The IQ^S is one of the world’s most comprehensive sustainability scans for medium and small businesses, yet it’s affordable and gives intuitive insight into potential pathways to improvements.

Why a sustainability scan?

As a business owner, you know that sustainability is important. Supply chain partners are starting to ask about your sustainability credentials. Customers are increasingly demanding “green” products and services.

You also know that understanding sustainability can be complicated, time-consuming, and expensive. Which standards do you comply with?

Improving sustainability performance can mean saving money, minimizing risks, improving brand value and reputation, getting access to capital earmarked for sustainability, and better employee recruitment, just to name some of the benefits. We developed the IQ^S so that you can do just that, and more, effectively.

Communication and Certification

The IQ^S identifies key risk factors and areas for both short- and long-term improvement.

In addition to serving as an internal communication and tracking tool, the quickscan results can be used to apply for certain third-party certifications and ecolabels.

All data is collected in compliance with current international measurement standards.

Complete coverage

The scan is designed around Except’s ELSIA categorization system to ensure coverage of all major categories relevant to sustainable operations (see below).

The various scan modules can be completed to different degrees of depth, depending on the size of the company and the amount of time available for the process.

The diagram above shows the SiD ELSIA categorisation system.

Insightful results

The IQ^S delivers a graphic representation of the company – a system map – that shows the company’s major inputs, outputs, impacts, and performance on a number of indicators.
 

This graphic is delivered together with a short (12-16) page report further detailing the company’s performance and areas for improvement.

All performance is assessed against a theoretical “ideal state” of net-zero-impact / net-positive-impact. The company can track its movement towards this ideal state using its own initial baseline.

Example Projects

IKEA Catalogue Story of Print

Interactive Story Telling Tools Promote Stakeholder Engagement

<p>IKEA Media Production engaged Except to showcase the sustainability achievements and ambitions of its 200-million-copy catalogue. Together we created a storytelling infographic for the IKEA customer-facing staff, and a data-packed dashboard for internal stakeholders such as store co-workers, catalogue responsibles, PR, social media, communication, sustainability and marketing managers and teams. The tools have been introduced to thousands of employees, permeating learning and awareness.</p>

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Natural Capital is Business

How to bring Natural Capital into the boardroom?

<p><br />Natural Capital plays a title role in our economy. To help you clarify the relationship between your economic activities and Natural Capital, Except and NXTE developed the Natural Capital Quick Scan. The scan delivers instant insight and suggests dozens of ways to mitigate risks and pick up on opportunities.</p>

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No Time To Waste (2018)

Jump-starting the LC Packaging sustainability journey

<p>LC Packaging serves customers across the globe with packaging products to protect, preserve and transport goods. Except was requested to assess its baseline sustainability performance.</p> <div> <p dir="ltr">At product level we examined reusing Flexible Intermediate Bulk Containers (FIBCs) and found a significant CO₂ emission reduction potential. At corporate level we investigated energy and water use, waste generation and CO₂ emission. See below for our main findings.</p> </div>

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