Evaluation of the sustainability impact of products and services

To date, there are hardly any methods for the integrated analysis and evaluation of the sustainability of products and services that are based on globally standardised and accepted goals. A method developed in the "SDG assessment" research project now provides a remedy. "Our method makes it possible for the first time to measure the contribution to achieving the sustainability goals at the level of products and services and to determine which levers can be used to improve performance," says Dr Ulrike Eberle, project manager and head of research at ZNU. "This contributes not least to greater transparency along the supply chain with regard to human rights due diligence - a requirement that is more important today than ever in light of the Supply Chain Act."

The "SDG Evaluation of Products (SEP)" method uses the United Nations 2030 Agenda with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 sub-goals, which were adopted by the international community in September 2015, as a benchmark. The development of the methodology was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Sustainability assessment as a central component of the method

The SEP method consists of three components and is based on the life cycle assessment approach. The centrepiece of the method is the sustainability assessment. It measures the contribution of the product or service to the respective SDGs based on the defined indicators. The result shows in which sustainability topics the product is already good and in which there is still a need for action.

To complete the assessment, an analysis of the social benefits can be added. This allows additional benefit aspects of the analysed products and services beyond their core benefits to be identified with regard to the SDGs. "A detailed benefit analysis enables companies to take a more comprehensive system view when analysing sustainability," says Martin Möller, deputy project manager and senior researcher at the Oeko-Institut. "It can also improve the factual basis for the political evaluation of different options for action, for example in the context of chemicals or product policy."

To simplify the application of the sustainability assessment, the ProFitS software was also developed, which can be used free of charge.

Further information

• Download the brochure "SDG-Evaluation of Products - SEP" at: www.sdg-evaluation.com
• Download the PROSAplus brochure at: www.prosa.org
• Access to ProFitS: www.prosa.org & www.sdg-evaluation.com

The joint project "SDG Evaluation - Further development of a sustainability evaluation method based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Agenda 2030)" was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in the funding priority Social-Ecological Research under the funding codes 01UT1901A and 01UT1901B and carried out by the Centre for Sustainable Leadership (ZNU) of Witten/Herdecke University (project management) in cooperation with the Öko-Institut e. V.. Duration: 05/2019-10/2020.