por Helen Dalton, Diretora de Sustentabilidade, Spandex Group
Não há como negar que nos últimos anos a sustentabilidade tornou-se um tema de vanguarda nas pequenas empresas e nas agendas corporativas.
Com o aumento do volume de notícias e declarações pessimistas sobre o impacto das alterações climáticas, é natural as empresas preocuparem-se com o futuro atual e das gerações futuras.
Com tanta informação para processar, os proprietários de pequenas empresas podem achar este tema da sustentabilidade exaustivo, e por vezes confuso. Mas saiba que não está sozinho.
Todos nós podemos tomar medidas para reduzir as pegadas de carbono a nível nacional, corporativo e pessoal. Nesta indústria temos vindo a receber cada vez mais perguntas sobre a forma de medirmos o carbono nos produtos que vendemos.
Além benefício ambiental eao diminuir as pegadas de carbono dos produtos, existe também uma oportunidade comercial. Ao fornecer essas informações durante o atendimento ao cliente, estamos a ajudá-lo a adquirir novos projetos com clientes para os quais estes dados são relevantes.
O que é isso da medição de carbono nos materiais e o que é que a Spandex fez a respeito disso?
A medição de carbono é um processo de cálculo entre a quantidade de carbono emitida por produção de um produto ou serviço.
Podemos ver este calculo como se tratasse do número de calorias para uma empresa. Da mesma forma que as grandes cadeias de restaurantes começaram a publicar as calorias por cada refeição. As empresas como a Spandex e as marcas com as quais trabalhamos estamos a trabalhar na partilha da pegada de carbono dos materiais que nos compra. Isso irá ajuda-lo a fazer uma escolha informada, que poderá atrair novos clientes para si.
Claro que é difícil calcular com muita precisão o carbono real produzido durante a fabricação dos nossos produtos. Portanto, fazemos uma avaliação do ciclo de vida (ACV) e dividimos o processo por cada etapa da vida de um produto:
- A extração da matéria-prima;
- O transporte dos componentes até a unidade de produção;
- O processo de produção;
- O transporte até o usuário final;
- A utilização do produto e a sua eliminação em fim de vida.
If you have the data for steps 1-3 this is called a 'cradle to gate' approach (calculated to the point of leaving the production facility). If you have all 5 this is a 'cradle to grave' assessment.
Eikon, the manufacturing facility of Spandex which produces our market-leading ImagePerfect brand has partnered with CarbonQuota, a consultancy specialising in carbon measurement, and with extensive knowledge of the printing industry, to undertake a cradle to gate assessment of ImagePerfect's best-selling products. We now have LCAs of several ImagePerfect signage and digital products and their ImagePerfect EverGreen equivalents. You will find these products clearly marked on our shop.
This third-party verified data gives you the independent assurance you need to be confident in the data we provide about our products.
Why does this matter to you?
Having this data can help you win business. If you have larger customers, you may already have heard the question, 'What is the carbon footprint of the product we buy from you?'. This is because larger corporations have made commitments to decarbonise their operations. Large brands such as IKEA are even aiming to be climate positive by 2030, which means a company removes or captures more CO2 from the atmosphere than it emits.
Furthermore, with many more companies (50,000 extra companies in the EU) being required to comply with the new European Union Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), we can expect much more intense regulatory scrutiny of carbon footprints.
For businesses like IKEA, lowering the overall carbon emissions of their projects is key to achieving their goals; as they have identified that 52% of their carbon footprint comes from materials. This will naturally impact their choice of service providers, including sign makers and graphics producers.
We anticipate that requests for carbon footprint data are going to increase - not just from bigger customers, but trickling down to your smaller customers too. The risk of not getting up to speed is that soon, if you're not able to provide this data, they may look to your competitors to find it.
Your suppliers can help
An easy place to begin is by speaking to your suppliers, who should have some readily available information for you. And you're entitled to ask how science-based and verified that information is.
Here at Spandex we are working closely with the brands we sell, to ensure that we can give you that information across more and more of the products in our portfolio. So when your customer asks you for the carbon footprint of the material you buy, we'll help you give them the answers they need. We will also help you to steer them towards the choice which delivers the lowest environmental impact for the application in question.
As you can see, there are positive commercial reasons for beginning to understand the carbon footprints of your projects, and it can be simpler than you expected. It's only by being open to these conversations that we can move in the right direction as an industry.
So swallow your fears and start opening up sustainability conversations with your customers, suppliers and partners.
Our team is here and committed to giving you support and information around the carbon footprint of the materials we supply. Contact us to find out if and how carbon measurement could help your business.
Author – Helen Dalton
Helen Dalton is the Director of Sustainability at Spandex Group, she is very passionate about the environment and sustainability. Helen initiates and drives sustainability activities, helping to raise awareness both internally and with customers.
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