Leading businesses launch first social impact assessment tool

The handbook was published this week by the Roundtable for Product Social Metrics, a group of 12 multinational companies that came together last year with the aim of creating “the first practical, objective methodology for product social impact assessment“.

The free manual aims to sustainability professionals to screen the social impact of any product’s entire supply chain over its lifecycle. Previous methods of assessing social impact of businesses have tended to be at the corporate level, according to the Roundtable, which counts among its members German car manufacturer BMW, US tyre and rubber company Goodyear, electronics company Philips, beauty and science and nutrition giant DSM.

“Stakeholders increasingly demand transparency about the social impacts of products,” commented João Fontes of PRé Sustainability, spokesperson for the Roundtable.

“Research on consumer preferences, like The Nielsen Global Survey on Corporate Social Responsibility, shows that half of the world’s consumers are prepared to pay a premium if products have an ecological or social benefit,” added Jacobine Das Gupta, Corporate Sustainability manager at DSM.

The Roundtable has so far conducted phase one and two of its three-stage plan. Phase three will see the group focus on issues such as practical implementation and refinement of the methodologies contained within the handbook.

“This method is a first step towards measurable social sustainability at a product level, and the Roundtable will continue to refine it,” commented Dave Woodyard, global manager of environmental sustainability for The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.