Yes, you are encouraged to share the valuable insights from the Stage Comparator. To ensure the results are communicated accurately and transparently, we ask that you follow these best practices.
Following these guidelines helps prevent misinterpretation and ensures your sustainability claims are clear and credible.
1. Specify the Life Cycle Stage
This is the most important rule. The Stage Comparator’s results refer only to the specific stage of the life cycle being compared, not the entire product. Communicating this context is essential to avoid making a misleading claim about the product’s overall impact.
- Example: A comparison between organic and conventional cotton only reflects the impact of the raw material stage. It does not include the impact of dyeing, manufacturing, or transporting the final t-shirt.
2. Clarify the basis of comparison
All comparisons in the tool are standardized to ensure a fair, one-to-one analysis. When you share results, you should clarify what this basis is. Depending on the stage you are analyzing, this will be:
- The impact of producing 1 kg of a raw material.
- The impact of processing 1 kg of material.
- The impact of transporting 1 kg of material over a distance of 10,000 km.
- The impact of producing 1 kg of packaging.
3. Credit the data source
To ensure full transparency and allow third-party verification, any data from the Stage Comparator that you publish must be accompanied by the phrase:
“Powered by BCome”
Attributing the data source is a standard practice that reinforces the credibility of your claims.
Example of clear communication
Here is how to apply these principles in practice.
- Vague/incorrect communication: “Our new t-shirt is 30% better for the climate.” (This is misleading because it implies the entire product’s impact has been reduced by 30%).
- Clear and credible communication: “By switching to organic cotton, we have reduced the global warming impact of our raw material stage by 30 kg CO₂ eq. per kg of cotton produced. Powered by BCome.” (This is clear, specific, and transparent).