So far, hardly any methods exist for the integrated analysis and evaluation of the sustainability of products and services. A major reason for this is that until recently there was no globally uniform and accepted target system or evaluation standard. With the United Nations' Agenda 2030 adopted in September 2015 and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets contained therein, this is now available. Beyond life cycle assessments, product sustainability analyses and integrated sustainability assessments are often required in the political arena today.

The aim of the research project "SDG assessment - further development of a sustainability assessment method based on the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (Agenda 2030)", which is funded by the BMBF, is therefore to (further) develop a method for integrated product sustainability analysis and product sustainability assessment. The method development is supported by four case studies from the food, cosmetics & hygiene, IT products and mobility industries and leads to the conception of a software tool for different sectors and areas of need.

The project was carried out jointly by ZNU – Centre for Sustainable Leadership at the University Witten/Herdecke (project management) and the Öko-Institut e.V. (Institute for Applied Ecology).

The method is described in depth in the brochure SEP – SDG Evaluation of Products, available at www.sdg-evaluation.com. The brochure gives the background information on the indicators developed for SEP – SDG Evaluation of Products.

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