Henkel has a range of instruments for assessing a product. For example, we draw on our long experience with life cycle analyses to determine what environmental impacts occur, and to what extent, in which phase of a product’s life. To conduct a life cycle assessment we use primary data from our own operations or cooperate with our partners along the supply chain. If no primary data are available, we revert to secondary data from existing life cycle databases, average values and emission factors. Based on the results, improvement measures can be applied where they are most needed and can be most efficiently implemented. Suitable actions can be taken, for example, to improve the resource efficiency of our own processes. If the greatest impact occurs in the use phase, we optimize our products by reducing the amount of energy and water needed to use them, by using renewable raw materials, or by improving their biodegradability.

Innovations are the basis for our economic success and key to sustainable development. We have systematically anchored our focal areas in our Company-wide standardized innovation process, because we know that we can only fulfill our commitment if our focal areas are integrated into our innovation process from the very beginning: All new products contribute to sustainable development in at least one focal area. By this process we make sure that today’s research builds the foundation for tomorrow’s sustainable products. The development of innovations is stimulated not only by the desire to continuously improve quality and performance, but also by the search for ecological and social progress, which we see as an important driver of economic growth and a generator of competitive advantages in the market.

This is why we concentrate on researching and developing innovative and smart solutions that offer significant added value by combining top performance with responsibility toward people and the environment. At the same time, they enable customers and consumers to make more efficient use of valuable resources such as energy and water.

We have developed numerous communications instruments for making the added value of these innovations transparent to our consumers, retail and industrial customers.

With our promise of “Quality & Responsibility” on all of our laundry detergents and household cleaners, we aim to make it easier for consumers worldwide to reach a conscientious purchasing decision. Thanks to the added value that the combination of quality and responsibility offers, they can purchase better product performance and greater sustainability at the same time.

The Laundry & Home Care business sector uses the “Henkel Sustainability Master” to determine the sustainability performance of new products and processes on the basis of various questions and parameters. Improvements can thus be identified and used in the marketing of new products or the development of logistical and packaging strategies. We also offer special brochures and presentation materials, as well as courses and seminars for our salespeople, and carry out joint activities with our industrial and retail customers.

Another tool designed to communicate the added value of our innovations to our industrial customers is our “Value Calculator”. For industrial products it shows how much time, energy and labor can be saved by using a product from Henkel. The Value Calculator can be used to compare each step of a new process with that of an existing one. This helps us to identify potential savings in the consumption of energy, water and raw materials, and to improve our customers’ processes. The resulting advantages and cost savings are demonstrated in a transparent and easily understandable manner.