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?