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As I drove into the office this morning, I heard the first cuckoo of spring. Radio 4 reported the banks' promise of an end to the UK recession.

There are many signs of early growth. Scorecards and metrics are budding and sending out fresh new shoots to tangle the unwary; in fact the blighters are growing so fast it’s time to get out the pruning shears and see if we can cut back on
the weeds.

There are many species running riot. Asda announced its progress a short while back, The Global Consumer Forum has started work on its metrics and Wrap has shared a cut-down variant of PAS 2050, which is as elegant and meaningful a hybrid as the process that created it.

An optimist would suggest we are spoilt for choice but it’s too close to winter for optimism and I look upon the proliferation of creepers with a sharp urge to hack at the roots.

I have a new pair of secateurs for the job. Over the past year we have been asking scientists of a different persuasion how they would tackle measuring the impact of methods and processes and I would encourage anyone interested in the subject to do the same. If I were to attempt to describe the workings of an LCA model or sustainability score sheet, I would need at least two full pages for an introduction.

However, the physics community are simpler souls and look to reduce complex systems to simple descriptions. If I understand them right, they would recommend the following.

For a given object or method there are two forms of environmental impact: the depletion of resources and the effects caused by emissions. These account for all sustainability impacts.

To improve our performance we have to reduce these two factors and/or increase the amount of useful work we do with them.

So if we sum all resources exploited and all emissions released and divide that total by the amount of work achieved we have a meaningful sustainability measurement – certainly one that is sufficient to direct change.

There are many good sources for the resource and emissions data, such as EcoInvent for Europe and NREL for the USA.

As for calculating the amount of work achieved, this is just a physical way of talking about reuse and actual recycled content. The additional energy consumed in reuse and recycling is added to the resource side of the equation.

The approach delivers a formula that you can enter into a spreadsheet in five minutes and gives you a workable engineering tool to help you reduce impact. As all we are interested in is answering the question of if we have we improved performance and if so by how much, it’s perfectly fit for purpose. Anyone who is interested in learning more can contact me at PI. Like all good things it’s easy and it’s free.

Steve Kelsey is strategic innovations director at PI Global. Send comments for Steve to packagingnews.editorial@haymarket.com