We Believe Carbon Transparency Is A Way You Can Hold Us Accountable - Srinivas Rao, Logitech India

Given that human-made greenhouse gas emissions are rapidly warming our planet, Logitech a Swiss manufacturer of computer peripherals and software has prioritized greenhouse gas reduction as one of the most important metrics for its business. The Company had announced an industry-first carbon transparency effort last year to include detailed carbon impact transparency labeling on all product packaging across its entire portfolio. Srinivas Rao, Country Head of Logitech India in conversation with Siddharth Shankar of BWBusinessworld talks about this initiative will the brand's carbon impact. Excerpts below

What has been Logitech's vision behind including carbon impact labels on its products?

Logitech is aggressively working to reduce its carbon footprint by committing to labeling its products with a footprint number. This not only allows customers to make informed decisions but holds the company accountable for further reductions.

Last June, Logitech pledged total carbon transparency. Recently, the company made it a reality by becoming the first consumer electronics company to provide carbon impact labeling on products. Starting with Logitech’s gaming portfolio, the Logitech G PRO Wireless Gaming Mouse is now available with carbon impact labeling in stores and online. Six other gaming products will roll out in the coming months including carbon impact labels on their packaging as well. 

For the first time in the tech sector, customers purchasing a Logitech product will be able to visibly identify its carbon footprint - from material sourcing, packaging, manufacturing, transportation, to “end of life”.

What is the methodology used for measuring the carbon impact on your products?

Logitech has spent years developing Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) capability, to estimate a product's carbon impact across the lifecycle of a product, from material sourcing through manufacturing, distribution, consumer use, and ultimately the end-of-life phase of a product. To support the integrity of internal calculations, Logitech is collaborating with, IFU Hamburg, an iPoint Group company, and an independent DEKRA authorized verifier to verify and validate each product's carbon impact to DEKRA certification standards.

How are you encouraging other brands to be a part of this program?

We are offering our entire product carbon impact methodology and measurement processes, as well as the resulting transparency label process available for others in the consumer electronics industry.  We hope that the learnings and expertise developed by us will encourage others to follow and build on our body of work for the betterment of the planet. We feel it’s important for the entire industry to come together and contribute to making a difference. 

What do you mean by “design for sustainability”?

We are a design company. Designing for sustainability is Logitech’s way of applying design principles to look for ways to reduce the impact its products have on the environment throughout the design process. We have established in-house capability to undertake Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies of our products. The environmental impact of our products is considered at each stage of the product development cycle, alongside cost, user experience, and technical feasibility. This enables objective and data-informed decision-making on material and processes impacting product sustainability. 

For instance, we have a PVC-Free Policy, to phase out PVC in packaging and new products. The Logitech G Pro Gaming Mouse is lightweight and has a 1 mm thin wall and through a novel endoskeleton design, it is 28% lighter and uses 19% less plastic than its predecessor, the Logitech G900. Last year, we developed three new Post-Consumer Recycled Plastic resins and launched our first three products, using those resins. We also marked the launch of our first product with FSC-certified packaging last year.  

How is the program helping the brand achieve its sustainability goals?

For many years we have been ramping up our sustainability efforts - designing for sustainability, global recycling, conflict materials, energy, and climate actions. We support and finance end-of-life recycling schemes across the world and we actively work to eliminate waste and make products more circular. 

We believe carbon transparency is a way you can hold us accountable and an opportunity to drive industry-wide change to dramatically lower carbon impact. We are taking a big step with carbon transparency and hope others join us in providing full transparency. We invite other companies to join us in driving positive change by providing full transparency on their products.

What are you doing about plastic? where is the progress on eliminating plastic from your packaging and the products?

At Logitech, we are increasingly using post-consumer recycled plastic in our products and have made significant progress on eliminating plastic packaging. Last year, we developed new Post-Consumer Recycled Plastic resins and launched our first products, using those resins. We believe that small changes can have a big impact, therefore, our Logitech G Pro Gaming Mouse was launched with a 1 mm thin wall and through a novel endoskeleton design, it is 28% lighter and uses 19% less plastic than its predecessor.

For a brand that sells products across more than 100 countries worldwide, we understand that we have a big responsibility towards our consumers and the environment. This responsibility also brings along a big opportunity for us to make a positive impact. Hence, we are striving to do our bit to create an ecosystem for our customers and industry players to together bring down the carbon emission in our environment.