About

The Sustainability Consortium is an independent group of scientists and engineers from leading academic research institutions around the world who engage with other leading researchers from the NGO, Governmental, and Industrial sectors to build a scientific foundation that drives innovation to improve consumer product sustainability.

A Message from the Co-Directors

We live in a time of unprecedented growth in globalization, urbanization, affluence and consumption, coupled with a world population that is expected to increase from 6 billion to 9 billion inhabitants by 2050.  The implications for sustainable development are enormous; however these challenges present the scientific community with unparalleled opportunities to make significant contributions.

By working together we believe that we can creatively harness the intellectual capital of leading academics in different disciplines along with the organizational strength of businesses and governments dedicated to addressing sustainability in order to overcome these challenges.  Thus, out of a spirited exchange of ideas more than two years ago, the Sustainability Consortium was created.  Collectively we are building a new paradigm of strategies and technologies to tackle current and future sustainability imperatives.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Sustainability Consortium Developing the Sustainability Index?

We are not developing an Index, rather we are:

• Convening key stakeholders.
• Researching impacts throughout all phases of product life.
• Identifying and communicating key improvement opportunities for consumer product categories and facilitating dialogue on how progress can be stimulated, measured, and communicated in a meaningful way.
• Identifying gaps and assessing the uncertainty in data.
• Modeling, reporting, and educating on benefits of new technologies and consumer behavior.

While the outputs of our efforts could be used by others to develop an index, it is not the intent of the consortium to develop one.

Do I need to join as a member of the Sustainability Consortium to learn about your research and progress?

No. As the Sustainability Consortium progresses, we will be hosting workshops around the country to provide our members and non-members updates of our progress. In addition, we will be placing findings of our research on our web site as well as submitting articles for peer-reviewed and general audience publications.

Is this just for the United States or is it Global?

This is a global effort. Supply chains are located throughout the world and we will be addressing the complexities of a global economy.

How can I learn more as a consumer about how I can personally make a difference in my every day actions?

We plan to launch in the near term a section of our web site dedicated to consumer actions which can be taken to reduce economic, environmental and social impacts. Stay tuned.

Does the Consortium have a Steering Committee?

Yes, it consists of our founding members as well as non-member leaders from government and NGO’s.

Is the Sustainability Consortium working with other retailers so that product sustainability reporting for consumer goods becomes an industry standard?

Yes, we are actively seeking retail partners of various sizes, geographies and types of products sold.

What are the vision, mission, and values of the Sustainability Consortium?

MISSION STATEMENT
The Sustainability Consortium is an independent organization of diverse global participants that work collaboratively to build a scientific foundation that drives innovation to improve consumer product sustainability.

WHAT WE DO
The Sustainability Consortium develops transparent methodologies, tools and strategies to drive a new generation of products and supply networks that address environmental, social and economic imperatives. The Sustainability Consortium advocates for a transparent process and system, not individuals or organizations.

HOW WE DO IT
The Sustainability Consortium:

• Supports a fully transparent process and system for all data, methods, and algorithms; participants will know how metrics are used to evaluate respective environmental and social impacts are derived (data explicitly acknowledges and reports uncertainty in a standardized way).
• Leads a scientifically grounded approach to measuring, communicating and educating on the environmental, economic and social impacts of consumer goods and will identify opportunities for innovation across the entire product life cycle.
• Organizes the user community of this data with new tools that empower them.
• Seeks to balance rapid growth, broad enrollment, cost effectiveness, and data/methods development; underlying databases will be widely accessible, affordable, validated, transparent and designed for continuous improvement.
• Engages in modeling how innovations and changes in manufacturing and consumer use of products can address pressing sustainability imperatives around the globe.

Open IO

Open IO is an Input/Output based life cycle inventory database that provides a free, comprehensive, transparent and continually improving resource for product sustainability information and analysis for both corporate decision makers and academic researchers. The project will provide information on the major impact categories (GHG, Water use, Toxics, Criteria Polutants, etc). This project will serve as a core element to ongoing or future extension projects, including the Industry Average Database Framework, the Global Open IO model and others.

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