PIM is the secret to managing your product sustainability data

Even if you’ve made great progress in reducing your products’ environmental impact, the proof is managing your product data. If you don’t provide evidence to support your claims, consumers may struggle to take you at face value.

It’s important that you can firmly back up any sustainability claims you make about your products. Having your data in order makes it much easier to do just that. With new regulations being introduced every year, not having sustainability data at hand could lead to more serious consequences. Here’s how PIM helps you keep your product sustainability data under control.

• Consumers are wising up
• Why product sustainability data management matters
• How regulations are driving change
• PIM’s role in product sustainability data management
• inriver’s PIM can supercharge your sustainability efforts

Consumers are wising up

Getting accused of greenwashing (exaggerating your sustainability efforts) in 2025 will cause a reputational stain that stubbornly lingers. Lots of consumers now prioritize choosing more sustainable items, meaning brands want to place their products as a conscious choice. However, it’s not enough to simply say your product is ‘planet friendly’.

Consumers are wising up and demanding some kind of proof to back up sustainability claims. The more data you can provide. Like the pounds of carbon your sustainable methods save or gallons of water your recycled materials conserve. The more likely consumers are to trust that you’re walking the walk.

Why product sustainability data management matters

More consumers want to know where their products come from. And it’s deeper than simply choosing Kenyan coffee beans or locally made gifts. There’s increasing demand for companies to be transparent about every part of their production process. Consumers (and regulators, but we’ll touch on that later) want to know that materials have been sourced responsibly.

B2B consumers may even demand to know whether manufacturing sites treat their people and local environment fairly, and the level of emissions generated to get goods from A to B. All businesses are under greater pressure to report on and reduce their impact, so they’re likely to seek out goods suppliers that make both tasks easier.

If you can show how you reduce customers’ Scope 3 emissions, or comply with governance matters like anti-slavery rules, you’re positioning yourself as a partner of choice.

How regulations are driving change

New regulations are driving greater transparency around products and ensuring companies are playing their part to combat climate change. Rigorous data management is a critical aspect of keeping regulators happy as it makes reporting less of a headache and allows you to identify gaps well ahead of any compliance deadlines.

Though regulations differ from country to country, notable ones include:

• Digital product passports (DPP): A key part of the EU’s sustainability initiatives, which calls for companies to be more transparent and foster better traceability at all stages of a supply chain
• The EU’s Green Claims Directive (GCD): Designed to ensure that companies’ environmental claims are accurate and can be independently verified
• EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR): Aims to prevent products linked to deforestation from entering the market
• Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR): Encourages businesses to design more sustainable products
• Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT): Uses tax to encourage businesses to consider alternative packaging materials
• The FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA): Designed to put more burden on food producers to prevent foodborne illnesses along the supply chain

PIM’s role in product sustainability data management

According to Gartner’s January ’25 ‘Market Guide for Product Information Solutions’, PIM solutions are increasingly being used to support organizations’ sustainability work.

It makes sense, given that PIM was made to act as a transparent, central data repository. Whether your compliance or marketing teams need to access sustainability data, it’s at their fingertips rather than being tied up in siloed spreadsheets.

PIM makes it much simpler to manage sustainability data. Information such as each material’s origin can be inputted, validated by stakeholders, and shared externally all in one place.

Gartner also points out that these platforms support the transition to 2D barcodes as part of the Sunrise 2027 initiative, making the burden of transitioning away from traditional barcodes much lighter.

inriver’s PIM can supercharge your sustainability efforts

For businesses facing the increasing burden of sustainability reporting, the inriver PIM is a smart choice. Our elastic data model can flex to accommodate billions of data points, making it well suited to even the largest global businesses.

Gartner lauds us for being “at the forefront of sustainability initiatives,” showing that our platform makes compliance with regulations like DPPs a lot simpler. Share data with the right people in a matter of clicks, without compromising your data’s security.

inriver doesn’t just help you stay on the right side of regulators. With AI-powered content enrichment, powerful digital shelf analytics, and API-based, single-click syndication, it’s a complete solution for managing your product data.

Get in touch to arrange a meeting with one of our experts to discover how PIM could support your business’s product data needs.