Environmental footprint

Food products environmental footprint category rules are available for beer here , dairy products here,  feed products here , dry pasta here , wine here and packed water here .

 

Brief history of product environmental footprint (PEF) and organisation environmental footprint (OEF) in the EU 

·        2003 the Commission declares that the LCA is the best tool available to assess the environmental performance of products,

·        2005-2010 the Commission decided to invest in research related to LCA. Several projects as CALCAS, LCA togo, FORWASTE, PROSUITE are funded.

·        2010 publication of the ILCD handbook as reference handbook for LCA practitioners,

·        2010 the European Council ask the Commission to develop a harmonised method to assess the environmental performance of products, services and organisations. Launch of open tenders. The performed studies via public tenders to the Commission stated that the main limiting factors for a common PEF and OEF are: the competing LCA standards which partially can be used in EU  policy making due to methodological requirements which are flexible, weak or missing, there are several of PCRs for the same product which are many time contradictory, benchmarking and the classes of performance are not sufficiently addressed by the LCA practitioners, there is a lack of consistent approach to horizontal life stages, there is a lack of reliable secondary data, furthermore a lack of interoperable  LCA database and a lack of clear guidance on how and what to communicate in B2B relations.

·        2011 the application of ISO 1400-44 is recognised as a limiting factor for the LCA wider use. Based on the GHG Protocol and also other existing standards (e.g. PAS 2050 from UK, BPX.30-30 from France) the Commission decided to develop the PEF and OEF methods.

·        2013 the EU Commission published in the Official Journal the common framework for assessing the environmental impact of products (product environmental footprint, PEF) and organisations (organisations environmental footprint, OEF). This became the recommended methods to calculate and communicate the environmental performance of products ,services and organisations.

·        2013-2016 in cooperation with European business and business organisations the Commission developed 25 pilot tests ( 14 industrial products and 11 food products) with the aim to develop data requirements for specific product groups – so called Category Rules – and to test ways of communicating the specific product environmental foot prints to stakeholders in the product chain. is initiated for industrial and food  products.

·        2015 Circular Economy Action Plan is the main document of the Commission dealing with LCA, life cycle thinking and environmental footprint. Other relevant EU policies are the “single market for green products” (2010), the Europe 2020 strategy for “a resource efficient Europe” (2011).

·        2016 ending of 25 PEF pilots ( 3 was not finished),

Expected in the future:

·        2017 finalisation of PEF pilots, Commission evaluation and peer review by experts from NGOs, industry, academia and international organisations and gradually to be used by business in their green sourcing and market communication. It is expected that the application of PEF and OEF will influence other relevant EU regulations such as Eco-design, Energy label, Eco label and EMAS

·         2018  transition phase , policy discussions ( product policy),

·         2019  transition phase under the governance of IPP/SCP group and technical advisory board,

 

Advantages of using PEF

 

The main advantages for business organisation in applying PEF are that PEFs allow for each product group to be available:

·       the most relevant impact factors,

·       the most relevant life cycle stages,

·       the most relevant processes,

·       the most relevant elementary flows,

·       the environmental profile of the average product sold in the EU ( benchmark),

·       classes of environmental performance.

An other advantage is that PEFs gives information for internal decision makers by defining the hot spots, for external communication by defining the relevant impact categories and relevant life cycle stages and for decision making in data requirements by defining the relevant processes and relevant elementary flows.

 

PEFCR

 

For the development  of product category rules ( product environmental footprint category rules, PEFCR) the European business and business  organisation contributed to the technical secretariat works for the following food products:

·         PEFCR meat technical secretariat: UECBV, Beef + Lamb New Zealand Ltd, Blonk Consultants, Bord BIA, Célene, COV - Dutch Meat Association, Danish Agriculture and Food Council, Danish Crown Group, Dawn Meats, Dunbia Ltd., EBLEX, FEFAC, Meat & Livestock Australia, VanDrie Group

·         PEFCR dairy products technical secretariat : European Dairy Association, Actalia, ADEME, Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE), Bel Group, CGDD, CLS, CNIEL/ATLA, Constantia Flexibles International GmbH, Danone, DMK, European Container Glass Federation (FEVE), Fonterra, FrieslandCampina, IDF, Institut français de l'Elevage, Quantis, REWE Group

·         PEFCR wine technical secretariat: CEEV, Azienda Agricola Salcheto, CIVC - Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne,CV-CNF - Centre Vinicole-Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte, ESCI-UPF - UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle & Climate Change, FEVE - The European Container Glass Federation, IAT - Andalusian Institute of Technology, MHCS - Moët Hennessy Champagne Services, Nomacorc SA, Pernod Ricard Winemakers Spain, Unione Italiana Vini

·         PEFCR feed technical secretariat : FEFAC, AB AGRI, Agravis, Agrifirm Group, Assalzoo - Associazione Nazionale tra i Produttori di Alimenti Zootecnici, Blonk consultants, Cargill Animal Nutrition, DENKAVIT, Deutsche Tiernahrung Cremer GmbH & CO.KG, DSM Nutritional Products AG, DVT - Deutscher Verband Tiernahrung e. V., Elanco, Evonik Industries AG Health&Nutrition Division, EWOS AS, FEAP – Federation of European Aquaculture Producers, FEDIOL, FEFANA asbl, FHL – The Norwegian Seafood Federation, ForFarmers B.V., Nevedi - Dutch Feed Industry Association, Sanders, SNIA, UECBV - European Livestock And Meat Trades Union, Union Agricole Holding AG

·         PEFCR packed water technical secretariat:  EFBW,Danone Waters, Ferrarelle, FEVE – The European Container Glass Federation, Nestlé Waters, PETCORE Europe, Quantis SA, San Benedetto, Spadel,UETR – Union Européenne des Transporteurs Routiers

·         PEFCR  olive oil technical secretariat : Aceites del Sur, Alcubilla 2000 S.L.Spain, APOLIO srl, Azienda Agricola Ritrovato Matteo, CAPO Soc. Coop. Agricola per Azioni, Italy, Castillo de Canena Olive Juice, S.L.Spain, CO2 consulting S.L.Spain, Det Norske Veritas, Spain, EC Joint Research Centre, ELEONAS Cooperative, Greece, EPEA. Asociation of andalusian companies with organicagrifoods products, MINERVA SA, Monini SA, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural, Development, Government of Andalusia, NILEAS Group of Farmers, Greece, Oleificio Cericola Emilia, Olivarera de los Pedroches S.C.A, Spain, RodaxAgro Ltd, Greece, Università degli studi di Chieti Pescara “G.D’Annunzio”, Italy, University of Foggia, Italy, FEVE,  European Container Glass Federation, Spanish Interprofesional olive oil association, ANEO,  Pomace oil producer, Spain

·         PEFCR beer technical secretariat: The Brewers of Europe, Anheuser Busch InBev, BIER (Beverage Industry Environment Roundtable), Carlsberg, European Aluminium Association (EAA), European Container Glass Federation (FEVE), Heineken, SABMiller

·         PEFCR coffee technical secretariat: European Coffee Federation, D.E Master Blenders 1753, European Aluminium Foil Association (EAFA), European Coffee Federation (ECF), Illycaffè SpA, Flexible Packaging Europe (FPE), Luigi Lavazza SpA, National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia (FNC), Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) , Mondelēz International, Nestec, Nestlé Nespresso, Tchibo, Solidaridad Network, Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI), Quantis

·         PEFCR pasta technical secretariat: UNAFPA, Barilla G. e R. Fratelli S.p.A., F. Divella S.p.A., F.lli De Cecco di Filippo S.p.A., Pasta Zara S.p.A., Pastificio Di Martino Gaetano & F.lli Spa,  Pastificio Lucio Garofalo S.p.A

·         PEFCR pet food technical secretariat:FEDIAF, C&D Foods, FACCO, Mars PetCare,Nestlé Purina PetCare Europe, Quantis, Saturn Petfood GmbH


Source: EU Commission