The Challenge
As consumers make more and more purchasing decisions based on a product’s “green” credentials, sustainable products have become more commonplace. Consumers readily abandoned companies that were not certified by a credible sustainability agency or group. Recognizing how important it was to adjust to changing consumer attitudes, Heuck, a renowned worldwide distributor of houseware products since 1922, decided to establish a sustainable and carbon neutral product line.
Since product life cycle assessment (LCA) was not a core competency, Heuck needed to turn to an industry expert to help carry out this project. Heuck wanted an end-to-end solution including analyzing the project’s feasibility, implementing the program and generating the reports necessary to receive CarbonNeutral certification.
Our Solution
Heuck chose ADEC ESG Solutions (then known as FirstCarbon Solutions) to provide this needed end-to-end solution because of our in-house expertise in LCA and data processing capabilities.
After providing Heuck with a comprehensive feasibility analysis of its sustainable and carbon neutral plans, our team also developed an analysis of Heuck’s manufacturing process across its entire supply chain.
We next identified and collected data on energy usage, raw materials used, packaging, solid wastes and transportation for each of Heuck’s operations. Using these data and other information to get a preliminary greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory through proven LCA Methods, ADEC ESG calculated Heuck’s carbon footprint per unit measured.
With the carbon footprint information, Heuck purchased carbon offsets which eventually reduced their carbon footprint to zero. After achieving this, Heuck moved forward with the certification phase from The CarbonNeutral Company.
The ADEC Innovations Advantage
Heuck continues to differentiate itself in a highly competitive market due to its sustainability initiatives. Heuck benefited from our team’s expertise on LCA sustainability management, and GHG inventory development. Through ADEC ESG, Heuck realized its goal of achieving carbon neutral certification for a new product line.
ADEC has helped us successfully achieve our goals in manufacturing the first CarbonNeutral line of cookware and kitchen gadgets in the market, ZEROCA, while satisfying the certification requirements in a cost-effective manner. We’re now able to develop our own calculations on total cost of carbon offsets in order to maintain carbon neutrality. Working with ADEC has enabled us to more clearly define the return on investment (ROI) of our sustainability programs.Chris McCarthy, M.E. Heuck
President
Deliverables and Results
- Received CarbonNeutral Certification
- Calculated carbon footprint per unit measure
- Completed LCA calculations on a per product basis
