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Identifying products with the greatest potential for environmental improvement

Part of the EIPRO study was to carry out research in addition to an initial literature review of already existing studies identifying products with the greatest environmental impact. This research resulted in a preliminary operational methodology to identify the products with the greatest environmental impacts from a life-cycle perspective, using results of previous research and complementing them with a new analysis.

During this work the Commission consulted stakeholders on the proposed methodology, organised three expert meetings in 2004-2005 as well as meetings with stakeholders. The work was also discussed with representatives of the Member States, the European industry and consumer organisations at the IPP Regular Meeting. Following this, a draft final report analysing the life-cycle environmental impacts of products related to the final consumption of the EU-25 was published in May 2005.

The Commission invited further comments from stakeholders on the draft final report in a seven week stakeholder consultation on the Internet in May and June 2005. The Commission requested stakeholder comments on whether there is evidence that the importance of certain products has been significantly overestimated or underestimated with respect to the size of their environmental impacts in the draft report. The Commission also asked for comments on the nature and need for further methodologies development and data collection efforts.

The following were the comments on the draft final report received during the stakeholder consultation and the respective responses from the EIPRO project team:

The Commission also invited stakeholders from industry, the science community, public authorities and NGOs to the third expert stakeholder meeting in July 2005. This meeting that focused on the issues mentioned above for the stakeholder consultation had the purpose to contribute to the results of the final report. The following are the documents of the third expert stakeholder meeting:

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