduc tion of cropland per unit of service (from 45 back down to 1).

For the ossil energy involved it was already shown that substitution would lower the energy use per unit of service by about 30%. The net effect in a stabilised population would be a remaining energy use of 84%, whereas the suggested fossil energy target is a reduction to 50%. The remaining sustainability target for the product is thus another 40. 5 %reduction of energy use per unit of service (from 84%to 50%).

Example: Xerox DC 220/230

The Xerox middle scenario showed a potential increase in paper use by a factor of 4. 8. No substitution or compensation was assumed. For both the filler and the wood pulp the sustainability target is a reduction to 50%. From 480 %down to 50%is a reduction per unit of service of 89. 6 %.

The potential increase in energy use was a factor of 4. 7. Assuming this is mainly fossil energy, which has a reduction target of 50%, a reduction per unit of service of 89. 4 %is the result.
(If there is any significant amount of renewable energy involved, it will be in the paper production, but there data lacked. As material inputs in the paper have to go down by a similar percentage anyway this energy target should not pose an additional problem in the case of paper. )

From the middle scenario, a potential increase in resource use for machine components of a factor 4. 4 resulted. For the resource inputs related to components such as steel frame, plastic panels and glass plat ten the 50%reduction target for primary ('new ')materials applies, as they currently contain virtually no recycled materials. This results in a target of 88. 6 %reduction of material input per unit of service. It should be noted here that as soon as there are more machines at the end of their lifetime returning to the facto ry, internal reuse and external recycling of components will change that situation.

Step 8: A quick scan of general company policies

General questions on environmental, social and public company policies

In order not to forget basic aspects of company policy that are not covered by the Ecospace Audit, the following quick scan can be done. Make an estimate of your own performance, in a range from 1 (worst)to 10 (best)and draw your own conclusions. We cannot cover all aspects in depth: please find some important references below.

Compliance with the environmental and social laws which are applicable to all locations of your company.

Implementation of an environmental policy and program, including monitoring and control, with clear respon sibilities at management level.

Application of the same stringent environmental standards or products and production in each country of the world and provision of enforcement possibilities by independent authorities.

Application of the social SA 8000 standards including third party verification to all its locations.

Implementation of a policy and program that aim to eliminate the possibility of any catastrophic accident.

Implementation of a quality policy and program which also set environmental and social standards for its suppliers.

Implementation of a policy and program on openness, product information and product responsibility - including good communication with consumers and participation from stakeholders, as well as guidelines on socially responsible marketing.

Abstention from the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Abstention from the production of conventional, biological or chemical weapons.

Abstention from co-operative relationships with oppressive regimes.

The maximum score is 100;your total score out of 10 items: ...............

More extensive guidelines on environmental and workplace health aspects can be found in: CERES Report stan dard form.
On social aspects: SA 8000.
Very broad (social and environmental)sustainability aspects: Cannibals with Forks. (Elkington, 1998)

Step 9: Evaluation and improvement

Evaluation and improvement is a continuing recurrent process and is best done in an open, innovative company culture. The company policy as a whole is also very important. This report does not focus on these very impor tant aspects, but in this final step some elements are brought to your attention.

9.1 List important uncertainties that remained in the Ecospace Audit: sensitivity for unreliable data and need for further research. Concern over toxins could compel a separate assessment.

9.2 List the main problems and challenges that came from the various steps of this audit:

	The largest resource inputs over the life cycle
	Unknown or low quality of the main resource origins (no guarantees or certifications)
	High social risks or the main resource origins
	For which resources did the product/service show the largest reduction target?
	How does the use of your service compare to the availability of resources in a more sustainable consumption pattern? See the following box:

Table 3.9
Indicative figures for sustainable resource use

Comparing to one person's fair share

Analysing the relative importance of a certain resource in a sustainable pattern will help you to focus on the main issues and relate resource use to a concrete human scale.

You can relate the resource inputs of your product over the life cycle to the 'sustainable 'average per capita resource use: how would your product fit in a sustainable production and consumption pattern? The figures in table 3. 9 are indicative, but can be used as a good directional guide.

Look here!

For Ecover and Xerox we do not ully elaborate this evaluation, but give some elements that could play a role in this process. The process described in this step 9 goes beyond the scope of this project.

The Ecover example: some elements for the evaluation

For Ecover household cleaner, the first quantitative analysis showed that the energy use in the consumer phase is a potentially high input. Then there is the plastic bottle. The use of vegetable ingredients is advan tageous for the total energy input, and essential for the low toxicity of the product.
It should be noted that no research has been done on the typical usage of the product by the consumer and therefore the assumptions on quantities used might be on the low side.

Qualitative analysis showed that the vegetable origin of the ingredients is 100%modern agriculture which is currently an unsustainable method of producing renewable materials. Of special social concern, howe ver, is the origin of the vegetable oils, presumably mainly from Asian plantations. This is rated as a 'high risk 'of exploitation of local people and the local environment, until more transparency proves the opposi te. It is rather difficult for a rather small company like Ecover to e ect this kind of change, as large indus tries dominate in the vegetable oils market. Membership in the pressure group PalmPool is one way to try to influence the situation.

The quantified target for the growth scenario is quite dramatic: 98%reduction in land use related to the vegetable inputs. First of all we need to stress that the land use figures were a rough approximation and showed a large dispersal, depending on which type of crop and country of origin was assumed.
The ingredients of a household cleaner can be neglected as part of the total land use per person, but if vegetable ingredients are applied on a larger scale for several other cleaning and washing products the amount becomes relevant (one person using about 40 times the vegetable ingredients in a household cle aner). The scenario worked with 15%penetration in the European market, but in the long run a much larger share is quite likely. The vegetable oils currently come from main crops with high commercial interests involved and pressure to transform forest area into cropland is high. The best option in the view of Ecover is to maintain and improve the advantages of low toxicity and low fossil energy use while at the same time to strive for more efficiency in land use, preferably by employing crop waste rather than main crops, which should ultimately come from organic farming in Europe. To this end, an EU financed experiment is being set up in France.

For the user phase, more precise data are needed. More attention could probably be given to improvement options for this phase, such as the instructions or use and avoiding wasteful use of the cleaner and (hot) water. As the main ingredient is water, creative solutions for packaging, transport and concentration will have to be devised.

The Xerox example: some elements for the evaluation

It can be seen from the quantitative analysis carried out on the Xerox DC 220/230 that the largest impact is certainly the consumption phase, most of which is connected to paper use. Paper use in the consump tion phase is responsible for more than three-quarters of the energy consumption attributable to the pro vision of the service. This provides an interesting push for more investigation into the effect of increased availability and use of digital technology. If the advent of digital technology and solution software are dri vers for the transfer of documents by electronic methods as opposed to the conventional transport of paper, they could have a considerable effect on the impact of office equipment. Another option for the futu re could be reusable paper, for re-use within the office. The input of iron is also quite substantial as can also be seen when compared to one person 's sustainable resource use. Options of changing the design, extending the lifetime and re-use of the steel frame should be explored further. The re-use or recycle option is, however, limited in a fast-growing market where the total number of machines in the field is steadily increasing. The analysis of the material inputs was limi ted to a few main components: the steel frame, plastic panels and glass platten. Some other elements which were not analysed in this audit due to time limitations, such as copper and the printed circuit board require further research.

Transport burdens are more evenly spread through the life cycle phases. The extraction and processing phases are considerably smaller than the others.

In terms of land use, the paper production in the consumption phase is by far the most significant burden. Paper production is quite clearly the major burden associated with the life cycle of the Xerox DC 220/230. A much larger application of recycled paper will have to be considered, in combination with other paper saving options such as more attention for double-sided copying, electronic transfer of information and reusable paper. As many of these issues involve an important aspect of consumer behaviour, more atten tion is needed to see how this can be influenced, for example by o fering specific products, tariffs and ser vices and communicating optimum usage.

With regard to social issues, Xerox Europe consistently meets or exceeds western standards on the known production and supplier locations. However, in the given time span, Xerox was not able to trace the ori gins of the majority of the resources that are used by its suppliers -with the exception of wood or paper. The extraction of minerals in particular is rated as a 'high risk 'of exploitation. In the coming period, Xerox will devote additional research to the origins of the major resource inputs upstream in the product chain. Further actions to be derived rom the Ecospace Audit are still to be decided.

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