EUEnvironmentalFootprinting:

PerspectivesandOutlook

Environmental Footprinting: Policy Context In April 2013 the European Commission (EC) issued the Communication “Building the Single Market for

Green Products (SMGP)” and a Recommendation on the use of included methods. Part of the SMGP

initiative was the development of Product Environmental Footprinting (PEF) and Organisational

Environmental Footprinting (OEF), which shall form the methodological basis for comparing the

environmental performance of products and organisations.

Michele Galatola from EC/DG Environment and Rana Pant from EC/ DG JRC explained the initiative at the

PEF Policy Conference. According to Mr Galatola the proliferation of various environmental assessment

methodologies and environmental labels causes increased costs for companies and confuses consumers

that want to purchase environmentally friendlier products. Therefore member states and companies

operating on the internal market and outside the EU back up the initiative lead by the EC. At the recent

Informal Council of EU Environment Ministers in Dublin none of the member states expressed negative

opinion about the initiative.

Michele Galatola reassured

that no legislation will be

issued that incurs

unreasonable costs for SMEs

or trade barriers for

developing countries. Instead a

3 year pilot phase is planned

starting in September 2013

(see below), to address those

challenges and to develop

further specifications for

product categories and

sectors. During this pilot phase

Short report from the PEF Policy Conference, 28-29 April 2013, Berlin, containing insights from

the European Commission and governmental footprinting initiatives. Including contributions

from:

Michele Galatola, DG Environment, European Commission

Rana Pant, DG Joint Research Center (JRC), European Commission

Sylvain Chevassus, Ministry of Sustainable Development, France

Marie-Amélie Dupraz-Ardiot, Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), Switzerland

Ines Oehme, German Federal Environment Agency (UBA)

Figure 1 Development process of EU Environmental Footprinting initiative; UCPD:

Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. Source: European Commission 2013.

there will be an intensive dialogue with a number of

initiatives such as the The Sustainability Consortium

(TSC), the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), the

French Environmental Labelling, GHG Protocol, PAS

2050, Italian Environmental Footprinting Project and

trading countries like China, Japan, Brazil or Canada.

Options after the pilot in 2017/18 are:

1. PEF forms knowledge base for Ecolabel,

Green Public Procurement, Energylabel and

Ecodesign

2. PEF is applied to address the bulk of products with a top runner approach. This would be

complementary to Ecodesign (addresses worst 20%) and Ecolabel (addresses best 20% )

3. A new coherent policy framework (not further specified)

4. Also possible: the pilot does not deliver the expected results

The pilot process will be reviewed by external experts and the decision on how to proceed will be based

on the results and recommendations of this revision process.

Why is the EU going for comparison?

• Consumers have shown high interest in environmental performance of products.

• Future policies (e.g. internalisation of externalities) based on Environmental Footprints require

a firm methodological basis that allow for comparability.

• It is only one aspect. The PEF methodology shall also support better design of products,

business to business communication or green public procurement.

The Pilot Phase

Goal

1. Test the process for the development of PEFCRs and OEFSRs (now in focus!)

2. Test different approaches for verification systems (embedded impacts, traceability)

3. Communication vehicles (B2c and B2B)

The aim of the pilot phase is to specify the environmental footprint methods for products and sectors,

develop communication vehicles, establish a verification process, develop tools to simplify the

applicability (especially for SMEs) and to gain further stakeholder feedback. The pilot phase will also be

used to address issues of data availability and quality as well as capacity building in developing countries

(in cooperation with UNEP).

The overall goal is to enable comparability of products and support the applicability of the methodology.

Michele Galatola expects about 20 pilots of which maximal 6 will be lead by the EC. Strong interest in

pilot participation has allegedly been expressed, yet Mr Galatola reiterated that the total number will be

limited due to budgetory restrictions.

The application process for the proposal of product

categories or sectors is open for:

Single companies; cluster of companies; national,

European or non-European industry associations

Non-governmental organisations

Member States or non EU governments

Universities, Research Institutions

International organisations

Any mix of the organisations mentioned above

The pilot phase is split into:

1st

wave: No food and drink related products 2nd

wave: Mainly food and drink related products

It is possible to either only propose or to propose and lead a pilot. To successfully conduct a pilot for a

product category, certain criteria of representativeness have to be fulfilled:

• invitation of all major competitors, covering at least 75% of the EU market (yearly turnover) and

all companies that contribute to more than 10%

• 51% of the industry stakeholder (based on yearly turnover) participated in the process

• involvement of a wide range of stakeholders (including SMEs, consumers’ and environmental

organisations)

For a successful application as a pilot leader (i.e. technical secretariat) the applying consortium has to

demonstrate its ability to realize an extensive stakeholder involvement. This includes physical and virtual

consultation processes where decisions have to be taken concerning the scope (with the major challenge

multi-functionality of products), the benchmark and classes etc.

After the product category or organisational sector rules have been drafted1, discussed, tested and

finally released (after 24 months) the whole pilot process will be reviewed. The review and this is an

indicator for the importance of the project, will be conducted by a third party. The external experts will

also consider alternative schemes that may fulfill the same objectives with different means.

Success criteria for the Pilot:

• stakeholder collaboration feasible in the given time frame and to an acceptable cost

• verification process is reliable and traceable

• communication vehicles have been successfully tested with consumers, retailers and between

companies and approved by industry, member states and NGOs

• link to competitiveness: SME + Trade

• overall cost for maintenance: database -> has to be available for free if linked to legislation

1 As a major principle, already existing PCRs will be considered in the PEFCR development process.

Timeline for 1st

wave of pilots2

30 May 2013 Call for volunteers

26 July 2013 Deadline for applications

September 2013 Selection of participants completed

October/November 2013 Start of 1st wave of EF category rules pilot

April-June 2014 (expected) Start of testing verification processes

April 2015 (expected) Start of tests of communication vehicles

Figure 2 The function of EU Environmental Footprinting before and after (a successful) pilot phase. Source: European

Commission 2013.

Government Perspectives (EU and non-EU) The EU Environmental Footprinting method is also the product of a strong dialogue between EU and

non-EU government initiatives.

France has just finished its national pilot program on environmental

labeling with almost 170 participating national and international

companies from a wide range of sectors and has with its national

initiative given stimulus to the development of a harmonised European

methodology. The pilot included an extensive road-testing on different

communication options. France is also establishing a public secondary

database and continuing the development process of PCR. After the

submission of the report to the parliament further political decisions

will be taken. To fulfill the regulations (Grenelle 2) the national

footprinting system will be continued. According to Sylvain Chevassus

(Ministry of Sustainable Development, France) an adoption of the EU

Footprint methodology would require regulatory changes, however

2 2nd wave of pilots is expected for beginning 2014

revision processes seek further alignment with the EU Environmental Footprinting guidance document.

Also German government welcomes the EU Footprinting methodology and expects the main added

value in the development of PEFCRs. Ines Oehme from the German Federal Environment Agency

emphasised that further discussion is necessary for the integration of PEF in existing policy instruments.

Mrs Oehme also raises the question on the availability of secondary data and whether publicly available

data bases are the most appropriate data sets.

Switzerland as a non-EU country is also carefully observing the EU process on Environmental

Footprinting and integrates it where feasible in their Green Economy initiative. The Swiss approach is

based on a similar goal and scope but shows meaningful methodological differences. Marie-Amélie

Dupraz-Ardiot (Swiss Federal Office for the Environment) explained that the compatibility has to be

improved and underlined their willingness to participate in the PEF Pilot Phase.

About PEF World Forum

The PEF World Forum has been founded as a neutral platform for companies and their stakeholders to

reflect and act on challenges, practical experiences, initiatives, tools and insights towards climate-

conscious value chains. Climate impact has to be considered in the broader context of other

environmental and sustainability challenges. With the long-term participation and advancement in

environmental footprinting initiatives (with strong climate component), the forum has over the years

broadened its scope to environmental footprinting, which is now also reflected in a name change.

1st PEF World Summit

8-9 October 2013, Berlin

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