At the beginning of 2018, iPoint started to conduct a survey on Sustainability and Compliance Trends 2018 – and the response was overwhelming: More than 450 participants from different industries provided information on the top sustainability and compliance challenges their companies are facing.
Challenges 2018
The survey revealed that compliance with regulations such as REACH, RoHS, California Proposition 65, and Conflict Minerals is the most commonly posed challenge in 2018 (30%). The implementation of a sustainability strategy, including a sustainable attitude as well as adapting the production processes, was mentioned by 14% of the participants as the most challenging issue, followed by the general management of requests and reporting due to the many requests by multiple customers using different systems (12%). Other challenges mentioned by the participants were aspects related to collecting data on material composition, e.g. getting information from suppliers in time, as well as keeping updated in the ever-changing regulatory landscape.

A small percentage of the surveyed already think one step farther and mentioned that the development of or search for a suitable software system or tool posed the greatest challenge for them in 2018.
The most effective solution

iPoint also asked the participants about the most effective solution to acquire the cleanest and most accurate compliance data. The most common answer provided was a combination of both software and services. But for a relatively large percentage, money also mattered: 30% stated they would prefer the solution with the lowest cost. About a fifth of the surveyed named a software application that provides real data as most effective solution.
Conclusion
The survey provided us valuable insights into the sustainability and compliance challenges, which we can take in account when developing our solutions. Companies struggle with compliance to legal regulations concerning conflict minerals or restricted hazardous substances. Indeed, most believe that a combination of software and services is the most effective solution to these tasks.
The Sustainability & Compliance Survey 2019 – Focus on Cost of Compliance and Digitalization
Now, in 2019, we will continue with a slightly altered version of the survey with a focus on the importance and estimated cost of compliance and sustainability.
We would highly appreciate if you would be willing to spare 2 minutes of your time to share your thoughts on the Sustainability & Compliance Challenges of 2019!
- Products & Solutions (100)
- Trends & Technology (99)
- News & Updates (68)
- Challenges (67)
- life cycle assessment (44)
- Compliance (28)
- circular economy (23)
- carbon footprint (22)
- echa (21)
- LCA (19)
- Resource efficiency (19)
- SCIP (19)
- Umberto (18)
- material flow analysis (13)
- Renewable energy (11)
- Process Optimization (10)
- environmental product declaration (9)
- Ecodesign (8)
- Efficiency (8)
- Trends (8)
- Eco label (7)
- Lca databases (7)
- Supply chain (7)
- Survey (7)
- Sustainable development (7)
- blockchain (7)
- automotive (6)
- research (6)
- China (5)
- Corporate carbon footprint (5)
- Digitalization (5)
- Materialflusskostenrechnung (5)
- carbon footprinting (5)
- digital product passport (5)
- waste management (5)
- Chemical industry (4)
- Climate protection (4)
- Cobalt reporting (4)
- OECD (4)
- Sustainable transport (4)
- carbon neutrality (4)
- construction industry (4)
- germany (4)
- Big Data (3)
- Brexit (3)
- Conflict minerals (3)
- Corporate Social Responsibility (3)
- Database (3)
- Environmental product declarations (3)
- IFEU (3)
- Medical device (3)
- Ressourceneffizienz (3)
- building sector (3)
- carbon neutral (3)
- greenhouse gas inventory (3)
- transport sector (3)
- water footprint (3)
- 20-20-20 Objectives (2)
- BASF (2)
- Christian-Doppler-Laboratory (2)
- Environmental impact (2)
- Environmental management (2)
- Environmental performance (2)
- Fish (2)
- Gate to gate (2)
- Global warming (2)
- Governance (2)
- Green business 2 (2)
- Inatba (2)
- Integrated reporting (2)
- Integrative approach (2)
- Knowledge economy (2)
- MFA (2)
- Renewable Resources (2)
- Sdgs (2)
- Software (2)
- Steady state economy (2)
- Sustainable business (2)
- UK REACH (2)
- Umweltbundesamt (2)
- agriculture (2)
- best practice (2)
- biodiversity (2)
- biomass (2)
- building standards (2)
- carbon intensity (2)
- carbon relocation (2)
- collaborative consumption (2)
- consistency (2)
- corporate material flow modeling (2)
- cost savings (2)
- developing world (2)
- eLCAr (2)
- energiewende (2)
- energy (2)
- esankey (2)
- food industry (2)
- green jobs (2)
- holistic approach (2)
- milk (2)
- productivity (2)
- resilience (2)
- sankey diagram (2)
- seafood (2)
- transport (2)
- 2012 (1)
- 3 scopes (1)
- 3D printing (1)
- ACHEMA (1)
- AI (1)
- Abfallwirtschaft (1)
- Ankara (1)
- B2B (1)
- BMBF (1)
- BREEAM (1)
- Bachelor program (1)
- Bauwesen (1)
- Brazil (1)
- CFC (1)
- CO2-Fußabdruck (1)
- Comparative life cycle assessment (1)
- Composite indicator (1)
- Consumer goods (1)
- Consumption (1)
- Country Attractiveness (1)
- Csr report (1)
- Data (1)
- Davos (1)
- Decarbonization (1)
- Design (1)
- Developing countries (1)
- Domestic sector (1)
- Earth Sciences (1)
- Earth summit (1)
- Ecolabelling (1)
- Efficiency measures (1)
- Effizienzfabrik (1)
- Ehs (1)
- Ems (1)
- Energieeffizienz (1)
- Energy Intensity by Sector (1)
- Engineering excellence (1)
- Environmental Contracting (1)
- Environmental Engineering (1)
- Environmental capital (1)
- European Comission (1)
- European Green Cars Initiative (1)
- Events (1)
- External effects (1)
- Fifa (1)
- Fmd (1)
- Food footprint (1)
- Food production (1)
- Ford (1)
- Forest ecosystems (1)
- Freighter travel (1)
- GHG mitigation (1)
- Global compact (1)
- Green business models (1)
- Green consumers (1)
- Green deal (1)
- Green new deal (1)
- Human development index (1)
- ILCD Handbook (1)
- IPCC (1)
- ISO 14015 (1)
- ISO 14031 (1)
- ISO 14064 (1)
- ISO 14067 (1)
- ISO-14000 (1)
- ISO-14025 (1)
- Impact category (1)
- Incentive (1)
- Information design (1)
- Input output economics (1)
- Intellectual property (1)
- Kuznets curve (1)
- LIFE AskREACH (1)
- Lieferkettengesetz (1)
- Life cycle analysis (1)
- Life cycle perspective (1)
- Linkedin (1)
- Living planet report (1)
- Long-Term Pay (1)
- Material consumption (1)
- Material flowcosts (1)
- Material footprint (1)
- Mexico (1)
- Montreal Protocol (1)
- Natural Cost Accounting (1)
- Nature conservation (1)
- Nitrate pollution (1)
- Nutrients cycle (1)
- Okobilanzdatenbanken (1)
- Okolabelling (1)
- Online Resource Efficiency Platform OREP (1)
- Pas (1)
- Pcf (1)
- Philippines (1)
- Pilot program (1)
- Plastic industry (1)
- Process improvement (1)
- Process system engineering (1)
- Product management (1)
- Product sustainability (1)
- Production planning (1)
- Produktlebensdauer (1)
- Protection proprietary data (1)
- Pvc (1)
- Quality journalism (1)
- Rapid prototyping (1)
- Refuse derived fuel plant (1)
- Renewable process heat (1)
- Retailer (1)
- Rio20 summit (1)
- Rolf Dobelli (1)
- Solar thermal energy (1)
- Sorgfaltspflichtengesetz (1)
- South africa (1)
- Sustainability performance (1)
- Sustainability strategy (1)
- Sustainable architecture (1)
- Sustainable living (1)
- Sustainable resins (1)
- Sydney (1)
- Treibhauspotenzial (1)
- Turkey (1)
- UK CA (1)
- University (1)
- VDMA (1)
- Vertical cooperation (1)
- Wind power (1)
- World vegan day (1)
- Yet (1)
- academia (1)
- acidification (1)
- air quality (1)
- aluminum (1)
- amazon (1)
- antarctic ozone hole (1)
- apocalypse (1)
- apple (1)
- assessment (1)
- atmospheric carbon measurement (1)
- background database (1)
- battery change station (1)
- bike sharing (1)
- bio capacity (1)
- bio-economy (1)
- biocapacity (1)
- biological gas treatment (1)
- blogs (1)
- books (1)
- business opportunity (1)
- car (1)
- carbon emissions (1)
- carbon free city (1)
- carbon leakage (1)
- carbon management (1)
- carbon management 2 (1)
- carbon reduction (1)
- carbon tax (1)
- carbon-neutral travel (1)
- cargo shipping (1)
- carton (1)
- certification (1)
- change (1)
- climate impact (1)
- climate neutral (1)
- cogeneration (1)
- combined reporting (1)
- commons (1)
- cooperation along product (1)
- cradle to cradle (1)
- de-growth economy (1)
- digital battery passport (1)
- ecarus (1)
- eco design (1)
- ecoinvent (1)
- ecological tax reform (1)
- ecosystem disturbance (1)
- efficient construction (1)
- energy efficiency in production (1)
- environmental accounting (1)
- environmental impact data (1)
- environmental management system (1)
- environmental performance indicator (1)
- environmental technology verification (1)
- environmentally friendly raw materials (1)
- esg (1)
- fashion (1)
- food loss (1)
- food sector (1)
- gate-to-gate approach (1)
- geopolymer cement (1)
- green Christmas (1)
- green buildings (1)
- green paradox (1)
- green production (1)
- greenhouse (1)
- handprinting (1)
- lca-software (1)
- lcia (1)
- lifecycle (1)
- logitech (1)
- management models (1)
- material flow balance (1)
- material losses (1)
- material-flow-accounts (1)
- media (1)
- modeling (1)
- nuclear phase out (1)
- policy instruments (1)
- politics (1)
- post oil age (1)
- product environmental footprint (1)
- production circle (1)
- ressource efficiency analysis (1)
- saving potentials (1)
- scope 3 (1)
- season's greetings (1)
- smart meter (1)
- social cost accounting (1)
- stranded assets (1)
- sustainability control (1)
- sustainability projects (1)
- sustainable products (1)
- tajikistan (1)
- textile industry (1)
- textile refinement (1)
- toyota (1)
- uk-rohs (1)
- umweltbilanz (1)
- urban carbon emissions (1)
- velib (1)
- volvo (1)
- waste hierarchy (1)
- wastewater (1)
- water stress (1)
- wind gas (1)
- zero growth (1)
- Ökologischer Fußabdruck (1)