What if you could turn Sustainability Performance into Customer Value?

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

There is currently no single standard for calculating sustainability handprints. Instead, organizations rely on established frameworks such as ISO 14040/14044 for life cycle assessment, ISO 14067 for product carbon footprints, and guidance such as the WBCSD Avoided Emissions Guidance and the Carbon Handprint Guide. Because no dedicated handprint certification exists, credibility depends on transparent methodology, realistic comparisons, clear assumptions and system boundaries, and reporting the handprint separately from the product footprint. For public comparisons, independent expert review is strongly recommended, and claims should be framed as “calculated according to” or “reviewed by” rather than “certified handprint.

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.

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.

Since September 2026, EmpCo has introduced strict rules for sustainability claims in consumer communication, banning vague environmental claims, offset-based climate neutrality claims, and misleading product-wide claims. While these specific prohibitions do not apply to pure B2B communication, all claims must still be truthful and non-misleading, as B2B materials often reach consumers indirectly. EmpCo does not prohibit handprint claims as such. They remain possible as specific, quantified and comparative statements with a named reference, a clear scope and a disclosed method, and without netting the handprint against the product’s footprint.