EU Environmental Footprinting: Perspectives and Outlook 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)
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 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 26 July 2013 September 2013 October/November 2013 April-June 2014 (expected) April 2015 (expected)
Call for volunteers Deadline for applications Selection of participants completed Start of 1st wave of EF category rules pilot Start of testing verification processes 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-AmĂŠlie 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 climateconscious 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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