Handprinting Parameters
To be recognized in ILFI’s programs, Handprints must be measurable, performance-based, additional and recent. Defining each of these attributes specifically for LPC provides us with useful boundaries for identifying what was, is and will be a Handprint.
Measurable and Performance-Based: able to be theoretically measured and compared to the project or product “Footprint” and be trackable in practice
- Measurable: his term points to the ability to measure the Handprint and compare it to the project or product ‘Footprint’. In other words, can you determine, in the same units as the Footprint, what the impact of an action is? Gallons of water used (Footprint) must be comparable to gallons of water saved or avoided (Handprint).
- Performance-based: this aspect supports the rigor of Handprinting. Can you actually track the impact? Without performance-based metrics it’s difficult to know if you’re really having the intended impact. It’s also important to determine if there are any unintended consequences of putting a Handprint into place (e.g. water-efficient fixtures like showerheads could theoretically cause occupants to feel they need to leave water on for longer to get the same results like removing shampoo).
The combination of these two requirements is important because many Handprints may be theoretically measurable, but in practice the action might not be directly trackable or measurable, or the company simply might not have the means or mechanism to track the Handprint impact.
Additional and Recent: represent positive change caused by the Handprint actor versus a business-as-usual scenario
- Additional: this term is used to represent actual impact versus a business-as-usual scenario.
- Recent: this serves to further define what makes a Handprint additional, by defining the business-as-usual scenario. Handprints must have taken place within three years prior to Certification in order to be considered additional. Actions taken more than 3 years ago are considered to form part of the business-as-usual scenario. In addition, when a product-related Handprint has been created through innovation in the product’s design, we need to determine the number of years of sales for which the innovation brings a Handprint relative to BAU. That is, the innovation typically affects the life cycle performance of the product that is then sold for several years in a row. We call this period of time the Innovation-Relevant Time Horizon (IRTH). The IRTH should generally be set to reflect the period of years between typical product re-design or innovation cycles for the chosen product category.
For example, implementing a facility-wide food composting scheme at the manufacturing site may absolutely have significant impacts to waste, energy, and water, but after 3 years that is no longer considered ‘recent’ – and becomes part of the business-as-usual scenario of the facility. Once again, it may serve to reduce the Footprint of the facility, but we must identify a ‘cutoff’ point for Handprints. In LPC we consider the appropriate timeframe to be three years. Handprints have to be new and additional to have real impacts – if we take credit for what we did in the past, we will cease to do anything actually additional- even as our Footprint continues to create negative impact over time. If we don’t keep creating new Handprints, we cannot continue to be Net Positive.
All this can be summed up to say: did you really create the positive change required to offset your real Footprint, and can you prove that it wouldn’t have otherwise happened?
To illustrate why these are important, consider a company that proposes a series of educational videos that promote the use of energy efficient lighting to help decrease others’ energy Footprints in their homes. This is of course a great idea! However, whether it is a true Handprint depends on the boundaries outlined above.
- Measurable + Performance-Based: The Handprint must be measurable in the same units as the Footprint. If the Footprint is measured in kWh, the manufacturer cannot just provide the number of viewers to demonstrate impact. Once the units are sorted, manufacturers should track that the intended impact has actually taken place. If the video asks viewers to swap out one old lightbulb for an LED in their home, how do they know this has taken place?
- Additional + Recent: How much better is the new lightbulb, if we consider the old bulb to be the BAU scenario? Did the homeowner already plan to switch over their lighting or was it caused by the video?
The case studies outlined in the final section of this guide each take Handprinting actions taken by LPC manufacturers and look at them through these lenses of measurability and additionality.
Additional Handprinting Considerations
Beyond the absolute requirements of Handprinting, there are additionally some considerations that manufacturers should take into account when considering the creation of Handprints in order to be successful in the short and long-term:
Affordable: Creating positive impact through Handprinting often incurs some level of cost. Manufacturers should consider how to build this cost (which can be thought of as previously unaccounted for externalities of production) into the product’s long-term success, or into the larger organizational business structure.
Relevant: Are the actions contextual, and local or regional where needed? Do they tie back to materials or production? Do they tie into the story of the company and its larger mission? Are they authentic to the company? Getting the marketing team on board may help with this! Could the actions be tied into other initiatives at the company, i.e. Carbon Reduction goals or employee engagement? This can make it easier to sell to leadership.
Multi-dimensional: Manufacturers should consider whether a positive energy Handprint could have any positive, or negative, outcomes in other impact areas.
Scalable: the manufacturer must be able to continue to create Handprints to match the product’s ongoing Footprints, as well as match any increases to the annual Footprint that might come from growth in sales, in order to continue to achieve net Positivity.
This ties in many of the other considerations. Can the Handprint action(s) be grown to the required scale (the ongoing Footprint), whether they are still affordable at-scale, whether they can continue to be tracked at-scale; could the action(s) be applied to other products to achieve broader Net Positive achievement?
Ripple Effects: Are the actions capable of generating and self-generating positive impacts beyond the manufacturer’s initial actions? Sometimes an action can be engineered (or may naturally happen) to amplify an initial Handprint action. For example, where Handprints result in savings alongside energy reduction impacts for customers, those savings may be used to purchase materials for another customer to Handprint and so on thus generating impact far beyond the initial funding required.
Manufacturers should also keep in mind that there is no one way to Handprint, nor only one or a couple actions that comprise a Handprint — it can represent the effects of multiple actions and multiple strategies that may themselves have multiple impacts.
