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EUROPEAN COMMISSION JOINT RESEARCH CENTRE Institute for Environment and Sustainability H08 Sustainability Assessment Unit Analysis of Existing Environmental Footprint Methodologies for Products and Organizations: Recommendations, Rationale, and Alignment Deliverable 1 to the Administrative Arrangement between DG Environment and Joint Research Centre No. N 070307/2009/552517, including Amendment No 1 from December 2010. European Commission (EC) Joint Research Centre(JRC) Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) Authors: Kirana Chomkhamsri, Nathan Pelletier Project Leader and main reviewer: Rana Pant Action Leader and reviewer: David Pennington Approved: Constantin Ciupagea (HoU) (April 29, 2011) Ispra, Italy, November 2011, updated after feedback by ADEME, DEFRA, WRI, ISO 1 Content Content...................................................................................................................................................2 Executive summary.................................................................................................................................3 1. Abbreviations......................................................................................................................................5 2. Glossary...............................................................................................................................................6 3. Procedure of Analysis..........................................................................................................................7 3.1 Methodological issues considered for product environmental footprinting...................................7 3.2 Methodological issues considered for corporate environmental footprinting..............................12 4. Short description of analyzed methods............................................................................................14 4.1 Product Environmental Footprint...................................................................................................14 4.2 Corporate Environmental Footprint...............................................................................................16 5. Results of the analysis of existing methods......................................................................................20 5.1 Product Environmental Footprint...................................................................................................20 5.2 Corporate Environmental Footprint...............................................................................................43 6.1 General issues.................................................................................................................................57 6.2 Common approaches......................................................................................................................57 6.3 Divergent approaches.....................................................................................................................58 2 Executive summary The “Analysis of Existing Environmental Footprint Methodologies for Products and Organizations” forms the starting point for the development of a harmonized European methodology for environmental footprint that can accommodate a broad suite of relevant environmental performance criteria, including greenhouse gas emissions. The results suggest that advancing European guidance documents that provide for a greater degree of methodological specificity than existing methods and standards is required to move towards more consistency and reproducibility of results. This will be much more challenging for the company side where, in contrast to product footprint, life cycle approaches have not previously played an important role. Background and policy context In the context of increasing global awareness of anthropogenic climate change, the carbon footprint concept is now widely used both as a marketing tool and to mobilize public sentiment. 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 organizations and the calculation of the carbon footprint of products". As a follow-up to the Council conclusions, the European Commission concluded a study on product and corporate Carbon Footprint methods that involved analyzing 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 place of sole focus on greenhouse gas emissions. 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 labeling of products". The European Commission therefore decided to extend the work on carbon footprinting to include other environmental aspects. Thus, the Product and Corporate Environmental Footprint project was initiated with the aim of developing a harmonized European methodology for environmental footprinting that can accommodate a broader suite of relevant environmental performance criteria. Scope and objectives This analysis focuses on key methodologies and standards (or drafts thereof) that aim at calculating the environmental footprint of products and organizations. Seven product-specific and seven organization-specific methodologies are considered. The analysis does not include issues related to communication. Rather, the intention of this study is to provide a more detailed analysis of the selected methodologies as a basis for formulating guidance and requirements for a common European environmental footprint methodology. Key methodological decision points in existing standards are compared. Subsequently, recommendations and supporting rationale are advanced for each decision point as necessary to move towards more reproducible product and corporate environmental footprint. Results of the analysis 3
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