Value Chain Mapping

Diagnose Your Sustainability Impact

Visualize Your Value Chain

The purpose of Value Chain Mapping is to uncover how each link in the value chain contributes to your company’s environmental and social impacts, both positive and negative. Download the Guide for a step-by-step walkthrough on visualizing your value chain and setting the stage for your Double Materiality Assessment.

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Value Chain Links
Value chain links are the key building blocks that show how your company creates value for its customers.

Activities
These are the processes that your company engage in to help create your product.

Resources
These are the physical building blocks like materials or energy that your company uses in its activities.

How to get started

Building Your Value Chain

Trace the journey of resources used through the three main sections of the value chain: Resources, Own operation and Customers. Use physical locations and activities involved to discover chain links.

1. Start with your product

Start with the value you create for your customers and work backwards. Ask questions like: How do we deliver our product? How is it packaged? What processes went into its production, and what design choices influenced its creation?

2. Trace it back to the roots

Work backwards through the Resources section by asking questions like: What do we need continuously to operate? How do we obtain these resources, who provides them, where in the world are they located, and what processes are involved in making them available to us?

3. Follow through to the end

Follow the journey of your product to understand how customers gain value from it. Ask questions such as: How do customers acquire our product? How do they use it, and does it enable them to act sustainably? What happens to the product when customers are done using it?

Identify Components: Activities and Resources

Use the Activity and Resource cards to document what you’ve identified under each value chain link.

These cards let you add, remove, or rearrange components as you refine your understanding of how your company operates.

With a visual representation of your value chain, you’ll be ready to assess how each component impacts the ESRS topics through the double materiality assessment.

Double Materiality Assessment

Prioritize Value Chain Links

Resist taking on every identified impact, risk or opportunity in the first year.

True impact comes from focusing on what is most material and ensuring it is done well. Use the Value Chain Map to prioritize your work in the coming years.

As you gain experience with your initially selected sustainability matters, they become part of your daily operations, enabling you to expand and address the next set of identified impacts.

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Get Your Cards and Start Visualizing Your Value Chain

Click the images to download the cards in printer friendly A4 format

“Working strategically with sustainability is much like the way a doctor approaches patient care. There are three major stages to the process: diagnosing the problem, setting the target for what a healthy outcome looks like, and devising a treatment plan to reach that goal.”