Sustainable Development

Women in Business event on December 9, 2010

The Women in Business Florham Park Sustainable Development Education Series hosted an event featuring Brittni Furrow, Director, Marketing and Public Relations for The Sustainability Consortium (TSC) on Thursday, December 9, 2010.  TSC was launched in July 2009 and BASF Corporation was the first chemical company to join as a founding member.  Since that time, 70 members have joined.  Brittni described TSC as an independent scientific group that is developing a common platform to work on strategic partnerships, conduct research on product sustainability and provide measurement and performance standards.

TSC is creating the Sustainable Measurement and Reporting Standard as defined by ISO 14025, as a common system to report sustainability measures or attributes and share the info with stakeholders.  By first developing a Baseline Model, TSC can look at the market for a product and its disposal and then agree on System boundaries that define which parts of the life cycle and which processes belong to the system. 

Of particular importance are Hot Spots, the area of a product life cycle that has significant potential impact on a given environmental, social or economic aspect. 
If we looked at the Home & Personal Care group, the functional unit studied would be one full load of laundry, while the Hot Spots would be the percent of total energy in drying, washing and ingredient production.  Hot Spots offer innovation opportunities for chemistry or product design.

BASF has conducted 400 eco-efficiency life cycle assessments over the past ten years and is a leader in sustainability measurement and reporting.  Customers attending the event included J&J, L’Oreal and Church & Dwight. 

Ellen Bravo
Sustainability Marketing