Product Stewardship in Food Production
by Francine Hardaway
Published on March 19th, 2008
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BASF is a large chemical company trying very hard to help its clients in the food industry practice product stewardship. It has developed a tool for them that gives information not only on the composition of products, but on the way they are manufactured and the levels of sustainability achieved in production.
The name of this initiative is SET, which stands for Sustainability, Eco-Efficiency and Traceability. Facts and figures relating to environmental pollution for example, or CO2 emissions, are included.
SET is based on a system developed by BASF called Eco-Efficiency Analysis.
“Eco-Efficiency Analysis assesses the life cycle of a product or a manufacturing process from start to finish. It aims to ensure that products are manufactured for economic gain but in as environmentally friendly a way as possible.
Similar products or processes are compared. The economic analysis and the overall environmental impact are used to make eco-efficiency comparisons and help detect and exploit potential ecological and economic improvements. ” BASF also has another tool to help analyze the social costs and consequences of products.
