Innovative, Holistic, “Cradle-to-Grave” Approach to Implement more Sustainable Nutrition

Abstract

Creating more sustainable products is a major topic throughout the consumer goods industry. To succeed, it is necessary to follow a holistic, “cradle-to-grave” approach which involves stakeholders throughout the entire value chain while focusing on consumer goods. Focusing only on one specific value chain step can create unintended consequences in a later stage of a products life cycle. This paper shows how applied science and value chain management through BASF’s Sustainability, Eco-Efficiency and Traceability (SET) Initiative meets those needs. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is the quantitative technique to determine multiple environmental, social and economic impacts of a product and points out potential tradeoffs. However LCA alone cannot comprise all impacts. Therefore BASF’s efforts are not just fundamentally based on this technique but also go beyond it. This paper first explains the three pillars of the initiative, consisting of the Hot Spot Analysis (a qualitative tool), the Eco-Efficiency Analysis (a unique LCA approach) and the traceability strategy for supply chain transparency. It secondly presents examples for the 3 pillars for the pork value chain.