Sustainability Assessment of the Products and Services of Deutsche Telekom AG

The goal of the study is to develop and test a sustainability matrix that is to be used to assess the products and services and the product portfolio of the telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG. The matrix is to be employed in procurement, product development and customer communication, and is to provide a key performance indicator for the overall company.

The PROSA – Product Sustainability Assessment method was applied, with its four sub-tools: LCA, Social LCA, Life Cycle Costing and Benefit Analysis. This resulted in a sustainability matrix that can be employed to analyse the company’s several hundred, highly heterogeneous products, services and applications. The process of developing the matrix and its assessment system was accompanied by a stakeholder panel and involved close consultation with the relevant Business Units of Deutsche Telekom AG. The detailed determination of utility aspects by means of the Benefit Analysis sub-tool played an important role. When selecting the indicators care was taken that the requisite data can be collected routinely and in an acceptable time.