How Pickler helps sustainability managers turn product data into trusted impact data

Sustainability managers are increasingly expected to deliver product impact data the entire business can rely on.

But their job is not simply to calculate product footprints.

Their job is to make product impact data reliable, explainable, up to date and usable across the organisation.

In practice, they need to answer questions such as:

That is the real job to be done: turning scattered product, supplier and lifecycle data into trusted impact data that can be used across the business.

But in many companies, this workflow is still fragmented across spreadsheets, supplier files, product databases, emails, PDFs, consultant reports and internal knowledge.

Pickler helps sustainability managers move from this fragmented way of working to a scalable product impact data system.

It helps teams structure product data, calculate impact, keep lifecycle data up to date, generate reports and make product impact data reusable across teams and systems.

Product impact calculations depend on many inputs: product details, material composition, weights, supplier information, production processes, transport assumptions and end-of-life scenarios.

In many companies, this data is spread across ERP or PIM systems, supplier files, spreadsheets, datasheets, emails and internal knowledge. Some data is complete. Some is missing.

Some is outdated. Some is hard to verify.

When this data is scattered, every calculation starts with the same question: where is the right input data?

Step 1: Import your existing product data
Teams can import existing product data from spreadsheets or connect product data through API. Product names, categories, weights and material information can become the starting point for impact calculations.

Step 2: Match your data to a clear structure
Pickler uses structured product data formats, including familiar structures such as GS1, to make it easier to match existing product information with the data needed for impact calculations.

Step 3: Enrich missing or incomplete data
Once product data is inside Pickler, teams can improve it over time by adding missing material details, weights, supplier information or other relevant impact inputs.

Step 4: Use the same foundation across your assortment
Instead of rebuilding product records for every calculation, teams can work from one structured data foundation that supports footprints, reports, passports and comparisons.

Result: less time spent searching for data, more control over input quality and a stronger foundation for calculating impact across your assortment.

Sustainability teams often do not have every data point they need at the start.

Some product data may be complete. Some may be missing, outdated or difficult to verify. This can make impact calculation feel impossible: should you wait until every supplier has responded, or calculate with the data you already have?

If every missing data point blocks the process, sustainability teams cannot scale product impact calculations across a full assortment.

Step 1: Separate required data from data that can be estimated
Pickler helps distinguish between data that is mandatory for a calculation and data gaps that can be filled with default values.

Step 2: Use default values where needed
When exact data is not available, Pickler can use carefully selected default values to fill certain data gaps. This allows teams to continue calculating impact instead of waiting for every detail to be complete.

Step 3: Show what the result is based on
Pickler shows how much of the calculation is based on primary data, secondary data and default data. This gives teams a clearer view of the quality and reliability of each result.

Step 4: Decide where better data is worth collecting
Not every missing data point has the same importance. Pickler helps teams see where data quality matters most, so they can decide case by case whether it is worth collecting more specific data.

For example, if a missing data point has a very small influence on the total result, it may not be worth chasing suppliers for more detail. But if a default value is used for a major material or high-impact lifecycle stage, it becomes clear where better data can improve the result most.

Step 5: Improve the data over time
As better product or supplier data becomes available, teams can replace default values with more specific data and improve the quality of the impact result.

Result: teams can start calculating impact sooner, fill data gaps in a structured way and focus data collection on the inputs that matter most.

Manual calculations may work for a small number of products. But once the number of products, categories, customers or reporting needs grows, the same work needs to be repeated again and again: collecting product data, checking materials, matching lifecycle references, updating calculations and creating outputs.

This is where spreadsheets become slow, fragile and hard to scale.

Step 1: Use your existing product data
Teams can import product data from spreadsheets or connect product data through API. Pickler uses structured product data formats, including familiar structures such as GS1, to make it easier to match existing product information with the data needed for impact calculations.

Step 2: Map materials once
Materials can be mapped to trusted IDEMAT references once and reused across other products with the same material. For example, if “recycled cardboard” is mapped to the right IDEMAT reference once, that mapping can be reused across all products that use recycled cardboard.

Step 3: Calculate impact in bulk
Once the data structure and mappings are in place, teams can calculate impact across many products at once instead of calculating product by product.

Step 4: Reuse the same data for outputs
The same structured data can be used to create product footprints, impact reports and product passports without rebuilding the calculation each time.

Result: less spreadsheet work, lower cost per product and a scalable workflow for calculating impact across large assortments.

Sustainability managers do not only need to create numbers.

They need to explain where those numbers come from.

When product impact data is used for claims, reports, tenders or customer conversations, teams need to know which calculation rules were used, which lifecycle data sits behind the result and which assumptions were applied.

If that logic lives in internal spreadsheets, it becomes hard to defend. Formulas may be unclear, assumptions may differ between files, and the sustainability team needs to explain the calculation logic every time the data is used.

Step 1: Use a verified methodology
Pickler calculates product impact with a third party verified methodology, so teams do not need to build or defend their own calculation logic from scratch.

Step 2: Work with transparent calculation rules
Instead of hidden spreadsheet formulas, Pickler applies structured calculation rules. This makes it clearer how product data is turned into impact results.

Step 3: Use trusted lifecycle data
Pickler uses trusted lifecycle data, including IDEMAT-based data, as the foundation for impact calculations. This helps teams avoid maintaining complex lifecycle databases themselves.

Step 4: Explain results with confidence
Because the method, rules and lifecycle data are structured, sustainability teams can better explain where results come from and why products differ.

Result: more confidence in every footprint, report and customer-facing result.

Product impact data is only useful when the underlying lifecycle data stays up to date.

Materials, production processes, energy mixes and end-of-life scenarios change over time. Lifecycle databases such as IDEMAT are updated to reflect new insights, improved datasets and changing environmental conditions.

For sustainability teams, keeping this data up to date manually is difficult. If impact factors are stored in spreadsheets or old reports, results can quickly become outdated. That makes the data harder to use for customer questions, reporting, regulation or sustainability claims.

Step 1: Use updated lifecycle data
Pickler regularly updates the IDEMAT data used in its calculations, so teams do not need to manually update impact factors across spreadsheets.

Step 2: Keep calculations connected to the latest data
When underlying lifecycle data is updated, Pickler keeps product impact calculations connected to the latest available data foundation.

Step 3: Avoid maintaining databases yourself
Sustainability teams do not need to maintain complex lifecycle databases internally. Pickler manages this as part of the calculation setup.

Step 4: Keep results useful for reporting and regulation
Because impact results stay connected to updated lifecycle data, they remain more useful over time for internal decisions, customer communication, reporting and regulatory needs.

Result: more up-to-date impact results, less manual database maintenance and a stronger foundation for reporting, regulation and claims.

Product impact data becomes more valuable when it can be used by other teams.

Sales teams need it to answer customer questions. Marketing teams need it to support claims. Management needs it for reporting and decision-making. Customers need it to compare products and understand impact.

But when impact data is too technical, fragmented or locked inside spreadsheets, other teams cannot use it confidently.

Step 1: Generate product impact reports
Pickler turns product impact calculations into clear reports that can be shared and explained.

Step 2: Create product passports
Teams can create product passports that combine relevant footprint and product data in a customer-facing format.

Step 3: Compare products side by side
Pickler makes it possible to compare products, so teams can show customers the difference between alternatives.

Step 4: Send impact data back to your own systems
For companies that want to use impact data in their own tools, Pickler can make impact results available through API. This means impact data can flow back into an ERP, PIM, data warehouse or reporting setup.

Step 5: Build your own dashboards and reports
Once impact data is connected to your existing product data, teams can use it in internal reporting, customer-facing product information or their own dashboards.

Result: the same trusted data can support customer requests, claims, reporting, dashboards and commercial conversations.

Because sustainability managers are responsible for the quality and credibility of product impact data, they often become the central point for every question.

If every question needs to go back to sustainability, the team becomes a bottleneck.

Step 1: Keep sustainability in control of the data foundation
Sustainability teams manage the product impact data, methodology and quality of the results.

Step 2: Give commercial teams usable outputs
Sales and account teams can use clear reports, product passports and comparisons to answer customer questions with more confidence.

Step 3: Make impact data available in existing systems
Through API or export workflows, impact data can be connected back to the systems teams already use.

Step 4: Reduce repeated questions to sustainability
When teams can access trusted product impact data themselves, fewer ad-hoc requests need to go back to the sustainability manager.

Result: fewer ad-hoc requests for sustainability, faster customer conversations and more value from the same product impact data.