Innovation & Technology Innovation & Technology

thinkstep (fka PE International) Launching Comprehensive Platform for Enabling Business Sustainability

Sustainability software and consulting company PE International, creators of the industry-leading GaBi life cycle assessment software and providers of a vast array of tools for sustainability performance management, unveiled its new name – thinkstep - today at its annual customer and partner symposium. The company says the new name reflects its long history of connecting data and knowledge to make sustainability advances, or ‘thinksteps,’ for the world’s leading brands and organizations.

By Jennifer Elks | Published 9 years ago | About a 5 minute read

Sustainability software and consulting company PE International, creators of the industry-leading GaBi life cycle assessment software and providers of a vast array of tools for sustainability performance management, unveiled its new name – thinkstep - today at its annual customer and partner symposium**.** The company says the new name reflects its long history of connecting data and knowledge to make sustainability advances, or ‘thinksteps,’ for the world’s leading brands and organizations.

When asked what prompted a rebrand for the 20-year-old company, CEO Christoph Wilfert cited a shift in demand as more customers are acknowledging sustainability as a core driver of long-term success.

"Good intentions or mere compliance won’t create sustainable products, businesses or cities. Instead, sound analysis, the right tools and engaged action will,“ Wilfert said in a recent interview. "This inspired us to choose thinkstep – denoting analysis and action - as our new company name and coincide it with our evolving portfolio."

In addition to its new name and corporate identity, thinkstep announced thinkstep.one, a SaaS sustainability platform that will officially launch in July 2015**.** thinkstep.one is built for the enterprise, on a foundation of the world’s most comprehensive environmental data repositories, more than 20 years of consulting best practices, and proven, award-winning software. The solution brings together all of thinkstep’s intellectual property under one common, newly designed user interface that makes it easy to manage sustainability and compliance issues across an entire business and supply chain. Existing customers will find a simple migration path onto the new platform.

“Business as usual is no longer an option in the era of climate change, resource scarcity and population growth,” Wilfert said in a statement. “We understand that today’s complex, global value chains carry substantial risks and opportunities for business and we have evolved our company to support those needs. We’ve changed our name to reflect our industry commitment and are launching thinkstep.one to empower enterprises with sustainability results that drive economic performance, reduce cost, mitigate risk, improve brand value and increase sales.”

Wilfert said thinkstep.one will be the first platform of its kind, integrating all kinds of previously siloed data and tools to more easily enable a comprehensive approach to sustainability. The cloud-based platform will offer a one-stop-shopping solution for companies to move sustainability and compliance from simple reporting functions to critical operational considerations, comprising:

The thinkstep.one Data Foundation – thinkstep has spent millions of hours accumulating the world’s most comprehensive databases by studying the environmental and social impact for virtually every industry, process and product on the planet. Additional proprietary and third-party integrated databases, as well as some of the world’s largest sustainability benchmarks and best-practice libraries are also an integral part of the new platform. The result is a foundation that can support any analysis and report on sustainable performance, as well as investigate scenarios, improvement options and decision-making across the whole value chain.
thinkstep.one Applications – thinkstep.one will initially host more than 70 applications bundled in 9 suites, some built internally and others developed with partners. The suites are designed to help solve customer sustainability challenges such as product design and innovation, product and portfolio reporting, life cycle assessment, corporate sustainability reporting, EH&S management, energy management, supplier engagement and building portfolio management. To manage the applications, thinkstep has built a dynamic dashboard that allows users to customize information access according to job description, industry sectors, or specific areas of interest.
thinkstep Professional Services – thinkstep.one will be supported by the company’s consulting team, with expertise in product, corporate, supply chain, substance and compliance/materials management for more than 20 industry sectors. They will rely on best practices learned over 20 years from more than 5,000 projects for a customer base of 2,500 companies, academic institutions and organizations.

Strong Partner Network

thinkstep.one will launch with the support of several leading sustainability, compliance and technology partners - a network of content and management providers, application builders, VARs, and integration/implementation specialists that thinkstep says is the most far-reaching and comprehensive in the industry. Tools include Trucost’s natural capital accounting framework and BASF’s Solutions Steering Method for assessing the sustainability impacts of entire product portfolios, as well as solutions from 2Degrees, TÜV, iLF, Atmosfair, Siemens, Pera Technology, Outotec, and Urjanet.

“TÜV SÜD is excited to partner with thinkstep for the launch of its first energy-efficiency web application. Leveraging the flexible thinkstep.one platform and the know-how of TÜV experts, the app allows companies worldwide to assess their individual energy and cost savings potential,” said Boris Gehring, business unit manager, power & systems of TÜV SÜD´s industry service division. “The tool, which is free for download, was jointly developed with ILF engineers and demonstrates leadership and our ongoing commitment to advancing sustainability best practices. We look forward to a future of collaboration and to building additional solutions for energy and environmental management.”

Wilfert said he hopes his company’s new face and unique platform will help increase its visibility and widen its reach.

“Well-run businesses and organizations manage both their financial and non-financial performance well. However, only about 1 in 10 listed companies in the world even report on their non-financial performance today. It is time to make this simpler and more effective. Ultimately we would like every organization in the world to succeed sustainably.”