SoFi first verified software solution by GRI

On May 19th 2010 PE INTERNATIONAL’s corporate sustainability solution SoFi became the first verified software by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The GRI program for certifying software and digital tools started in the beginning of 2010 and aims to ensure the correct usage of GRI content, such as the GRI Sustainability Reporting Framework. “GRI is pleased to confirm that SoFi contains precise GRI content, “explains GRI’s Director of Learning Services, Dr. Nelmara Arbex, “it is the first sustainability reporting tool which has fulfilled all the requirements of the GRI Certified Software and Tools Program.”.

GaBi i-report goes online! - The easy way to Life Cycle Assessments

How do you obtain information on environmental performance if you are not a professional in Life Cycle Assessment? The GaBi i-report provides a simple interface to the crucial parameters of a GaBi model that has been designed by an LCA expert. All you have to do is contribute your know-how by adjusting parameter values and watch the results in the report being recalculated interactively within seconds.
Now this is taken to the next level: GaBi i-reports can be accessed directly via the internet, you simply open your web browser and log in. Report parameters can be edited and professional reports are automatically updated directly in the browser. All this comes with a new stylish user interface that is intuitive and easy to navigate.

Pioneering Detergent Study Updated!

Pioneering Detergent Study Updated! One of the first studies to have independent scientific peer review, even before publication of the Life Cycle Assessment ISO standard, is now being updated. ERASM (a collaboration between industry associations CESIO and AISE) has initiated a project aiming to amend and expand the 1995 study ‘European Life-Cycle Inventory for Detergent Surfactants Production’. The new SLE (‘Surfactant Life Cycle and Ecofootprinting’) project will start in 2010 and is expected to deliver updated inventories by 2012 for the 22 original surfactants plus several new ones.

Completion of the First ECO-EPD

In April 2010 the Zumtobel Group will release one of the first Environmental Construction Organisation Environmental Product Declarations (ECO EPDs). The 120 EPDs already published by PE INTERNATIONAL (PEI) underscores PEI’s leading position in compiling these reports. Previously completed EPDs relate to the Product Category Rules (PCR) of the German Institute Bauen und Umwelt (IBU). EPDs under the new European PCR of the Environmental Construction Organisation (ECO) are currently being worked on. PEI will be sharing its experience in EPDs at the IBU workshops to be held on June 8 in Frankfurt, and at the Consense Congress and Fair in Stuttgart on June 22.

Scope 3 GHG Emissions - Emissions beyond the own fence

Since January 2010, 70 corporations have been road-testing two new global standards by measuring the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of their products and supply chains. These standards are part of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative, which provides standards and guidance for companies and other organizations preparing a GHG emissions inventory. These new standards are focusing on the “indirect” emissions which occur beyond one’s own company or organisational boundaries, the so called Scope 3 emissions.

PE INTERNATIONAL is heavily involved in this process and is participating in the technical working groups preparing the standards. PEI also supports the GHG Protocol Initiative on special issues such as land use change and is now an official software provider for the road testing stage. A third of the testing companies are using PE INTERNATIONAL’s GaBi and SoFi software to record and assess their GHG emissions.


The GHG inventory of a company can be divided into three boundary categories –Scope 1, 2 and 3. Scope 1 includes all direct emissions of corporations, for instance the energy production on site or the use of the Company car fleet. Scope 2 encompasses the emissions of purchased energy, which don’t occur on the company site, such as electricity or district heat. The GHG emissions of activities which are beyond company boundaries but related to company operations are described as Scope 3. These include, for example, employee commuting or business travel, emissions by suppliers or from the use of a product.


The new GHG Protocol Standards will provide a standardized method to inventory emissions associated with individual products across their full life cycle and corporate value chains, taking into account impacts both upstream and downstream of a company’s operations.


The entire life cycle needs to be considered to avoid ‘environmental problem shifting’. Companies, who involve the supply chain as well as the use and end-of-life phases, stand to gain more credibility for their environmental activities and will have a strategic competitive advantage in the long term.

Moreover, measuring these indirect emissions provides companies with a comprehensive base of information. Companies acquire knowledge about the entire impact of their activities and products and can make sounder decisions.

For information regarding WRI road-testing or the new standards, please contact Michael Spielmann.

EPD-Workshop - building materials for sustainable building

EPD-Workshop, June 8, 2010 – Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Environmental product declarations (EPDs) are the most impotent medium to inform about building products which are used to benchmark the sustainability of buildings. The sustainability of the building depends on the quality of the building materials. That`s why the provable sustainable building products are considered already by planning and sourcing of materials today.

The ordinance on building products will include an extra claim “sustainability” in the future. And building products manufacturers should be able to achieve it. Since the european standard contains the facet “sustainability of buildings” the environmental product declarations are the central medium to inform about the building products for building monitoring.

The EPD workshop organized by IBU institute will take place on June 8, 2010 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is directed towards building products and materials manufacturers, building engineers and other players along the value chain for buildings, for example architects, building or project managers, builders, builder's merchants and recyclers.

More information about the environmental product declarations (EPDs) and services of PE INTERNATIONAL you will find here .

PE Americas heads up a LCA project for the US cotton industry

Key members of the US cotton industry are coming together to compile a comprehensive cotton lifecycle inventory (LCI).

Called Vision 21, the inventory’s data is intended to serve as a foundation for global cotton lifecycle evaluations and a credible base for sustainable textile operations.

The project, expected to take about a year, involves The Cotton Foundation, the National Cotton Council (NCC), Cotton Council International (CCI) and Cotton Incorporated. PE Americas will head up the project.

“Vision 21 is a project of the Cotton Foundation that involves three major areas of study,” NCC President/CEO Mark Lange said. “A critical component of the project is an independently conducted life cycle environmental and energy analysis for cotton consumer products.”

“The goal of the collection of this current, third-party and peer-reviewed data is that it will become a gold standard for manufacturers, brands and retailers interested in bettering their environmental bottom line,” said J. Berrye Worsham, president and CEO of Cotton Incorporated, adding that it will also serve to further demonstrate the environmental gains the US cotton industry continues to make along every link of the supply chain.

The Life Cycle Inventory / Life Cycle Assessment project will use data from the top cotton-producing countries of India, China and the US. Similarly, a sampling of key cotton textile-producing countries, including India, China, the United States, Turkey and Latin America, will be used for manufacturing benchmarking.

Lange also noted that the US cotton industry is confident that a transparent and well-documented cotton lifecycle inventory - one that easily can be integrated into both proprietary and open source LCA software - will benefit the industry. And, along with data set collection and tool creation, the ultimate goal is to make the information globally available.