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PRODUCT CARBON FOOTPRINTING
PAS 2050 - Lessons Learned
Maureen NowakPolicy Lead – Assessment & Tools
Sustainable Production & Consumption Programme 17 February 2010
Content
• The development in the UK of PAS 2050 as a
specification for measuring greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions across the life cycle of a
product
• PAS 2050 in use
• Lessons learned
• PAS 2050 Review
Most environmental impacts can be attributed to goods and services (products) ……
……..and impacts occur throughout the life cycle of a product
End of life
Consumer use
Distribution and retail
Production
The traditional flow of materials and products . . .
. . . from cradle to grave
Raw materials
Businesses wanted to
• Understand their product supply chains
• Measure their products’ impacts
• Manage and reduce their GHG emissions;
improve resource efficiency and reduce risks
• Share information about their work
internally, with their supply chains, and with
customers
... and were therefore looking for a tool to
• provide a methodology for measuring GHGs
that could be applied across a wide range of
products, services and their supply chains
• allow a consistent and comparable approach
to supply chain measurement of GHGs
across different markets
PAS project underway in 2007
Objective : To develop a standard and
consistent method for measuring the life
cycle GHG emissions of products (i.e. goods
and services)
PAS = Publicly Available Specification
PAS Development Process: Managed by British Standards Institution (BSI), Defra and Carbon Trust, co-sponsors
• Independent Steering Group (academics,
NGOs, Government & industry representatives)
• Technical expert working groups and pilot
studies
• Consultation with 1000 +stakeholders
• Significant engagement with international
stakeholders
PAS 2050 Development Process – contd.
• More than 3000 comments received
• Tested across a wide range of product types
and sectors, including
• Goods and services
• Manufacturers, retailers and traders
• Business to Business (B2B) and business to
consumer (B2C)
• UK and international supply chains
PAS 2050 published October 2008
•Available atwww.bsigroup.com/PAS2050 (20,000+ downloads to date)• supplemented by a Guide http://www.bsigroup.com/en/BSIGroup/sectorsandservices/Forms/PAS-2050-Form-page/• and online feedback facility www.bsigroup.com/PAS2050
PAS 2050 – Key Elements
• Builds on existing international LCA standard
(ISO 14044)
• Covers all GHGs specified by the IPCC
• Covers whole life cycle of product (raw
materials to end of life or ‘cradle to grave’)
• Designed to be used on any product, by any
company, in any geographic location
PAS 2050 – Meeting identified needs
• For suppliers of goods and services:
• Provides clarity – focus on GHG emissions
• prescriptive in defining how to assess emissions
= easier to achieve consistency in calculations
• Allows a full internal assessment of the GHG
emissions and identification of emissions “hot
spots”
PAS 2050 – Meeting identified needs
• Facilitates evaluation of options e.g. on
purchasing and sourcing decisions, to help
reduce GHG emissions
• Provides benchmark for ongoing pro-
grammes for product emissions reductions
• Enables comparability
• Supports corporate reporting and
communications with consumers
PAS 2050 – Meeting identified needs
For customers of goods and services:
• Offers a common basis for communicating
and comparing results
• Improves consumer understanding of
• life cycle GHG emissions and their impact
• the role of their purchasing decisions and their
impact
Comparability
Within an organisation, PAS 2050 is suitable for
comparing
• the impact of changing materials, processes,
distribution, use profiles, end of life opportunities
• changes over time – assessing reduction levels.
• different formulations of similar products
• but PAS 2050 does not provide the level of
detail necessary for product comparison
User experience
• Carbon Trust - many projects completed worldwide
• certified footprints of over 5,500 individual product
lines with total carbon footprint of 8 million tonnes
CO2e
• products with retail sales value of £2.5Bn use the
Carbon Reduction Label at the point of purchase,
with a total footprint of 2M tCO2e
User Experience
• Tesco – using PAS 2050 to footprint hundreds
of its own-brand products across many different
product categories ]
• around 100 product lines carry a carbon label on
the pack
• Other leading retailers – many have used PAS
2050 for supply chain analyses (eg milk,
strawberries) but no appetite for labels.
User Experience
• Other activity: some major suppliers have
footprinted all lines within a product category
others have footprinted all product lines in
anticipation of requests from major customers
such as Tesco and others.
• User trials - evaluation project :
commissioned by Defra - 2 products and 1
service
Lessons Learned - General
• Welcomed by business - filled market gap
• Guidance document very useful.
• Companies want a practical method that will let them
assess the carbon footprint of their products and
ensure that others are measuring in the same way
• Lack of good quality secondary data in many areas –
identified as a barrier to take-up.
Lessons learned - general
• Some products inherently more difficult that
others:
• complex/variable /long,or removed supply chains
• multiple actors
• single ingredient vs multiple ingredients
• agriculture
• chemicals
Lessons learned - general
• The method itself presents some challenges
• Uncertainty – how to handle
• Communication issues
• Comparability – consider PCRs
• Values can change – need good data
management
• Further develop the method – same process and
rigour as original PAS
Lessons learned – User Trials Project
(1) IBM - IT service (2) AkzoNobel - paint
(3) Johnson & Johnson (J&J) - baby wipes
Objectives :
• To use the PAS 2050 method and guidance…
• To record experiences…(good and bad)
• To document lessons learned…
Lessons Learned – User Trials Project
Summary of comments:
• Step-by-step process is straightforward
• Guide -clear and user-friendly, good overview
BUT support needed in a number of areas .
Suggested amendments to Guide.
• Materiality and prioritisation step as currently
described in the Guide is not intuitive - more
practical approach needed.
Lessons learned – User Trials Project
• Primary data requirement of the PAS can be time
consuming, BUT greater insights from supply
chain achieved where primary data were
collected
• Data collection process easier where good
relationships with supply chain
• Difficulties encountered in collecting secondary
data;
Recommendations from User Trials Project
• Simplify data prioritisation and materiality
assessments -
• A need for sector/category-specific rules
and/or guidance
• Amendments/additions to PAS 2050 Guide
• Other support tools need to be identified
• library of similar studies, process mapping tools
Recommendations from User Trials Project
• Secondary data – need for a recognised source of
full life cycle emission factors for common flows such
as energy, transportation and waste management.
• Secondary data sources to be accessible, as well as
available.
• Wider publicly available databases to be more
accessible - sources very difficult to interpret for a
non-LCA practitioner
PAS 2050 Review
• Will consider technical aspects highlighted for
further review in PAS 2050 document
• Will reflect feedback provided by PAS 2050
users and carbon footprint practitioners
• Will take account of developing international
initiatives - ISO 14067, GHG Protocol Product
Standard, plus EU work on PCF harmonisation
and policy development.
Related International Developments
ISO 14067
• International standard for product carbon
footprinting - publication in late 2011
WRI/WBCSD GHG Protocol Product Standard
• an international methodology for product
footprinting outside the formal standardisation
arena - publication expected late 2010
Related International Developments
The Commission is currently working towards
• a proposal for a harmonised PCF
methodology by end 2010,
• a Commission communication - (PCF Policy
option paper) in 2011 and
• further development of the ELCD and ILCD.
Other International initiatives/schemes(1)
• France - Grenelle de l’environnement;
• Germany - Extension of Blue Angel label;
PCF pilot
• Switzerland - Migros labelling scheme
• Sweden – criteria-based labelling scheme,
joint initiative
• EU-wide - ILCD, ELCD
Other international initiatives/schems (2)
• US - Carbon Trust pilots; Wal-Mart use of
CDP
• China - Carbon Trust pilots
• Japan - carbon label programme, national
guidelines
• Korea - carbon label programme
• New Zealand - sector-based GHG
footprinting strategy
PAS 2050 Review Process
• Almost identical to the original PAS 2050
development process : wide stakeholder
consultation , high level of technical expert
input + extensive evidence-gathering to
support changes.
• Expected to take about 9 months and be
completed by late 2010.
Future Policy
• Assess effectiveness and where it can be
improved to increase uptake by businesses.
• Address practical aspects e.g. availability
and accessibility of reliable and relevant data
– EU development of ILCD ?
• PAS 2050 to be underpinned by harmonised
sector/category specific guidance/rules?
Thank you for listening.
Questions?
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