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Introduction and challenges

The limitations of environmental impact studies to date have often meant that companies lack visibility of the real environmental impact of their operations across the end-to-end value chain.

This lack of visibility hinders the development and implementation of an environmental excellence strategy focused on reducing business impact whilst still delivering against commercial drivers like cost, inventory, and service.

Reporting is mostly limited to ‘direct impacts’ or scope 1 and 2 of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol on emissions. While essential, it notably excludes supplier impact, which in many industries contributes the majority of emissions. Also, the quantitative analyses used often only cover carbon footprint, and do not include crucial issues like biodiversity and pollution affecting the preservation of human health.

As well as understanding the quantitative environmental impacts, it is important to recognise that each part of the operation (product development, procurement, production, finance, logistics) may have a different level of maturity in terms of its processes and organisation. Evaluating their maturity against best practices is necessary to be able to identify practical steps to transform operations to make them more sustainable.

How we can help

Argon & Co supports companies to measure and reduce the environmental impact of their value chain while meeting commercial goals:

  • Mapping the full operational value chain, from the processing of raw materials, through production, distribution to end customers, and use of the product or service, until its end of life
  • Environmental impact analysis using a Life Cycle Analysis approach using quantitative indicators (including CO2, water consumption, air pollution, water pollution, soil pressure, waste) and integrating multiple environmental dimensions (climate change, biodiversity, human health, eutrophication of resources)
  • Identification and evaluation of opportunities to reduce the business’ environmental impact, drive overall business success, and define new business models
  • Assessment of the sustainability maturity of operations using our scprime® methodology and definition of an action plan to improve
  • Transformation programmes bringing together eco-responsibility and operational excellence, to support business growth while balancing environmental and commercial objectives