New Metrics

Sustainability Metrics Assessments Helping Mission-Driven Startups Measure Their Impacts

PRé has always believed in and worked for a sustainable future and we believe insight into the environmental and social impacts of products is a crucial step towards this future. Our approach is one of collaboration, working with partners across the world and training companies to use sustainability metrics independently. So when looking for a way to give back, it made sense to us to use our years of experience with Life Cycle Assessment to help the next generation of mission-driven businesses.

By Ellen Brilhuis-Meijer | Published 9 years ago | About a 2 minute read

Small companies and startups usually do not have the funds to invest in sustainability metrics. This is a shame, since especially startups have a big potential to change the status quo. Early insight into the environmental impact of their products can make a big difference. Therefore, PRé has started offering free sustainability assessments to selected sustainable startups.

Food Loop: LCA to Determine How Technology Can Make the Difference

The first sustainability assessment was offered to FoodLoop, winner of this year’s Sustainable Brands Innovation Open, held in June. FoodLoop is an app that aims to tackle the issue of food waste in supermarkets. The FoodLoop app instantly informs consumers if a particular product is reduced in price because the best-before date is approaching. This increases the sales of these products and reduces the number of products that needs to be thrown away by the supermarket.

PRé is doing a Life Cycle Assessment of a typical supermarket product before and after implementation of the FoodLoop app to determine the difference the app makes.

Oath UK: Delivering Insights for Ecodesign

The second sustainability assessment was offered to Oath UK, which was selected from the registrations we received via the PRé website. Oath UK is an ethical and environmentally focused skate brand that makes skateboards from bamboo. While confident about the environmental improvement made by using bamboo instead of maple, they want to obtain insight into other improvement opportunities for skateboards. PRé is doing a Life Cycle Assessment with various scenarios to see if different types of wheels and other components can create additional benefit.

Both of these sustainability assessments are still in progress. If you are or know a sustainable startup that would like to qualify for the next round of free sustainability assessments, register here.