Wouldn’t it be nice to know just how sustainable a particular promotional product is?

London, U.K.-headquartered global marketing execution partner adm Group, the parent company of distributor Lapine (asi/249352), has created a calculator to do just that. The Green Design Tool, developed and launched in partnership with sustainability activator Anthesis, factors in information such as raw materials, packaging, downstream logistics, recycled content, use and end-of-life to calculate a particular product’s sustainability.

“We believe this will have a significant part to play in helping our clients deliver more sustainable marketing activations, as well as helping adm on our emissions reduction roadmap,” said Tom Hunter, chief sustainability officer, in adm’s recently released 2022 “From Purpose to Impact” sustainability report.

In the third-annual report, adm Group shares an example of how its team uses the tool to show clients the impact of choosing promotional T-shirts using locally produced, Global Recycled Standard (GRS) certified recycled cotton, rather than a polycotton blend from China. They also compare the impacts of using 100% recycled corrugate and paper packaging instead of virgin corrugate and plastic.

“In making these production location, item material and packaging improvements, we can offer clients a closed-loop product, with the production of each T-shirt emitting 21% less carbon, utilizing 92% less water and increasing the weighted product score generated by the Green Design Tool by 127%,” according to adm’s report.

The company can also print QR codes on the inside of these sustainable shirts to give end-users the scoop on the environmental impacts associated with the improved production process. Scanning the QR code also enables end-users to easily recycle the product at the end of its life.

The launch of its Green Design Tool was just one of many highlights outlined in the report. Ed Colflesh, CEO of adm Group, said 2022 was a significant year for the company’s sustainability program, noting that the firm is embedding “an action-oriented mindset across our business to help us deliver tangible improvements for our clients.”

“In 2022, we operated against a backdrop of continued market disruption due to global inflation, supply chain challenges and climate change,” Colflesh said in his message. “Indeed, as the world gradually exited the pandemic, it felt like sustainability established itself as a central tenet of all our various stakeholders’ agendas.”

Last year, adm Group formally submitted its emissions reduction plan to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), outlining its intention to reduce absolute Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 and by 90% by 2040, from a 2021 base year.

The company also improved its CDP score, from a C rating in 2021 to a B rating last year. The CDP is a nonprofit charity that runs a global disclosure system for investors, companies and governments to manage their environmental impact.

In addition, adm Group said it received its third Platinum rating in a row from EcoVadis, a firm that provides sustainability ratings for businesses, ranking them based on four pillars: environment, labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement. Of particular note, adm Group pointed out, was its 90/100 score in EcoVadis’ environment pillar. “This provides strong external endorsement of our commitment to improving our sustainability management performance,” according to adm Group.

The firm also improved its EcoVadis score in the labor and human rights pillar, scoring a 90/100 in that category as well. By 2025, adm Group intends to become a Certified Living Wage employer; the company is working with the Fair Wage Network to help reach that goal.

“We are happy at the Fair Wage Network to support adm in its important objective to pay all its employees at least a living wage by 2025,” said Daniel Vaughan-Whitehead, founder and chair of Fair Wage Network. “We started to accompany adm in this journey with the necessary living wage benchmarks and with a living wage gap analysis carried out in its different markets to help them moving toward our global living wage certification.”

Colflesh noted that adm Group is also taking active steps to ensure 40% female representation across its global leadership team by 2025.

“The challenge facing us all is huge, but it is unavoidable,” Hunter said. “At adm, we remain committed to taking actions that reduce our impact on the environment, protect human rights in the supply chain, and support people across the globe. For us, it is about moving from purpose to impact now.”

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