When looking at sustainability ratings on products, quite a few questions come up that need to be answered before making judgements on what is 'good or bad', if it even is possible to make those statements at all.
What does sustainability actually mean?
What criteria are important to look at that play a role in a sustainable lifestyle?
How can one differentiate between 'real' factors and made up (green washed) logos?
When I asked google 'What does sustainability mean?' I received 377,000,000 answers in 0.61 seconds. That is impressive and one can assume from that, sustainability is a fairly important topic on the internet. (That being said, asking google 'Who is Kim Kardashian?' gets 251,000,000 responses in 0.72 seconds. So it's all relative.)
What it amounts to though are a lot of different definitions from lots of different perspectives.
Here are a few examples:
From the Sustainability Survey it also became clear, that people associate a lot of different things with sustainability. (See the blog post on the survey)
So, in order to find a basis for our own criteria, we need a more global and fundamental approach to sustainability.
I found a good foundation in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:
The emphasis here is on 'Foundation', as those goals encompass more than what consumer products and companies in their sustainability goals and ratings can achieve, as a lot of those goal rely on government action and international aid organisations. But from them a set of valid criteria can be derived:
1. Paying a living wage to employees.
2. Paying fair prices for resources/produce.
3. Resources come from sustainable production methods, including farming, mining, fishing, forestry.
4. Promoting health and well-being for employees, e.g. funded health care, appropriate work hours and safe work spaces, appropriate leave.
5. No child labour.
6. No gender disparity amongst employees.
7. Water resource management through reduced pollution, no hazardous chemicals released into water, no untreated waste water; where possible recycle water for reuse. this also relates to marine life and coastal ecosystems.
8. Supporting the reinstatement of ecological systems.
9. Using renewable energy sources.
10. Energy efficient technology (either products or machinery used to make products).
11. Development-oriented policies that allow for growth whilst stopping environmental degradation.
12. Using infrastructure, which has no/low carbon footprint.
13. Equal opportunity employment.
14. Waste minimisation, recycling
15. Sustainable production and consumption plan within the business model/framework.
16. Information transparency in regards to sustainability within the business
17. Disaster recovery plan in place in case of natural disaster.
18. sustainable financial planning
Final Criteria:
1. Living wage
2. Fair trading
3. sustainable resources/production methods/renewable energy sources
4. Health and well-being for employees
5. no child labour
6. no gender disparity amongst employees/equal opportunity
7. water safety management
8. no testing on animals or ecosystems
9. energy efficient technology in production/products
10. sustainable business plan
11. no/low carbon footprint
12. waste minimisation in production/product; recycling
13. transparency in business plan towards consumer
Done by Konstanze
What does sustainability actually mean?
What criteria are important to look at that play a role in a sustainable lifestyle?
How can one differentiate between 'real' factors and made up (green washed) logos?
When I asked google 'What does sustainability mean?' I received 377,000,000 answers in 0.61 seconds. That is impressive and one can assume from that, sustainability is a fairly important topic on the internet. (That being said, asking google 'Who is Kim Kardashian?' gets 251,000,000 responses in 0.72 seconds. So it's all relative.)
What it amounts to though are a lot of different definitions from lots of different perspectives.
Here are a few examples:
From the Sustainability Survey it also became clear, that people associate a lot of different things with sustainability. (See the blog post on the survey)
So, in order to find a basis for our own criteria, we need a more global and fundamental approach to sustainability.
I found a good foundation in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:
The emphasis here is on 'Foundation', as those goals encompass more than what consumer products and companies in their sustainability goals and ratings can achieve, as a lot of those goal rely on government action and international aid organisations. But from them a set of valid criteria can be derived:
1. Paying a living wage to employees.
2. Paying fair prices for resources/produce.
3. Resources come from sustainable production methods, including farming, mining, fishing, forestry.
4. Promoting health and well-being for employees, e.g. funded health care, appropriate work hours and safe work spaces, appropriate leave.
5. No child labour.
6. No gender disparity amongst employees.
7. Water resource management through reduced pollution, no hazardous chemicals released into water, no untreated waste water; where possible recycle water for reuse. this also relates to marine life and coastal ecosystems.
8. Supporting the reinstatement of ecological systems.
9. Using renewable energy sources.
10. Energy efficient technology (either products or machinery used to make products).
11. Development-oriented policies that allow for growth whilst stopping environmental degradation.
12. Using infrastructure, which has no/low carbon footprint.
13. Equal opportunity employment.
14. Waste minimisation, recycling
15. Sustainable production and consumption plan within the business model/framework.
16. Information transparency in regards to sustainability within the business
17. Disaster recovery plan in place in case of natural disaster.
18. sustainable financial planning
Final Criteria:
1. Living wage
2. Fair trading
3. sustainable resources/production methods/renewable energy sources
4. Health and well-being for employees
5. no child labour
6. no gender disparity amongst employees/equal opportunity
7. water safety management
8. no testing on animals or ecosystems
9. energy efficient technology in production/products
10. sustainable business plan
11. no/low carbon footprint
12. waste minimisation in production/product; recycling
13. transparency in business plan towards consumer
Done by Konstanze
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