The OECD sustainable manufacturing toolkit Sustainability and US Competitiveness Summit October 8, 2009 Michael Bordt Structural Policy Division Directorate of Science, Technology and Industry OECD 1

What is the OECD? Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ( An intergovernmental organization with 30 member countries –“a setting where governments compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and coordinate domestic and international policies.” –Does this through a diverse structure of committees with national, international and business representation One of the world’s largest sources of comparative statistics of economic and social data 2

Perspective on sustainable manufacturing Sustainability: Environmental, Economic and Social dimensions –Making more efficient use of non-renewable resources, and –Minimizing the use and production of unwanted by-products By: dematerialization and substitution While: meeting corporate and social needs 3

Why a(nother) toolkit? Many existing initiatives to measure corporate sustainability performance in international, regional and national governments Many methodologies to measure various aspects of sustainability performance –All are useful and provide unique insights –Very little comprehensive international guidance on “best practices” for “non-experts” –Public reporting tends to be by larger companies –Reporting doesn’t focus on underlying materials, processes and products that influence performance 4

Objectives (1) Promote a common framework and language for measuring sustainability performance Take a systematic view of the production process Incorporate life-cycle thinking by promoting stewardship over materials, production and products Develop core indicators that can be interpreted in a common way Provide guidance to assist non-experts in companies to collect data, calculate the indicators, analyse and improve their own sustainability performance Facilitate internal analysis (not another obligation but a measurement resource) 5

Objectives (2) Be complementary with existing mainstream initiatives: Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) – comprehensive set of corporate sustainability indicators LCA: Life Cycle Assessment – assesses impacts of product systems MFA/MFCA: Material Flow/Cost Analysis – tracks materials efficiency/costs and resource productivity MIPS: Materials Input Per Unit Service – measures resource productivity of products and services EMAS: EU’s Environmental Management and Audit Scheme – encourages environmental performance reporting and improvement IPCC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – provides guidance on calculating greenhouse gas emissions at national level –WBCSD and WRI developing GHG protocol for businesses PRTR: Pollutant Release and Transfer Registries – national activities to track releases of controlled pollutants Ecological Footprinting (EF) – shows impacts in terms of global land required to support consumption patterns 6

Existing metrics approaches Product | process | facility | corporation | sector | country | global Measurement unit Technical Detail High Medium Low LCA GRI MFA IPCC PRTRs EMAS EF 7 OECD Toolkit

Toolkit features Focuses on performance of a facility (site or location), its materials and its product mix –Inventory inputs, processes, products and by-products Uses commonly-available (to some) data to calculate 18 inter-related core indicators Financial analysis is done by estimating costs and benefits of improving environmental performance Presented as a “how to” guide for non-experts Not: estimating aggregate or ultimate impact 8

Indicator categories 9

Core indicators 10

For each indicator Concepts; why the indicator is important General formula for calculation –Description of each component data item –Guidance on “typical” and “atypical” cases References to national and international data, further information and detailed methodology 11

Current status Prototype is being discussed and tested –Would like to include detailed case study Further refinement based on input from business and other experts –Requires field testing Publish in spring

Future work (beyond 2010) What do you want the toolkit to be? –Include broader economic performance (of facility on national and global economy) –Include social performance (of materials, processes and products) –Additional performance indicators: Benefits of products Embedded wastes, water in materials and products –Harmonized data (factors, process, product materials databases) –More detailed/harmonized methodologies –National or sectoral statistics based on performance indicators 13

Thank you Comments Questions 14