Category - products solutions

iPoint and BASF collaborate on Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) calculation

iPoint and BASF are collaborating on the topic of carbon footprint to drive the standardized...

New SCIP reporting obligations in the Automotive Industry

With SCIP database being open to submission for one year now and data finally being disseminated...

German Government clarifies – SCIP Database has to be used to fulfil reporting obligation

The obligation for EU based entities to report data on SVHC containing products to the SCIP...

SCIP Dissemination Portal now live

Ever since January 2021, when the reporting of Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) in articles...

Discover the iPoint Suite

The iPoint Suite offers solutions for the entire product life cycle – from design to production and...

4 Months of SCIP reporting obligation – what are the experiences so far?

The obligation to report products that are put on the EU market and contain of SVHCs (Substances of...

Case Study: MFCA in Industrial Filter Production – Reducing the Use of Resources in Textile Filter Systems

ifu Hamburg GmbH, member of iPoint Group, HTW Berlin and UKOM jointly supported SMEs in using the ...

SCIP Database Connector successfully used by our customers

Our software solution is already successfully used by our customers from various industries e.g....

SCIP Database – iPoint Compliance automates the exchange of information

>Free Demo Video – SCIP Database Connector Watch the video to hear about the latest updates on ECHA...

EU Commission not empowered to postpone SCIP

On September 21, 2020, 40 EU and non-EU industry associations asked the European Commission to...

SCIP Database Connector Enterprise & Professional released

Hear about the latest updates on ECHA SCIP database and see a live demo of the officially released...

New IUCLID version by ECHA

ECHA will release the new version of IUCLID (https://iuclid6.echa.europa.eu/) on October 28th. With...

SCIP reporting using IMDS system vs. iPoint SCIP connector

We are all aware that SCIP reporting requires a considerable effort for almost all affected...

SCIP database to be launched in late October – no indication that deadline in January 2021 will be postponed

The European Chemical Agency ECHA informed that during the last week of October, the SCIP database...

Cobalt unmasked – Is cobalt really a sustainable option?

In recent years, the demand for cobalt has steadily increased with the development of the electric...

SCIP FAQ: The Echa SCIP Database

Update 2021: We have update the FAQ – check out what’s new Our SCIP FAQ document provides a summary...

Sneak Peek at iPoint’s SCIP Connector

See a live demo of the iPoint Compliance SCIP Connector that automates the creation of SCIP...

ECHA drops one mandatory field for SCIP database reporting

During the last SCIP database workshop on March 17th, 2020, ECHA indicated a change to the...

SCIP database alpha testing and RoHS (2011/65/EU)

In our webinar “How to get ready for ECHA’s SCIP database“ we were excited to be able to give you...

SCIP Database test version available

On Monday, February 17th, 2020, the long-awaited release of the test version of SCIP database –...

First glimpse at the SCIP database

During last week’s ECHA IT working group meeting iPoint’s experts had the chance to get a first...

Results from the ECHA workshops and new SCIP website launched

Since our last update on the SCIP database, work has progressed further. Not only have we...

Going Beyond IMDS with iPoint Approval

The race to introduce a product to the market is a fierce one; where companies are constantly...

How to provide Life Cycle Information for non-LCA experts

Thanks to automatization and data interfacing, LCA is becoming accessible to any role in an...

How Toyota North America ensures the compliance of its products

When Toyota North America decided for iPoint Compliance as the leading solution to manage all their...

iPoint participates in ECHA’s SCIP Database Kick-off meeting

Last week saw the kick-off meeting for stakeholders of the SCIP database held by the European...

Why we built the iPoint Suite

In iPoint’s software solutions, the CARE principle forms the foundation. All our software solutions...

Identify risks and achieve anti-human trafficking compliance with eLRT Lite

On Thursday, August 8th, eLRT Lite, a simplified version of the electronic Labour Rights Template,...

Cobalt Reporting via the iPoint SustainHub

Cobalt is the key element used in batteries of mobile phones, laptops, and electric vehicles and...

How to increase Business Transparency by assessing compliance data – exactly where its needed

Companies currently using SAP® have a vast amount of existing data in their system that can be...

How to use Life Cycle Information to set AND reach your Sustainability Goals

Volvo Cars and iPoint systems act jointly in improving availability of and accessibility to life...

How to successfully market your products worldwide – faster

To speed up the development of new products companies need to evaluate data on products, materials...

iPoint’s systems always stay up to date with new SVHC entries

On January 15, 2019, the European Chemical Agency (ECHA) has published 6 new entries to the...

Customized Transparency with iPCA Web

The new web-client of the iPoint Compliance Agent, iPCA Web, enables companies to advance...

A Compliance Survey Tool that Grows with Your Supply Chain

In November 2018, iPoint launched a new compliance survey app for the SustainHub platform as a...

SustainHub Roadmap 2019

Free Webinar: Innovative insights and an exclusive outlook on the SustainHub Join Sebastian...

France’s Due Diligence Law – Loi sur le devoir de vigilance

On April 24, 2013, more than 1,000 people in Bangladesh lost their lives when the textiles factory...

A Sankey Diagram Says More Than 1.000 Pie Charts

What are Sankey diagrams? Engineers and environmental scientists will be able to answer this...

Facing the regulatory challenges of the aftermarket

OEMs and their suppliers are facing multiple regulatory challenges when it comes to the so called...

Speed up your REACH Information Request Processes

The new iPoint Compliance Agent (iPCA) REACH Letter module supports you especially in fulfilling...

Beyond the Isolated Approach: How to Better Optimise Resource Efficiency in the Chemical Industry

The importance of resource efficiency within industry has gained significant traction in recent...

How material flow cost accounting reduces food wastage

Everyone agrees that food should not be wasted. Given its huge environmental footprints and the...

Der Weg von Energie- zu Materialeffizienz – Geschäftsführer der Energy Consulting Allgäu im Interview

Wer ist Energy Consulting Allgäu?

Climate protection – cost reduction: Resource efficiency analyses in the chemical industry

Reduced energy consumption, less material usage and consequently lower production costs. These are...

Interview with Matthias Voigtmann, CEO of Energy Consulting Allgäu

Who is Energy Consulting Allgäu?

Materialflusskostenrechnung: Ressourceneffizienz leicht gemacht

Zahlreiche Unternehmen geraten zunehmend unter Druck, wenn es darum geht, die Auswirkungen ihrer...

Energieeffizienz-Netzwerke: Best Practice Beispiel

Bis zum Jahr 2020 sollen in Deutschland etwa 500 regionale und branchenspezifische...

Chancen und Herausforderungen in Energieeffizienz-Netzwerken: Experteninterview

Vera Schürmann ist geschäftsführende Gesellschafterin von Arcanum Energy. Als Dienstleister,...

New: Anti-Slavery Reporting Template eLRT

In November 2016, iPoint launched the electronic Labor Rights Template (eLRT). The free,...

Material Flow Cost Accounting provides head start for SMEs

MFCA stands for Material Flow Cost Accounting and helps businesses to increase their material...

Material Flow Cost Accounting: Tips from a consultant

Hiroshi Tachikawa is the managing director at Propharm Japan. He helped numerous companies across...

Materialflusskostenrechnung am größten Textilforschungszentrum Europas

Dr. Jürgen Seibold arbeitet im Zentrum für Management Research der Deutschen Institute für Textil-...

Diese Unternehmen haben durch MFCA Ihre Materialeffizienz gesteigert

Aus internationaler Sicht hat die Materialflusskostenrechnung bisher die größte Verbreitung in...

Endlich sprechen wir über Materialeffizienz

Materialkosten machen im Durchschnitt 40-50 % der Gesamtkosten in produzierenden Unternehmen aus.

LCAs in the telecommunication sector

Andreas Kröhling, Senior Expert for Corporate Responsibility at “Deutsche Telekom AG” recommends...

Ökobilanzen beim größten deutschen Telekommunikationsanbieter

Andreas Kröhling, Senior Experte Corporate Responsibility bei der Deutschen Telekom AG, empfiehlt:...

“Deutschlands nachhaltigstes Großunternehmen 2014” im Interview

Marko Schnarr ist Referent für Ressourceneffizienz, Ökobilanzierung und Ökolabelling beim...

Tips and expertise shared by three experienced users of LCA Databases

During the preparation of the article on LCA data and LCA databases it was a great experience to...

Success factor for Life Cycle Assessment: data, data, data

When deciding to get started with Life Cycle Assessment you probably have come across the quote:...

Erfolgsfaktor für Ökobilanzen (Life Cycle Assessment, LCA): Daten, Daten und nochmals Daten

Wenn Sie planen, erstmals eine Ökobilanz zu erstellen, war vermutlich die folgende...

Material Flow Cost Accounting: Resource Efficiency Made Simple

Many organisations are coming under increasing pressure to minimise the environmental impact of...

Open source for climate innovation

Nobody is likely to argue with the claim that innovation is at the root of human prosperity. So it...

Resource Efficiency III: The Quarry and the Factory

One of the more frustrating aspects of research is when the data will not conform to ones...

Resource efficiency II: Offshoring resource consumption

Last year the Economist magazine claimed that “While America and Europe are cutting their emissions...

Resource Efficiency: Measuring and Managing Metabolism

Last week’s offering from this blog flew under the banner of “The Circular Economy” – a concept so...

The greening of construction (Part III): Buildings Ratings tools in international context

In the first article in this series a couple of weeks ago, I suggested that the trend towards...

The greening of construction (Part II): International development of EPDs

Unless you have been living under a rock, or on the wrong side of the digital divide in a slum, you...

The greening of construction (Part I): Overview

In recent years humankind reached a significant milestone when we became a predominantly urban...

How to dismantle the resource efficiency black box in chemical industries

“From Sustainability Reporting to Sustainability Management Control” is the title of the 17th...

Beyond Heavy Oil – 8 Future-Proof Cargo Vessel Technologies

Think global, buy local? The idea of limiting one’s personal consumption to national, regional or...

Making an LCA in 1 Hour – How to Get Going with Umberto

SimaPro and GaBi are the most commonly used software tools to conduct a professional life cycle...

Efficiency 2.0 – How to Reveal Hidden Savings Potential with Integrated Energy Management

Adjust all the details, but don’t forget the big picture. That’s the best conclusion you can draw...

From Data to Knowledge: The Power of Elegant Sankey Diagrams

Industry defines the structure of our economy, of our work environment, of our personal mobility,...

Top-Notch Sustainability Practitioner Gathering: Umberto User Workshop in Essen, Sept 11/12, 2013

When the only way to implement a satisfactory future in human development is holistic thinking...

First LCA on 3D Printer Sustainability: Green Manufacturing Revolution or Overrated Gadget?

Rapid prototyping, also called 3D printing, is the name of a much praised technological innovation...

5 Steps towards Maximum Resource Efficiency Part 2: Material Flow Modeling, MFCA and LCA Made Easy

Last week, I introduced you to the first three steps small and medium-sized companies need to take...

ISO 14051-Based Material Flow Cost Accounting in a Nutshell

The ISO 14000 series has proved to be handy for quite a while now. Companies and public...

Discovering All Environmental Effects: How Life Cycle Assessment with LCA Software Works

Environmental effects are extremely complex, that’s why they’re impossible to measure, so let’s not...

Cutting GHG Emissions of Industrial Parks by 35% through Corporate Collaboration

Buy local, drive less, switch to renewable energy – these are just a few of the omnipresent...

How to Invent the Right Institution to Cut Resource Conflicts

Can you resist the impetus coming from a 234 page report that has the promising title “Resource...

From Green to Blue to Gray to Black: The Chromatics of Water Footprints

Because water is the most vital element for life, many contemporary intellectuals expect it to be...

How Sustainable are Europe’s 5 Million E-Cars in 2020? New LCA Guidelines Help the Assessing

Holistic Sustainability Measurement: The Composite 3-Pillar-Index

By the end of the 20th century, a deep conceptual gap had evolved between a destructive economy...

31 Innovations for Maximum Resource Efficiency in Manufacturing

The amount of manufacturing in Germany is vast. To guarantee survival in the global rotation of who...

Burn or Bury? Analyzing Waste Management Options in Detail

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – the waste imperative is as clear as it can get. What’s less clear,...

Green Ocean Hunters? The Environmental Effects of Fishing and Aquaculture, Part 2

Last week, in part one of this article, we ended with the tragedy of the commons and the question...

Green Ocean Hunters? The Environmental Effects of Fishing and Aquaculture

Shrimp farms destroy sensitive mangrove forest ecosystems, salmon escape from designated...

Carbon Neutral Online Shopping – How Green are Mail Order Companies?

In the last 150 years, three major trends have changed the way humanity consumes. First,...

What’s the Greenest 1 L Packaging? Two Powerful LCAs Give the Answer

It was a month ago when I heard the surprising news that milk packaged in cartons has the best...

6 Options to Maintain Current Lifestyles with Far Less Raw Materials: “With Both Eyes Open”

There is this old, ever repeating view of humanity as a counter-productive force when it comes to...

7 Measures for Efficient Climate Control on the Factory Floor

How, exactly, can a medium-sized industrial company save on energy without negatively affecting...

Last Chance for a Powerful Shift – On Quarrels About the EU’s Energy Efficiency Directive

In July 2011, knowtheflow covered the possible failure to reach the EU’s energy efficiency target....

9 Months of Certified Energy Management: ISO 50001 Starts Out

In July 2011, the promising ISO 50001 energy management standard was launched. This certificate...

What is Carbon Footprinting and Why Does it Facilitate Effective Energy Management?

Costs to the environment, generated throughout your company’s production process, can be assessed...

Food Footprints: Subjective Consumer Perception vs. Profound LCA Data

Today is World Vegan Day. Vegans are people ethically very consequent. Even more consequent than...

Refining Material Flow Analysis: The Arising of Input-Output Economics

We can be proud of the great wealth of reliable, good quality data that are being produced every...

Productivity, Efficiency and Quality

Productivity is probably the main keyword in growth theory. Expressed as a mathematical function it...

“Just One Indicator, Please”: PUMA’s Environmental Profit and Loss Statement

Recently, the sports brand PUMA released a preliminary version of their “unprecedented” ...

Waste Prevention vs. Recycling – Analyzing Material Flow Accounts

Why should we even bother about recycling, when we could prevent waste in the first place? Well,...