Benefits of Nature introduces “green living for everyone". They do this by making the horticultural sector more sustainable step by step. For example we help companies choose more sustainable suppliers and transporters or by helping them save energy and resources in their operations. Benefits of Nature wants to make the living environment of millions of people more beautiful, healthier and more attractive. Together they stand for beautiful, healthy, fair and sustainable plants, so anyone is able to bring green life into his surroundings.
They do this by continuously improving the connections and interactions between stakeholders, making sustainability transparent for all and storytelling. By calculating a footprint, we can provide a number of sustainability and from there determine how sustainable your company and your products are. Calculating a footprint is the first step towards sustainability of your company and your products. The insights resulting from the calculation are being used to quickly and effectively as possible reduce the environmental impact of your company and your products.
A footprint is a way to quantify the impact of something on the environment. The footprint calculation of Benefits of Nature includes as many as 33 different factors. When the calculation is completed, the total environmental impact of the entire company is known, of all processes and all products. the structure of the footprint is visible: from each product can be viewed how much impact each material has. At all levels, is visible which causes the impact. Making it clear where improvements are possible.
Savings
Improvements start with insights. One way of improving is consuming less material and energy, for example by working more efficiently, or by choosing sustainable alternatives. Often, not only will this provide a lower footprint: savings can certainly provide less cost! Monitoring how well the measures taken work for your business is easy when repeating the footprint calculation every year.
Transparency
Consumers and environmental organisations want more and more proof that a company is operating sustainably. In response, retailers want to be sure that the products they supply meet the wishes of the consumer. Therefore they ask the producer for an increasing amount of proof in the form of certificates, approvals and questionnaires. Environmentally, this is covered by showing your footprint results! Transparency is very important herein, and the results of the calculation are a means to be able to be transparent. The footprint also provides a tool to meet future environmental licenses to deliver.
Marketing & Communication
In addition to providing transparency the results can also be used to actively go public. There can be substantiated communication about sustainability with, for example, the low impact of a product or the improvement of a production location. This is interesting in both B2B and B2C communication. A sustainable product can be a good argument towards business customers, because their product will be better as well. For consumers it is an increasingly important part of the buying decision
To calculate the footprint company data is requested. This happens on three levels: company, process and product.
- At company level, an inventory of the overall impact of the production is made: gas / water / electricity, waste, use of materials and transportation from the suppliers.
- Then, the processes within the company are defined and the energy is divided over these processes.
- Then the processes are divided over the products and the material usage of each product is inserted.
The first year the system is implemented. This means that, among other things, the materials and references are inserted in the right way, the processes are defined and the product compositions are inserted. However, this is needed only once: when the system has been implemented it only needs to be updated each year. In just a few hours the footprint of all products for the whole year can be calculated again.
Benefits of Nature seeks help creating a realtime footprint. Are you interested in joining forces? Please contact one of our team members!
Author: GreenTech & Benefits of Nature
