1. Environmental Footprint pilot phase
An De Schryver
Environmental Footprint Team
Eco-innovation and circular economy European Commission - DG Environment

2. what is environmental sustainable ?
Environmental footprint:
Common method
Life cycle based
Multiple environmental indicators
Common tool for internal market
Identify environmental hotspots
Credible information for communication
Today we have a proliferation of green claims and labels. Nobody knows what they mean or what is behind.
We need a better understanding of what is environmental sustainable.
And this is the goal of the environmental footprint pilot phase!
To develop a common method to assess environmental impacts (LCA based and multiple indicator based)
To develop a common tool for internal market
To point out environmental hotspots
To provide credible information for communication

3. Test the process for the development of PEFCRs and OEFSRs
3-year pilot (2013 – 2016)
Test the process for the development of PEFCRs and OEFSRs
Test different approaches for verification systems
Communication vehicles
Inter-national
SMEs
Data

4. With this we aim for high quality, allow economic profitability and reducing costs in calculating environmental footprints.
To guarantee quality we request more than 50% market involvement for each document.
We assure high consistency through guiding documents, issue papers, transversal working groups (packaging working group, cow model working group, construction working group).
The governance structure (committee meetings), external reviewers and public consultations assure expert inputs and approval.
We are testing different verification approaches to validate a pef compliant study.
Each PEFCR identifies what really counts: and thus allows companies to focus on the most important issues.
The aim with this is to increase transparency throughout the supply chain, which reduces green washing and therefore correct competition

5. 24 product groups & sectors
Batteries and accumulators Decorative paints Hot and cold water supply pipes Household detergents IT equipment Leather Metal sheets Footwear Photovoltaic electricity generation Thermal insulation T-shirts Uninterruptible Power Supply Intermediate paper product
Retail Copper
Beer Dairy Feed for food-producing animals Packed fresh meat from bovine, pigs and sheep Wine
Uncooked pasta Packed water Pet food Olive oil
PEFCRs & OEFSRs

6. Fresh meat pilot Three representative products:
Beef
Pig meat
Lamb
Unit: 100 g of fresh meat including inedible animal parts (such as bone) presented to consumer in retail packaging
Scope:

7. 100gram packed and sold Resource depletion Climate change
Water depletion
Particu-late matter
Land transfor-mation
Radiation
Human toxicity
Acidifi-cation
Eutro-phication
Ozone depletion
Eco-toxicity

8. Packaging in PEF
Primary, secondary and tertiary packaging shall be included in each assessment:
Production of packaging
Reuse, recycling, waste treatment
Product waste related to packaging
Assessment on the level of 'product consumed'?

9. Assessment at 'product consumed'?
Slaughterhouse
Consumption +
x gram packed
100gram packed and sold
100 gram consumed
x gram lost
at storage, retail or consumer
Food loss
How does packaging affect product shelf life?

10. Packaging in PEF
Primary, secondary and tertiary packaging shall be included in each assessment:
Production of packaging
Reuse, recycling, waste treatment
Product waste related to packaging
Depending on packaging material?
Packaging material
% of food waste
Vacuum packaging
X %
PP tray with LDPE
Y % …

11. Final Steering Committee meetings: May/June 2017
Timeline
Where are we standing in the pilot phase?
06/14
Kick-off
M03
1st physical consultation
Approval of scope and representative product by SC
Start screening studies
M05
Draft PEFCRs ready
M13
Approval of draft PEFCRs by SC (January 2016)
M17
Start of supporting studies
M18
Final consultation for Fresh Meat pilot: 16/09/2016
2nd consultation: 05 August - 16 September
M24
External review: October - November
M28
Communication
Final PEFCR ready: 21st December
M30
Non-food pilots are 2 months earlier
Final Steering Committee meetings:
May/June 2017
Approval of final PEFCR by SC: June 2017
M36
Release of final PEFCR
M36

12. Experience gained: Content-wise
More guidance is needed on the granularity of the functional unit
Better market data are needed to define the representative product(s)
The development of « benchmarks » is technically feasible
The definition of classes of performance requires further thoughts
No information yet on verification approaches
No information yet on communication

13. Outlook 2017 2018 - EC Evaluation Policy discussion Peer review
Consultations

14. Twitter: @EU_EnvFootprint
For any further information