Sourceful set to expand life cycle analysis access
Sourceful set to expand life cycle analysis access
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Manchester, United Kingdom-based Sourceful, which describes itself as a platform for sustainable sourcing, has secured a $20 million Series A funding round led by Index Ventures, which has offices in San Francisco and London. That firm also backs global app providers Deliveroo, Dropbox and Just Eat.
Founded in 2020, Sourceful says it works with brands around the world “to shrink their environmental impact by helping them find, create and deliver products that are better for their business and the planet.” The company does this via its life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, part of which focuses on raw materials extraction and production—an aspect that tends to favor recycled content.
Sourceful says consumer products industries “represent three of the top four most-polluting sectors, accounting for around 35 percent of global emissions.” Adds the firm, “Approximately 83 percent of those emissions come from their supply chains. E-commerce packaging in particular has a worsening environmental impact as online sales grow by 15 percent annually, with little visibility or data available on its production and source material footprint.”
By starting with packaging, Sourceful says its platform “allows businesses to find products within a marketplace of vetted suppliers across the U.K. and Asia.” The company says its LCA methodology is verified “to the leading global standards (International Organization for Standardization) for estimating environmental impacts.”
“Pressure is mounting on businesses to reduce their emissions, due to the environmental urgency, increasing consumer demand, and the growing regulatory burdens around climate disclosure,” says Wing Chan, Sourceful’s CEO and co-founder.
Adds Chan, “Companies want to offer consumers sustainable choices, [and] businesses are still unable to accurately measure the total carbon footprint of their supply chain, despite it being responsible for more than 90 percent of companies’ emissions across the globe. We often hear about the ‘green premium’ making emission reductions unaffordable at scale, but we’ve seen the inverse with packaging. Presented with better choices, reducing footprint can also reduce cost.”
Sourceful says it will use the new Series A investment, which also involved New York-based Coatue and London-based Eka Ventures, to continue its expansion into international markets, maintaining a business presence in Europe, Asia, and the United States. The company also intends to double the size of its 65-person staff within the next two years. That will enable Sourceful to develop four new product categories, including integrating LCAs for plastics into the platform, according to the company.
“Supply chains represent one of the world’s biggest sustainability roadblocks, but they also contain one of our biggest opportunities to reduce global emissions,” comments Danny Rimer, partner at Index Ventures “Following Sourceful’s recent ISO verification, we believe the brand can go truly global and work with the world’s biggest businesses, to help build tomorrow’s sustainable world economy,” he adds.
Remarks David Cahn, partner at Coatue Management, “We share Sourceful’s belief that the power of data and software can be leveraged to enable businesses to improve the sustainability of their supply chains. With better technology, companies can make better decisions and more accurate commitments to consumers.”
Ellen Meijer, LCA consultant at Netherlands-based PRé Sustainability, who chaired the ISO panel that verified Sourceful’s methodology, comments,“PRé was happy to be involved in the critical review of Sourceful’s LCA methodology. We support their aim to make LCA results available to support decision making, and the methodology used to generate these results is critical for the reliable assessment of global warming potential.”
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Source: Recycling Today
Sourceful set to expand life cycle analysis access
<![CDATA[Manchester, United Kingdom-based Sourceful, which describes itself as a platform for sustainable sourcing, has secured a $20 million Series A funding round led by Index Ventures, which has offices in San Francisco and London. That firm also backs global app providers Deliveroo, Dropbox and Just Eat.Founded in 2020, Sourceful says it works with brands around the world “to shrink their environmental impact by helping them find, create and deliver products that are better for their business and the planet.” The company does this via its life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, part of which focuses on raw materials extraction and production—an aspect that tends to favor recycled content.Sourceful says consumer products industries “represent three of the top four most-polluting sectors, accounting for around 35 percent of global emissions.” Adds the firm, “Approximately 83 percent of those emissions come from their supply chains. E-commerce packaging in particular has a worsening environmental impact as online sales grow by 15 percent annually, with little visibility or data available on its production and source material footprint.”By starting with packaging, Sourceful says its platform “allows businesses to find products within a marketplace of vetted suppliers across the U.K. and Asia.” The company says its LCA methodology…