Measurable sustainability: How companies secure their future with indicators

When you think of “sustainability indicators”, you don't necessarily think that it could affect us all or that it could lead to benefits for manufacturing companies. But it does both. If we're honest, it sounds like work and expense at first. But actually, these indicators not only help companies to be more sustainable, but also to secure their future.

What are sustainability indicators?

Let's start with a definition: what are sustainability indicators? They are measurable variables that provide information about a company's environmental, social and economic performance. The three pillars mentioned are environmental, social and economic indicators. Ecological indicators measure the environmental impact of a company, such as energy consumption, water consumption, waste and scrap volumes, or CO2 emissions. Social indicators include the company's commitment, such as working conditions, employee satisfaction, equal opportunities, diversity and human rights. Economic indicators include resource efficiency, innovation rate, profitability or supply chain standards.

If you look at all these factors, it's easy to see the benefits. As a company, for example, you have to create transparency for customers, investors and employees and, if necessary, be accountable. A good factual situation also allows you to identify potential for improvement as well as risks and save costs. If you implement all these factors, you will secure your future!

How can a company use sustainability indicators to its advantage?

Let's take a closer look at this! If you want to consider and use sustainability indicators in your company, you first have to define your goals and think about which indicators are helpful for your own company - not all of them are useful for every company. The next step is to collect and analyze data.

This works particularly well with production software. This automatically records a wide range of production data, stores it centrally and helps to analyze it. This includes, for example, energy consumption, material consumption, rejects and waste, production times, machine utilization and even downtimes.

By monitoring production in real time, it is possible to recognize at an early stage if you are deviating from plans and targets and can intervene and take appropriate measures.

How does software help?

The collected data can be analyzed with the help of the software. They provide an overview of the company's sustainability performance. This overview can be used internally, e.g. to identify potential for improvement, or it can be used externally, e.g. to publish sustainability reports.

 By analyzing the production data, the company can check its processes for efficiency and optimize them. In this way, the consumption of energy, water and materials can be reduced. It can also be used to take a look at the amount of waste and rejects in order to avoid, reduce or recycle them. However, the software could also be used to try and implement the principles of the circular economy, for example by promoting the reuse of materials.

Due to laws such as the Supply Chain Act or the digital product passport, more and more companies need to have consistent information about their products and production. Data collection and analysis can be used to document, evaluate and improve the sustainability performance of their production, but also that of their suppliers.

Production planning software

There are not only MES or ERP systems, but also production planning software such as FEKOR that can support companies with sustainability! Production planning can be designed in such a way that sustainability indicators such as the optimization of sustainable materials or other factors are taken into account. With the help of good software, you can also simulate possible production scenarios and analyze the impact on sustainability. In this way, well-founded decisions can be made. Social indicators are also a pillar of sustainability. With the help of planning software, employee satisfaction can be increased in the long term, as work processes flow more smoothly and long-term production planning also enables long-term personnel planning.

Standards and certification

In order to show that you are well positioned in terms of sustainability, you can also be certified or generally follow standards when implementing your own plans. It should be noted that there are many regional differences. There are various sustainability certifications, such as ISO 14001 for environmental management or the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which can help companies with implementation.

Transparency and communication

Do good and talk about it! Not only are there certifications that can be achieved more easily with the help of the steps mentioned, but you can also use the data and analyses to provide transparent information on sustainability to stakeholders such as customers, employees or investors. This can be done with sustainability reports, for example. However, care should be taken to avoid greenwashing. Companies must ensure that the measures really do have the desired impact and are not just pure marketing!

How do you secure the future of your production?

In summary, you can pay attention to sustainability indicators at many points in production and gain great added value for the entire production process! The most important thing is to collect and analyze the data after you have set your goals. With the help of software, most of these goals can be achieved and they often have a positive impact on other areas. Modern production software is a valuable tool for companies that want to improve their sustainability performance and measure and communicate their progress in implementing sustainability indicators. By collecting and analyzing data, optimizing processes and supporting planning and simulation, the software can help companies achieve their sustainability goals and contribute to a more sustainable future.

However, sustainability requirements or regulations can also change over time or vary depending on the country or region. As a result, companies must ensure that they comply with the relevant requirements.

Sustainability indicators can provide companies with important and valuable insights in ecological, sociological and economic terms. By actively analyzing and improving them, companies can not only secure their competitiveness but also have a positive impact on society and the environment.