What if you could make the Sustainability Value of your products visible?

Join our Handprint Workshop in 2027

What is a Handprint?

Many products and services help customers reduce emissions, save resources, improve circularity and achieve sustainability goals. Yet the focus often remains on negative impacts while positive contributions remain invisible.

A sustainability handprint describes the beneficial outcomes a product or service can enable downstream, from customer processes and manufacturing operations to consumer use. It provides a structured way to identify, assess and communicate this value, turning sustainability contributions into tangible business benefits.

Two Sides of Sustainability

From Footprint to Handprint

While footprints help organizations understand and reduce their environmental and social impacts, handprints reveal the positive sustainability outcomes products and services can enable for customers and value chains.

Together, they provide a complementary picture of sustainability performance.

Footprint: What negative impact does a product create?

  • Focus: Risk reduction, mitigation and compliance
  • Goal: Reduce the negative

Handprint: Which sustainability benefits can a product enable?

  • Focus: Value creation, innovation and contribution
  • Goal: Increase the positive

Footprints show a product’s impact. Handprints show what they enable.

Business Benefits

Turn Sustainability into Business Value

  • Sustainability Tangible

    Translate sustainability performance of products into concrete outcomes such as reduced emissions, resource savings or improved circularity.

  • Differentiate Your Solutions

    Replace generic claims with measurable, customer-relevant sustainability benefits that stand out.

  • Broaden the Conversation

    Move beyond product features and pricing discussions by engaging customers on sustainability challenges, opportunities and long-term value creation

  • Support Business Growth

    Connect sustainability performance with commercial opportunities, customer needs and evolving market expectations.

  • Build a Business Case for Sustainability

    Demonstrate how sustainability contributes to your company’s business success by linking environmental and social value creation to commercial strategies.

Discuss Your Handprint Potential

Join our Handprint Workshop in 2027!

How Handprinting helps sell Sustainability 

Together with industry experts and peers, participants will learn how to identify sustainability opportunities, understand customer needs and translate sustainability benefits into compelling value propositions

What to expect

  • Impulse talks on sustainability, handprinting and real-world applications.
  • Hands-on workshop sessions focused on customer needs and business opportunities.
  • Expert exchange and networking with industry peers and sustainability practitioners.
Workshop Interest Registration – March 2027

How we turn Handprints into Customer Value

A handprint only creates value when it becomes visible and actionable.
Our structured 5-step approach helps organizations identify sustainability outcomes, quantify their value and translate them into compelling customer benefits:

Understand Customer Needs

Identify relevant sustainability challenges, priorities and expectations across customer segments, markets and value chains.

Identify Relevant Solutions

Determine which products, services or technologies can contribute to the identified customer needs and objectives. 

Build the Sustainability Value Proposition

Translate sustainability needs and product benefits into a clear and differentiated value proposition that resonates with customers.

Quantify Customer Benefits

Support sustainability claims through credible data, measurable outcomes and evidence-based indicators.

Activate Customer Engagement

Leverage sustainability value through sales enablement, customer conversations, communication materials and market positioning.

Discuss Your Handprint Potential

Three examples to make Handprints more tangible

INDUSTRIAL MANUFACTURING

Smart Monitoring Chips for Industrial Equipment

Technology: Semiconductors enable real-time monitoring of machines and production equipment, helping manufacturers track performance, energy consumption and maintenance needs.

Handprint: Smart monitoring chips enable manufacturers to identify inefficiencies, reduce energy consumption and optimize resource use throughout production processes.

AGRICULTURE

Short-stature Corn Enables Resource Efficiency

Technology: Short-stature corn allows late-season field access with standard equipment, enabling fertilizer to be applied precisely when crops need it most.

Handprint: Short-stature corn enables farmers to improve nitrogen-use efficiency, reduce fertilizer losses and optimize resource use while maintaining productivity.

ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES

Efficient running cycles enable reduced water use

Technology: A washing machine uses advanced sensors and optimized wash programs to reduce water and energy consumption per cycle. 

Handprint: Enables lower resource consumption for consumers during everyday use resulting in reduced energy use and utility costs. 

FAQ

  • Can a product have both a footprint and a handprint?

    Yes. Every product can simultaneously create impacts through its lifecycle while also enabling positive sustainability outcomes for customers and users.

  • How is a handprint different from LCA calculations?

    Replace generic claims with measurable, customer-relevant sustainability benefits that stand out.

  • How is a handprint different from LCA calculations?

    A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) typically evaluates the environmental impacts associated with a product throughout its lifecycle, from raw material extraction to end-of-life. A handprint complements this perspective by focusing on the positive sustainability outcomes a product or service can enable for customers and users. While LCAs help understand impacts, handprints help make sustainability value visible.

  • What data is needed to assess a handprint?

    The required data depends on the product, industry and sustainability outcome being assessed. Typical inputs may include product performance data, customer use scenarios, sustainability indicators and information on the alternative solution or baseline.

  • How to avoid greenwashing when communicating handprints?

    Credible handprints are built on transparent assumptions, robust data and a clear methodology. Sustainability claims should be evidence-based, measurable and linked to specific outcomes that can be reasonably attributed to the product or service. Handprints should complement, not replace, footprint assessments and other sustainability metrics, providing a balanced view of both impacts and contributions.

Discuss Your Handprint Potential

Our Experts

Dr. Michael Kühnen

Manager

ELFIN Team

Christina Montag

Senior Consultant

Anne Frommelt

Senior Consultant

Ready to Make Sustainable Value Visible?

Let’s explore how sustainability handprints can help your organization strengthen customer value propositions, differentiate solutions and support sustainable growth.

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ELFIN Consulting GmbH
Im Mediapark 6b
50670 Köln
Germany

Fon: +49 (0) 221 6705 6660
Fax: +49 (0) 221 6705 6661

 service@elfin.works