Ground-breaking product eco-labelling trial

The French government has launched an eco-labelling program to guide consumers on the environmental impacts of their everyday purchases. With the passing of the Grenelle 2 law in 2010, France set the framework for this project.

A 12-month trial will start in July 2011 with 168 companies volunteering 1000 products. Companies will calculate simplified Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) of their products that will serve as the basis for the eco-label. The diversity of products and companies will help identify possible challenges in data collection and other aspects of undertaking credible LCAs.

Several working groups in various sectors have been collaborating to define the methodologies of the eco-labelling framework including outlining the goal and scope of the simplified LCA for the different product categories. PE INTERNATIONAL is an active member in the setting up of this eco-labelling program and is supporting companies during the trial phase. GaBi software and databases enable premium quality results and extremely high flexibility in addressing this simplified LCA.

At the end of this trial, the government will submit an evaluation report to the French Parliament to inform future discussions on an extension of the regulation. The aim of the trial is therefore to provide sound information to strengthen the nationwide roll-out of the eco-labelling law.

For more information please contact Laura Guillon

About Grenelle 1 and 2
Following the passing of the law entitled Grenelle 1 (Law 2009_967 of August 3rd 2009), the French environmental institute (ADEME) and the institute in charge of releasing the standards in France (AFNOR) have led the project on environmental labelling of consumer goods. With the passing of Grenelle 2 in 2010, France will now set the framework for this environmental labelling project.

PE INTERNATIONAL at the Siemens PLM Connection Americas User Conference

The Siemens PLM Connection is the 4th in a series of conferences on Product Life Cycle Management tools and it will be held this year in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 2-5, 2011. This important user conference serves as a forum for business, software developers and users to come together to address the growing use and application of PLM software and add-on tools.


PE INTERNATIONAL, will be a leading participant in the conference. We have a lot planned and want to invite you to attend all the activities including:

Presentations & Sessions

Partner Roundtable Session – Product sustainability – Tools and techniques for embedding sustainability into the product creation process

Day/Time: Wed. 2:30-3:10

Room: Palma G

Learn about some of the latest in sustainability tools and solutions. Presentations and demos will be conducted by PE INTERNATIONAL’s experts and will focus on product sustainability and the tools and techniques for embedding sustainability into the product creation process. Check out the conference website for the full list of presentations and posters topics and sessions.

Exhibit Booth

Stop by booth #26 on Monday or Tuesday, to learn about new features and functionality within our life cycle assessment software platform GaBi 4 or to pick up a free demo version!

Learn about some of the latest in sustainability tools and solutions offered by PE INTERNATIONAL.

Talk to our GaBi and SoFi software experts to understand how these platforms can help you understand your business practices, improve their sustainability performance, and to ultimately succeed in the marketplace. 

We will have short scheduled demos throughout the day on GaBi 4, i-report and GaBi DfX.

Join us for a demo or setup a time to discuss a specific GaBi or LCA topic with us!

Any questions about presentations please contact the GaBi Software Sales and Support team at; +1 (617) 247-4477 x2 or email p.canepa@pe-international.com.

Siemens PLM Connection Americas 2011

Date
May 2 - 5, 2011

Location
Las Vegas, USA

Organizer
Siemens PLM

More information
www.plmworld.org

New Arabian online platform for suppliers of green building products released

The first portal of its kind to originate in the Arab world, The Future Build assists architects, engineers and contractors in identifying and sourcing building products and materials that have been independently assessed to ensure they deliver the environmental benefits claimed. It also provides the latest green building news, as well as sustainable procurement and supply chain consulting and training services.

The Future Build is an initiative of Masdar City and offers an unrivalled platform for suppliers of green building products to bring their products and materials to the attention of all elements of the construction industry, particularly in the United Arab Emirates and wider Arab world, concerned with sustainable construction.

As LCA consultants to MASDAR City, PE INTERNATIONAL supports suppliers with its knowhow in Life Cycle Assessments  and tailored solutions like Portfolio Carbon Manangement (PCM).

More information: www.thefuturebuild.com

Forbo Flooring: GaBi i-report pushes product development and process improvements

“PE’s Life Cycle Assessment software is the base for our green development and evaluating our environmental impacts with our focus on reducing the CO2 emissions and the related irreversible climate change caused by global warming.”

Forbo Flooring, one of the world’s leading flooring system manufacturers, has long been committed to improving environmental performance and has commissioned many peer reviewed LCA and benchmark studies. Forbo recently decided to form an internal LCA team to take on the role of building knowledge in house and allowing more individuals, within the organisation, to get involved with the LCA process.

Fred Seifert states: “GaBi software will enable us to further drive down the environmental impacts associated with the entire life cycle of our products and processes by providing us with the information that we need to identify areas for improvement. The GaBi i-report in particular will allow us to push product development and innovation based on environmental performance information.”

PE INTERNATIONAL becomes CDP gold partner and launches CarbonExplorer

PE INTERNATIONAL has signed a gold partnership agreement with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the leading independent registry for climate change information. PE INTERNATIONAL has been working with the CDP since September 2009 and the gold partnership will further strengthen the collaboration between the two organizations.  For the growing number of companies participating in the Carbon Disclosure Project PE INTERNATIONAL has launched the SoFi CarbonExplorer solution. SoFi CarbonExplorer enables clients to develop a high-performance carbon management and reporting program quickly and in a cost-effective way. The new solution combines the proven carbon management capabilities of the SoFi Software solution with PE’s leading carbon consulting to help clients overcome challenges such as resource constraints, lack of internal expertise and dispersed incomplete greenhouse gas emissions data. With the easy and secure web access SoFi CarbonExplorer enables an easy start for a solid carbon management program that supports strategic company objectives.

Learn more about SoFi CarbonExplorer

Making sustainability measurable – Rhein-Galerie certified with Gold status

© ECE

Located in Ludwigshafen, Germany the 220 million euro Rhein-Galerie Shopping Mall is a building at the cutting edge of sustainable construction and operation.

PE INTERNATIONAL was involved in the planning phase and as advisory support throughout the certification process which led to the Rhein-Galerie receiving its Gold status for sustainability.

A life cycle assessment (LCA) screening study was undertaken for the pre-certification stage followed by a detailed calculation upon completion of the building. The assessments were carried out using GaBi 4 and GaBi Build-it, the new PE building LCA tool.

The German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) certification scheme defines sustainable buildings across six fields with a catalogue of some 60 criteria, weighted in accordance to their importance. Points are granted against each criterion according to the performance of the building. In order to reach Gold status, buildings must score at least 80 percent. The building LCA results can contribute as much as 13 % of the overall rating.

Carbon neutral travel in Australia

PE Australia, in collaboration with Northern Territory Government’s Tourism NT, has developed and implemented an innovative framework to enable Small to Medium Enterprises in the Northern Territory tourism industry to publish statements of claims about their greenhouse gas emissions and offsets.

The system, called Outback Offsets  was based around completion of a Greenhouse Gas Emission Life Cycle Assessment compliant with ISO standards and third party verified offsets.

The solution has been supported by the WWF. The Chief Executive Officer of WWF Australia, Greg Bourne, congratulated Tourism NT, on the “independent, transparent and credible programme for small and medium businesses to reduce their greenhouse emissions”. The scheme has the potential to be applied to many other industry sectors keen to become involved in accredited climate change initiatives.

www.pe-international.com