The Natural Step’s methodology has helped many actors select and substitute materials in their products, including PVC. The same approach is being used to help the PVC industry understand and address its challenges. Some examples of this can be found here: PVC analysis using The Natural Step Framework. 

We recognize that PVC has been heavily opposed by many who regard it as inherently harmful to the environment and / or to human health. Industry often speaks about the high functional performance of PVC allowing it to be widely used in a range of applications that benefit society and directly contribute to meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. How can these perspectives be reconciled?

Our methodology has helped bring new insights to many engaged in the PVC and sustainability debate:

• A set of science-based principles helps to build shared understanding of sustainability and surface underlying assumptions behind opinions and conflicting pieces of evidence.
• With this awareness, it becomes possible to perform a sustainability gap analysis and build consensus on challenges and long-term objectives.  
• Finally, recognizing we are all on the sustainability journey together, once industry knows where to aim, roadmaps and innovation pathways can be developed. It is then up to markets and stakeholders to  judge performance on the quality of action plans and the actual results achieved. 

Ultimately we believe that sustainable management of materials and products is a more useful and scientifically grounded framing than specific judgements on sustainable vs un-sustainable materials or products. The overarching questions we ask are: in which applications and under what life cycle conditions can material x, y or z be managed sustainably? Then, how do we get there? 

On the following link we have provided some general comments on the controversy about PVC, its potential sustainability benefits, the complexity of the challenges that need to be addressed and the need for action.

Dive deeper: Why “PVC and Sustainability” matters. 

PVC: An Evaluation using The Natural Step Framework (2000)

In 2000, together with the Environment Agency in the United Kingdom, The Natural Step published a report on the challenges the PVC industry must address to align its activities with the 4 system conditions for a sustainable society (sustainability principles promoted by The Natural Step). The report highlighted five key sustainability challenges and followed an extensive study of PVC including consensus-building workshops with industry, NGO’s, retailers and regulators. Over the years these challenges have provided a reference point for the industry, initially in the UK and subsequently across Europe. The most proactive organisations in the sector have been working to address them.

Report Citation: Everard, M. Monagham, M. and Ray, D. (2000), PVC, An Evaluation Using The Natural Step Framework; The Natural Step UK. Cheltenham. (Download.pdf):

The Natural Step for Business – taking up the challenge

Hydro Polymers was one of the first of many companies in the PVC industry to take up the challenges formulated by The Natural Step. Through in-house education programmes, analysis of material components, investment in innovation projects and supply chain engagement, Hydro Polymers built internal capacity to work with The Natural Step Framework. In 2002, Hydro Polymers Sustainability Manager Dr Jason Leadbitter, an expert in Polymer Science, published a research paper describing how his company used The Natural Step Framework and set out to tackle the five key challenges previously identified. INSEAD Business School first published a case about Hydro Polymers strategic business focus on sustainability in 2008. The case was updated in 2016, following developments in the industry, including the acquisition by INEOS ChlorVinyl.

Journal: Leadbitter, J., 2002, PVC and Sustainability. Progress in Polymer Science 27(10): 2197-2226.

Case study: Smith, C. & Jarisch D., 2016. INEOS ChlorVinyls: A Positive Vision for PVC. INSEAD Business School.

Leading Change for a Sustainable Chemical Industry

Between 2008-2010, The Natural Step hosted a professional development programme to build the sustainability competence of professionals in the PVC value chain. The programme was offered together with Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden and emerged as a direct result of The Natural Step’s  engagement with Hydro Polymers and its supply chain. In the course of the programme, CEO’s, sustainabiltiy managers and specialists from a range of companies were trained using The Natural Step framework to perform sustainability analyses of activities in their company.

PVC: Reaching for Sustainability

In 2008, Dr Mark Everard, former Director of Science for The Natural Step in the UK, published his book, PVC: Reaching for Sustainability. This provides a first-hand account of his involvement in leading The Natural Step’s initial study and covers the early PVC debate in Europe, further analysis of PVC and derivation of the five challenges identified using The Natural Step Framework. It also touches on subsequent voluntary action by industry and the lead up to a more robust commitment from the industry to take up the challenges.

Everard, M., (2008)., PVC: Reaching for Sustainability. IOM3 and The Natural Step. 

Review: Table of contents (.pdf)

Purchase: Publication available through the British Plastics Federation bookshop.

VinylPlus® Voluntary Commitment (2011-2020)

In 2010, The Natural Step was engaged by the Board of Vinyl 2010 to advise on new sustainability targets for the whole European industry up to 2020. That work included industry workshops and an extensive stakeholder participation activities to review the key challenges and priorities for the industry to address. A set of commitments were confirmed and these now form the basis of VinylPlus®, the European industry’s voluntary commitment to sustainable development (2011-2020).

Learn more: VinylPlus website; Our views on the European Industry’s Progress

Download: VinylPlus Voluntary Commitment (.pdf)

VinylPlus® Product Labelling and Third Party auditing of PVC articles

The VinylPlus® Product Label is a labelling scheme which makes it easy for customers and markets to identify the most sustainable and high-performance PVC products. Currently, the scheme covers the building and construction sectors. The Label has been developed by VinylPlus®, in collaboration with Building Research Establishment (BRE Global) and The Natural Step (TNS).  BRE Global is responsible for independently verifying company and product performance. Progress is assessed against a range of criteria that are designed to encourage responsible sourcing and stimulate progress against each of the key sustainability challenges identified in The Natural Step’s analysis and later incorporated within the VinylPlus Voluntary Commitment.

Learn more: VinylPlus® Product Label

Additive Sustainability Footprint 

Within the scope of the partnership with VinylPlus, The Natural Step has been helping the European PVC industry to apply sustainability principles to formulate robust criteria for the sustainable use of additives. Beginning in 2014, this work has involved stakeholder consultation to understand the foundations and gaps in existing assessment tools when viewed through a whole-systems approach to sustainability. It has also involved examining how to use and build upon industry investments in REACH compliance and use of Environmental Product Declarations etc. The Natural Step’s work merging sustainability and life cycle assessment is serving as the foundation for a customized assessment tool for PVC additives, known as Additive Sustainability Footprint.

Learn more: Sustainability life cycle assessment (SLCA)

Circular Economy and responsibly dealing with Legacy Additives

In 2018, The Natural Step published a sustainability analysis of post-use management options for rigid PVC articles. The analysis was requested by the European PVC industry’s Controlled-Loop Management taskforce to help develop science-based proposals for tackling the question of legacy additives. These are substances such as lead-based stabilizers that were allowed onto the market previously but have since been restricted in new products. In the case of rigid PVC, controlled-loop material management with appropriate safeguards, delivers the greatest potential to align with sustainability principles in comparison to the alternative options of landfill and incineration. This analysis also highlights the importance of a clear long-term set of sustainability criteria to guide policy and inform thinking about responsible transition roadmaps that ‘take the bad with the good’ to optimize the overall system outcome over time.

Read our analysis: Legacy additives in rigid PVC and progress toward sustainability (.pdf)

Introduction

The Natural Step has been monitoring the European PVC industry’s overall approach to sustainable development since 2010. Through a partnership with VinylPlus, The Natural Step was commissioned to help the industry establish guiding principles, gather stakeholder input and set out the scope for a renewed and more ambitious commitment building on the industry’s earlier charter, Vinyl2010. Since then we have played the role of a ‘critical friend’ – an advisor, stakeholder intermediary and capacity builder, helping the industry to stay on target. 

Applying The Natural Step Framework – Backcasting from Success

When the VinylPlus voluntary commitment was being defined, The Natural Step’s ABCD ‘backcasting’ process was used to create a shared and positive vision for the PVC industry in Europe – one that is ultimately aligned with the ‘system conditions for a sustainable society’. Standing in a desired future is a creative process that encourages one to think about the future we all want to be part of, then look back at the present baseline and consider what needs to be achieved in sequential steps to achieve success. Through The Natural Step’s earlier analysis of PVC, five key challenges had already established the baseline. These challenges were reviewed to define priorities and commitments for VinylPlus in the period 2011-2020. Following feedback from stakeholders, the priorities and concerns were reformulated into a set of commitments and targets for the European PVC industry up to the year 2020.

The Voluntary Commitment up to 2020  

While the TNS analysis outlines the full gap to be bridged in the longer term, VinylPlus is a commitment to making progress up to the period 2020. The correlation is presented below:

Targets

The success of VinylPlus largely depents upon living up to the spirit of the voluntary commitment and achieving a specific set of targets. There are 35 targets in total. Take a look at the commitment here: VinylPlus Voluntary Commitment (.pdf)

VinylPlus is getting results and recognition. 

Each year VinylPlus reports publicly on its commitments and progress toward its targets in its annual report. The Natural Step is engaged to publicly comment on progress in the annual report and also provides advice and support in various ways to help the industry to keep up momentum through voluntary action.

We encourage stakeholders to take a closer look at VinylPlus’s achievements and judge the industry by both what it aims to accomplish and what it delivers in practice.

Learn more on VinylPlus Annual progress: VinylPlus Annual Reports

TNS statement on VinylPlus Annual progress – 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 |

A platform for longer-term change 

The Natural Step clearly acknowledges that the European PVC industry will have to continue its journey well beyond 2020 and that a common global approach is ultimately needed. We support VinylPlus as a stepping stone in a longer term journey and believe it has a number of features that make it a good example of how to organise and manage change at industry scale:

• A clear and positive vision is needed to inspire and motivate industry to take up the sustainability challenge and work together on challenges shared in common.
• The use of science-based principles clearly defines the long term requirements for sustainability and puts all efforts and celebration of progress in context of closing the full gap.
• Following a set of guiding principles for the journey helps to foster the right mindset, overcome an historical trust deficit and hold industry accountable.
• Clear and measurable targets with external monitoring can add credibility and foster continual improvement.
• Leadership from Europe can have, and is having, a wider impact on the global PVC industry.

The rigour and structure of the approach sets it apart from many other voluntary initiatives by industry, and can also serve as a model for others.

The following publications give a good overview of publications and research articles related to The Natural Step’s methodology and in particular, our work with PVC:

• Broman, G.I. and Robèrt, K.H., 2017. A framework for strategic sustainable development. Journal of Cleaner Production, 140, pp.17-31.
• Smith, C. & Jarisch, D.,INSEAD Case Study, 2016. INEOS ChlorVinyls: A Positive Vision for PVC.
• Lindahl, P., Robèrt, K., Ny, H., Broman, G., 2014. “Strategic sustainability considerations in materials management”, Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 64, no. feb 2014, pp. 98-103.
• Schiller, M. and Everard, M., 2013. Metals in PVC stabilization considered under the aspect of sustainability – one vision. J Vinyl Addit Technol, 19: 73–85.
• Everard, M., 2008, PVC: Reaching for Sustainability. IOM3 and The Natural Step.
• P. Johnston, M. Everard, D. Santillo, and K-H Robèrt, 2007, “Commentaries: Reclaiming the definition of sustainability,” Environmental Science and Pollution Research, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 60–66.
• Ny, H., MacDonald, J.P., Broman, G., Ryoichi, Y., and Robert, K-H, 2006, “Sustainability Constraints as System Boundaries: An Approach to Making Life-Cycle Management Strategic“, Journal of Industrial Ecology, Volume 10,  Issue 1-2.
• Leadbitter, J., 2002, PVC and Sustainability. Progress in Polymer Science 27(10): 2197-2226.
• Robèrt, K-H. 2002. “Sustainable Management of Materials – Applying Backcasting from Principles of Sustainability“. Proceedings From: Materials Science for Future Sustainable Technologies, University of Augsburg, Institute of Physics, Germany. September 17-20, 2002
• Everard, M. et al., 2000, 2020 Vision Series No. 2: PVC and Sustainability, The Natural Step UK
• Everard, M. et al, 2000, PVC, An Evaluation Using The Natural Step Framework; The Natural Step UK.
• The United Nations pointed it out as an examplary case for collaboration and action toowards multiple 2030 UNSDGs.
• The landmark 2019 UNEP Global Chemical Outlook II to which we contributed, gives an overview of what is going on globally regarding the (sound management of) chemicals. It also contains a case study on VinylPlus and the application of our SLCA methodoloogy.