ACTIVITIES :: Sustainable Growth :: 2nd Call for Volunteers
2nd Call for Volunteers - CLOSED
The European Commission hereby launches a second call for volunteers to pilot methodologies quantifying the environmental footprint of ICT products, networks, services and organizations. Interested parties are invited to respond as soon as possible and in any case not later than 29 February 2012.
Please click on the links below to reach all the different informative sections.
Number and entry conditions for pilots
Expected deliverables from each pilot
The role of the independent third party for providing support of the pilots
Further information and support
Overview
Among the important priorities of the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) is the establishment of a common methodological framework for the measurement of the energy intensity and carbon emissions arising from the production, transport and selling processes of ICT goods, networks and services, and one which can be widely adopted by the ICT industry. To support and facilitate the efforts of industry and the community more generally in reaching the above objective, the Commission has launched in June 2011 a 1st call for volunteers from across the ICT industry to carry out a number of pilot testing projects. Ten in total applications of either individual organisations or consortia (representing in total 22 industry organisations from across the whole industry sector and the whole world) were received and approved in the context of the above call. The whole pilot testing initiative was launched in a meeting on 28 November 2011 in Brussels.
As the Commission has received further expressions of interest from industry to take part in this pilot testing initiative, it has decided to launch a 2nd call for volunteers from across the ICT industry to carry out a number of additional pilot testing projects.
Like in the 1st call, these projects will consist of the testing of various methodologies currently under development by international standards development organisations (e.g. ITU, ETSI, IEC) and by industry bodies (e.g. GeSI/Carbon Trust/WRI/WBSCD). The basic aim of piloting is to test the compatibility of these different methodologies when applied by actual practitioners on specific goods, networks and services on one hand and on organisations on the other. The pilots are encouraged to include the supply chain aspects of the different methodologies (e.g. production, transport, use of a product/service) and the organisations within that supply chain.
The above pilots are expected to be conducted by the ICT industry itself (either by industrial consortia or individual industrial organisations) without financial support from the Commission. The pilots are of relevance to all sub-sectors of the ICT sector.
The Commission will officially recognise (and focus promotional support on) those companies that commit to satisfy certain conditions regarding transparency, provision of reliable results and data, and willingness to have both the methodologies used and the results generated. The Commission has appointed independent third parties to assist the companies in carrying out the pilots and to verify the results. Quantis (www.quantis-intl.com), BioIntelligence (www.biois.com), and Ecofys (www.ecofys.com), will verify the results and support the pilots in the areas, respectively, of ICT-products, ICT-services and ICT organisations. Ecofys was selected, in addition, to coordinate the activities of the independent third parties.
The starting point for the programme of this 2nd round of pilots is aimed at December 2011 – February 2012. To be able to synchronise with the rest of the pilots (1st call for volunteers) that are now starting, pilots under the 2nd call for volunteers will have the opportunity to start as soon as their application is submitted and approved by the Commission Services. In this context early applications in this 2nd call are encouraged. It is expected that each test will take a maximum of 4 months to complete.
The expected results from the pilots will:
- Enable feedback to the standards development organisations (SDOs) & industry bodies on what should be done next, to ensure compatibility among those standards.
- Provide assurance to ICT companies that the methodologies the industry is being asked to adopt are robust, reliable, cost efficient and can be implemented in a practical way both within the company itself and across its upstream and downstream supply chain.
- Help inform the EC as to the best way of achieving its policy objectives in this area going forward.
The current terms of reference seek to detail the specifications of the pilot testing. They may be further refined by an independent third party that is mentioned above.
Guiding principles
· The testing will focus on the methodologies for capturing the energy intensity and carbon emissions arising from the intrinsic use of ICT goods, networks and services as well as from organisations.
· Testing of methodologies focussed on capturing the enabling effect of ICT goods networks and services, while no less important, will not be considered at this stage (possibly at a later one).
· The overarching aim of the pilots is to test the methodologies not the individual products, services and/or organizations in scope of the test. The tests will not seek to benchmark individual results from different participants. The confidentiality of data relating to individual items of hardware, software, and services will be fully respected.
· While the Commission will consider expressions of interest from individual companies, it wishes to encourage companies to form consortia so that the methodologies can be tested across vertical industry segments and across similar value chains.
Key objectives
The key objectives of the pilot tests are:
1. To assess the compatibility of the below identified methodologies that are currently under development by SDOs and industry bodies. An example of testing can be the use of two methodologies on the same ICT product or service to check if they deliver results within the same margin of error or uncertainty.
2. To check along the value chain that the metrics, data, perimeter, scope, boundaries are coherent (this can be done using different chapters of the same methodology or different methodologies) and gain practical experience and learning on the use of these methodologies across the upstream and downstream value chain.
Pilots can focus on either of the two or both the above objectives. For pilots focusing, however, only on the 2nd objective, a condition is that at least two methodologies are tested for at least part of the pilot.
For the purposes of this project we define compatibility as (working definition):
The methodologies are compatible if by using them on the same goods, services or organisations they deliver results within the same margin of error or uncertainty.
The methodologies to be tested are as follows:
For Products and Services:
- ITU-T L1410 Methodology for environmental impacts assessment of ICT goods, networks and services;
- ETSI TS 103 199 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of ICT equipment, networks and services: General methodology and common requirements;
- GHG Protocol Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard - ICT Sector Guidance;
- IEC TC 111 - IEC/TR 62725, “Quantification methodology of greenhouse gas emissions (CO2e) for electrical and electronic products and systems”;
For Organizations:
- ITU-T L1420 Methodology for environmental impacts assessment of ICT in organizations;
- GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard - including the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard.
It is noted here that the relevant ISO standards form the basis for almost all of the above methodologies, therefore, are not considered in the above list.
The pilots will rely on the timely delivery of the (draft) standards or (draft) methodologies from the above-mentioned efforts.
Number and entry conditions for pilots
There will be no limit set by the Commission on the number of pilots that companies or consortia of companies can volunteer for. The Commission wants to encourage as widespread a range of companies and industrial consortia as possible, to sign up for these pilots from all sectors of the ICT industry. The entry conditions for companies/consortia in participating in this pilot testing initiative are defined in the next section.
Expected deliverables from each pilot
The following are the requirements that companies or industrial consortia
must agree to, in order to be eligible to participate in the pilot testing:
Provide to the independent third party assisting the Commission and to the
Commission itself:
- A complete set of results of the assessment and all assumptions made for each item or items volunteered for, using the above methodologies;
- Feedback on the use of each methodology including any practical issues discovered doing the testing;
- Auditable evidence (notably any relevant data that was used) that each methodology was followed or explanations if it was not.
This piece of
information will not be made available to parties other than the Commission or
the third party without the explicit consent of the company or consortium
providing the information.
The language to be used is English.
The role of the independent third party for providing support of the pilots
The selected independent third parties are assisting the Commission in the activities detailed below:
- Defining specific road-testing guidelines.
- Communicating these as recommendations to the volunteer companies or consortia of companies.
- Collecting the results of assessments from volunteer companies in both phase 1 and phase 2.
- Carrying out an audit (on a sample or the entire set) of companies or consortia of companies on the methodologies used and the results achieved.
- Producing an interim report to the EC and volunteers.
- Producing a concluding report to be shared with EC and SDOs.
Indicative time table
|
28 November 2011 |
|
December 2011 |
|
February 2012 |
Phase 1
|
December 2011 |
|
Febraury 2012 |
|
March 2012 |
|
April 2012 |
Phase 2
|
March 2012 |
|
April 2012 |
|
May 2012 |
|
July 2012 |
|
August-September 2012 |
Note: the above time-plan assumes that the delivery of the relevant standards will follow the plans of the standards organisations as of the date of the announcement of this Call for Volunteers.
How to apply
The call for volunteers is now open until 17:00 hour, Brussels time, February 29, 2012.
The application form can be found here. Applications should be sent to:
INFSO-ICT-SECTOR-METHODOLOGIES@ec.europa.eu
Terms of reference
The current terms of reference seek to detail the specifications of the pilot testing. They may be further refined by an independent third party that is mentioned above.
Please consult them here.
Further information and support
Requests for additional information can also be sent to:
INFSO-ICT-SECTOR-METHODOLOGIES@ec.europa.eu
Further information