Tremendous challenges for the global business community

“We have to make significant changes in the way we design, manufacture, distribute and influence the use and disposal of our products/services.” says Nuno DaSilva, Managing Director of PE Americas.

Pressures on the world's environment require every company to realize their entire direct and indirect environmental impact and to become more sustainable. A company's impact on the environment however doesn't stop once their product or service is delivered to the customer or distribution channel. The environmental impact of how a product is used and ultimately disposed of is typically controlled or heavily influenced by the product's design, recommended use and disposal methods.

Companies therefore need to integrate an enterprise wide emissions based approach with an assessment of product/services to fully understand their complete environmental footprint. By identifying all direct and indirect environmental impacts your organization will be able to target 'hot spots' or key areas to implement sustainable initiatives / environmental management.

In an article for “business management” DaSilva reveals the best methodologies for measuring an organization’s environmental impact

read the full article

Environmental footprinting in virtual space

Understanding and getting involved in environmental footprinting in New Zealand just got easier today with the launch of a new website hosted by the Life Cycle Association of New Zealand (LCANZ) - http://www.lcanz.org.nz/

Established in June this year, LCANZ is a special interest group open to everyone interested in environmental footprinting. Life Cycle Assessment and Carbon footprinting are increasingly being used in industry and government to measure and demonstrate the environmental impacts of products and services.

Barbara Nebel, President of LCANZ and Managing Director of PE Australasia, says the non-profit organisation was established with a representative membership, including industry, practitioners and researchers and has been supported by an initial grant from the Ministry for Economic Development. “The website is the first step towards raising awareness, building a community of interest, sharing information and ensuring more effective coordination of product related assessments in New Zealand”.

The second step is the hosting of the societies first conference in March 2010 in collaboration with the New Zealand Centre for Life Cycle Management. The conference, "Life Cycle Assessment and Footprinting: Bridging the Gap between Tools and Practice", will be held in Wellington on 24 and 25 March.

People interested in giving a talk at the conference are invited to submit an abstract by Friday 11 December. For more information on LCANZ, conference details and how to become a member visit the LCANZ website www.lcanz.org.nz or contact

Barbara Nebel

Managing Director

PE Australasia
11 Rawhiti Road

Pukerua Bay 5026, Wellington

New Zealand

 

Phone  (Australia)   +61 [0] 3 9015 9455

Phone (New Zealand) +64 [0] 4 889 2520

Fax +64 [0] 4 974 7223

E-Mail  b.nebel@pe-international.com
www.pe-international.com

Ecological Assessment for InCar Projekt of ThyssenKrupp

In the cross-Group research project InCar, ThyssenKrupp engineers from the Steel Europe and Components Technology business areas have developed 35 innovations for auto manufacturers. The first InCar parts are already being tested in auto manufacturers' plants for introduction into production.

The project offers new solutions for the body, chassis and powertrain areas. Using InCar innovations, auto OEMs can conserve resources, reduce costs or build cars with improved functions - depending on their particular development goals. At the same time the innovations have been validated to such an extent that they can be put into production quickly and at low cost.

Comprehensive ecological assessment

In view of the difficult situation currently faced by the auto industry, pressure is growing on manufacturers to make up lost ground with more eco-friendly and more cost-efficient vehicles with further improved functions. New legal requirements such as the average emissions limit of 130 grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kilometer applying EU-wide to new cars from 2012 are a further challenge.

For climate protection, InCar offers innovations capable of reducing emissions by a total of more than 17 grams of CO2 per kilometer. However, CO2 is also generated during the production of cars and parts, the ecological assessment of the InCar solutions prepared by PE INTERNATIONAL covers the entire product lifecycle. The result: Taking the whole production and usage cycle into account, the "cleanest" InCar solutions together can reduce emissions by around 5,500 kilograms of CO2 per vehicle compared with the current state of the art.

Picture:  © ThyssenKrupp

Fascinating insights in the new Smart fortwo electric

The new Smart fortwo electronic will be available at the end of this year, but large-scale production will start in 2012. The first 1,000 cars produced this year will be provided to customers participating in test projects in major cities in Europe and the U.S. in order for Daimler to get feedback about everyday use of the cars which Daimler says has "the most modern lithium-ion battery."

Like conventional cars also electronic cars are also made from hundreds of components, but there can be massive differences between how environmentally friendly they are. smart look to use alternative materials & manufacturing concepts – to find the solutions that are best for the environment. At smart they have always considered how they can use eco-friendly materials in the production of their cars. Each individual smart component is subjected to a continuous ecological improvement process. And all ongoing development projects make the best use of recycled and sustainable raw materials.

At smart they produce an ‘eco’ balance sheet. It offers fascinating insights into the future, insights that are provided by GaBi, the software system that's used for life cycle engineering of new component concepts as they're developed. GaBi evaluates the demands on raw materials and anticipates emissions and assesses the volume of waste that's likely to be created. The entire life cycle is taken into account, from production through to recycling. It can even compare the specific consumption of energy by different means of transport per passenger kilometre. So it's pretty in-depth!

Picture: © RWE 

PE INTERNATIONAL - First Accredited Partner for the Carbon Disclosure Project

PE INTERNATIONAL recently became the first Accredited Partner for the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). After undergoing a due diligence process PE´s SoFi Software was tested by the independent GHG Management Institute, resulting in the certification of PE INTERNATIONAL's SoFi software to conduct corporate carbon footprints and reports for the CDP reporting process.

CDP is an independent not-for-profit organization holding the largest database of primary corporate climate change information in the world. It acts on behalf of 475 institutional investors, handling $55 trillion in assets under management and some 60 purchasing organizations such as Walmart, PepsiCo and Cadbury.

A study by Groom Energy recently confirmed PE as a market leader in Enterprise Carbon Accounting. Paul Baier, VP of Consulting at Groom Energy, stated “Today PE INTERNATIONAL has the most solutions for Enterprise Carbon Accounting implemented globally. The CDP software accreditation strengthens their leadership position.”

“We are excited about this partnership. It expresses our confirmed commitment to assist corporations in analyzing, reporting and managing greenhouse gas emissions. We just see huge potential in this partnership to contribute even more to industries and economies shifting toward better practices in sustainability” so Michael Betz, Managing Director of PE INTER NATIONAL.