If this Product Could Talk - NFPs Help Develop Product Roadmaps

10 November 2009 at 11:38 am
Staff Reporter

Is it more socially and environmentally responsible to buy frozen potatoes, or potatoes from the fresh food aisle? How many times has the t-shirt you are wearing made its way across the globe before it ended up in your local retail store? Do you know what type of wood your desk is made from and what the work conditions of the people involved in the production were like?

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Staff Reporter | 10 November 2009 at 11:38 am

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The St James Ethics Centre has launched If this product could talk: Product Roadmaps, as part of the Federal Government funded National Responsible Business Practice Project.

St James Ethics Centre commissioned a diverse group of collaborators – the Total Environment Centre, Brotherhood of St Laurence and Net Balance to build the road maps. The end result it says is that consumers, suppliers, business owners and government can be better informed as to where a product comes from and the related sustainability issues associated with its production.

In addition the Centre plans to hold a series of roundtable discussions with key stakeholders to develop recommendations to address sustainability impacts.

Most products and services go through many steps before they arrive on the shelves, or in communities. By taking a closer look at the complete supply chain, right from the primary producer through to the consumer, product roadmaps can give industry, business and consumers a greater understanding of a product’s or service’s social and environmental impacts.

Head of the National Project, St James Ethics Centre, Rosemary Sainty says that at a time when ‘green washing’ and questionable labelling is rife, the Centre sees product road-mapping as a way of bringing transparency to the sustainability impacts and opportunities of goods and services, as well as the complexities within them.

She says they provide a compelling public educational message to consumers and the community in general.

The product roadmaps are available to view and download by industry bodies, businesses, educators and the general public. These include a generic product roadmap for business to build their own roadmaps and as an educational tool, together with a suite of sector specific roadmaps and detailed reports for the garment industry, the building sector and the fresh food industry (potato).

These can be used as a framework to develop roadmaps for additional sectors and/or products.

St James Ethics Centre encourages industry bodies, educators, business and government to help build a greater understanding of the supply chain.

The Centre invites those creating roadmaps to build a “National Directory” of roadmaps to be housed on the Centre’s HUB of Responsible Business Practice in Australia.

For more inforamation visit http://thehub.ethics.org.au/sme/product_roadmaps