The tool, developed by the Global Resource Use (GRU) research group at the Institute for Ecological Economics at WU, in collaboration with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the University of Sydney on behalf of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), enables countries to identify specific areas of unsustainable practices known as hotspots.

The platform combines global economic, environmental, and trade data and enables comprehensive analysis along global supply chains. This data and these facts, for example on carbon emissions, raw material use, water consumption, or biodiversity loss, help political decision-makers to develop customized strategies – be it for climate change mitigation and resource protection or specifically in the field of circular economy.

The impact can already be seen: Countries such as Vanuatu, Ecuador, and Vietnam are using SCP-HAT to revise their climate plans and to develop sustainable production and consumption strategies. The tool is also helping Argentina, Bhutan, and Senegal in the development of data-based policy measures. SCP-HAT has been used in ten further countries as well, including Honduras, India, and Kazakhstan, to plan programs related to the United Nations Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE).

But not only governments benefit from the tool. The Regional Science Partners for SCP is a network of leading research institutions in all regions of the world that support policy developers and NGOs in the use of SCP-HAT and the development of strategies for sustainable development based on reliable data.

With the development of SCP-HAT, WU has created a tool that processes complex data in a user-friendly way and shows where change will have the greatest impact. In this way, the tool is a great help in putting sustainable business practices into action.