Tesco publishes over 1100 product carbon footprints

Tesco has set themselves demanding targets both to reduce carbon emissions of the products they sell by 30% by 2020, and to find ways to help customers reduce their carbon footprints by 50% by 2020. To help achieve this they have completed carbon footprint analysis of over 1,100 of their own-brand products.

Understanding the carbon footprints of these products helps Tesco to understand where greenhouse gas emissions arise, enabling them to reduce their impact on the environment. They have also used this information to carbon label over 500 products since 2008, and to provide helpful advice to their customers on how they can reduce their household carbon footprint. 

Find out more about carbon footprints of different products PDF 1MB

The theory and practice of LCA - Like ebony and ivory living in perfect harmony?

A newly published editorial in the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment is seeking to promote cooperation in the development and application of life cycle assessment (LCA) across both academia and business.

Bringing together the collective experience and expertise of 22 contributing authors from universities, commercial enterprises, industry groups, and research organizations, the work addresses both the scientific underpinnings of the practice and the business process value.

The editorial, “LCA’s theory and practice: like ebony and ivory living in perfect harmony? , provides the context for framing the discussion on LCA applications in business practice and develops a cogent and comprehensive business case for the use of LCA.  The paper concludes with an invitation to both academia and business practitioners to work collaboratively and learn from each other in pursuit of improved LCA methodologies.

 >> Download the article and read more

Design more sustainable products

Watch our free webinar replay to gain valuable insight how to deliver more sustainable products, reduce costs and enhance your brand.

Investment in product sustainability performance delivers proven benefits across the organization – from business strategy to product development to your operations and supply chain including:

Brand Enhancement > Cost Reductions> Product Differentiation > Product Operating Efficiency>Risk management & compliance

Learn how to deliver the best possible sustainable designs with GaBi Envision

GaBi Envision is employed across the entire product development team to easily integrate Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) into your product design process, quickly evaluate ‘what-if’ scenarios and effectively communicate environmental impacts. 

>> Watch the webinar replay!

 

Get insights into sustainability

PE INTERNATIONAL is recognized by its clients as being a thought leader on how sustainability concepts can be applied to organizations and to products.

Committed to sharing our knowledge, we offer not only our services as consultants but also our insights through numerous whitepapers, case studies, presentations, studies and webinars.

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New Product Carbon Footprint standard: ISO 14067

The new standard ISO 14067 for carbon footprints of products will provide much more specific guidance than the underlying ISO 14044:2006, Environmental management – Life cycle assessment – Requirements and guidelines.

ISO 14067 calls for specific product category rules, including not only the specifications of ISO 14025:2006, Environmental labels and declarations – Type III environmental declarations – Principles and procedures, but also other sector-specific standards or internationally agreed guidance documents related to materials and product categories.

ISO 14067 expected for July 2013

The new standard builds largely on the existing ISO standards for life cycle assessments (ISO 14040/44) and environmental labels and declarations (ISO 14025) and is planned to become available as a Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) by February 2013, with publication expected for July 2013


To improve user-friendliness and consistency, working group WG 2, GHG management in the value or supply chain, of ISO technical committee ISO/TC 207, Environment management, subcommittee SC 7, Greenhouse gas management and related activities, decided to merge Part 1, Quantification, and Part 2, Communication. The working group allowed for a second round of balloting to ensure that the standard would earn broad support in all countries.

Addressing direct and indirect land-use changes

WG 2 decided to align the requirements for addressing direct and indirect land-use changes with the specifications of the revised PAS 2050. These requirements are informed by research in Europe and the American state of California, which elaborate details related to sustainability criteria for biofuels.