Environmental footprint of products

DG ENV is now working together with the Commission’s JRC IES and other European Commission services towards the development of a harmonised methodology for the calculation of the environmental footprint of products (including carbon footprint).

This methodology will be developed building on the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Handbook as well as other existing methodological standards and guidance documents (ISO 14040-44, PAS 2050, BP X30, WRI/WBCSD GHG protocol, Sustainability Consortium, ISO 14025, Ecological Footprint, etc).

Testing the methodology

The technical guide developed by JRC IES is tested using a limited number of pilot studies representative of a wide variety of goods and services. Due to time and resource constraints, the number of pilot tests is limited to 10. The sectors covered through the testing include: agriculture, retail, construction, chemicals, ICT, food, manufacturing (footwear, televisions, paper). The results of the testing will be used for the development of the final technical guide.

DG Environment and JRC IES are working in parallel on the methodological guide on environmental footprinting of organisations. Tests are carried out in parallel for both methodologies.

Testing the Product Footprint Category Rules (PFCR)

Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules aim at providing detailed technical guidance on how to conduct a product environmental footprint study. PFCRs complement general methodological guidance for environmental footprint by providing further specification at the product level. PFCRs will increase reproducibility and consistency in product environmental footprint studies.

The Commission, in collaboration with Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI), has tested the process aimed at developing Product Footprint Category Rules (PFCR) for paper. More information on this testing exercise is available at: www.paperpfcr.eu

Consultation on the harmonised methodology (2nd draft)

The second draft of the methodology for environmental footprint of products is now available here. The methodology has been discussed in details during a workshop that took place in Brussels on 29-30 November 2011. All the comments are currently being analysed by DG Environment and JRC IES. Please notice that due to the tight timeline, there will be no written feedback to the comments provided. The comments gathered, together with the results of the pilot tests, will be taken into account for the next revision of the methodology, when relevant.

The video recording of the meeting and the slides presented are available:

DG Environment and JRC IES are also working in parallel on the methodological guide on corporate environmental footprint. The two methodologies are tightly interlinked and will have many elements in common.

Other documents

Analysis of Existing Environmental Footprint Methodologies for Products and Organizations: Recommendations, Rationale, and Alignment

Call for volunteers (closed)

Public consultation on policy options

The European Commission is gathering views and additional information on the potential measures related to Sustainable Consumption and Production. As part of this, we are consulting on options for policies implementing product environmental footprinting. The consultation also looks at the Environmental Footprint of Organisations and Green Public Procurement.

The consultation is open until 3/4/2012.

Contribute to the public consultation.

Expected timeline

After the testing phase and a further prioritisation process, the JRC IES will carry out an in-depth analysis of the results of 3 of the pilot studies and will take their findings into account in a revised version of the methodology. The results of the other pilot tests will also be used for further refinements of the methodology as a reference for future further improvements. For more details about the timing of this initiative, please refer to Figure 1.

	Deadlines
	March 2011
	June 2011
	13-15 July 2011
	28-30 November 2011
	20 December 2011
	January 2012 – April 2012
	Fall 2012

Figure 1: Tentative timelines for the development of the harmonised methodology for the calculation of the Environmental Footprint of products.

Background

In its conclusions on the Sustainable Consumption and Production Action Plan the Council invited the Commission "taking into account Member States' experience, to start working as soon as possible on common voluntary methodologies facilitating the future establishment of carbon audits for organisations and the calculation of the carbon footprint of products".

As a follow-up to the Council conclusions, the European Commission conducted a study on Product Carbon Footprint methods that involved analysing existing methodologies and initiatives and how they might relate to future policies. One of the main outcomes of this study was that it is important to take into consideration all environmental impacts of products in a balanced way. In the case of some product groups, GHG emissions are not the most significant environmental aspect, therefore other environmental impacts need to be taken into account as well to provide balanced information for consumers on the environmental performance of products. On this basis, a Product Environmental Footprint project was initiated with the aim of developing a harmonized environmental footprinting methodology that can accommodate a broader suite of relevant environmental performance criteria.

The recent Communication on Single Market Act includes also a specific objective on environmental footprint:

Proposal No 10: Before 2012, the Commission will look into the feasibility of an initiative on the Ecological Footprint of Products to address the issue of the environmental impact of products, including carbon emissions. The initiative will explore possibilities for establishing a common European methodology to assess and label them.

Recently, in its conclusion on the "Sustainable materials management and sustainable production and consumption" (December 2010), the European Council invited the Commission to "develop a common methodology on the quantitative assessment of environmental impacts of products, throughout their life-cycle, in order to support the assessment and labelling of products".

The recent publication of the Resource Efficiency Roadmap has further strenghtened and defined the future role of the environmental footprint methodology by explaining that the Commission will:

Establish a common methodological approach to enable Member States and the private sector to assess, display and benchmark the environmental performance of products, services and companies based on a comprehensive assessment of environmental impacts over the life-cycle ('environmental footprint') (in 2012);
Ensure better understanding of consumer behaviour and provide better information on the environmental footprints of products, including preventing the use of misleading claims, and refining eco-labelling schemes (in 2012).