Companies improve sustainability with a product life cycle approach

Leading firms move beyond the enterprise view to take a product life cycle approach to improve their sustainability.

The challenges that this presents is driving sustainability experts to work closely with non-sustainability colleagues – because the decisions that determine product sustainability are made by R&D, product design, procurement, marketing and sales teams. The recently published report by analyst firm Verdantix explains how PE INTERNATIONAL’s product Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) software, GaBi, can support different business functions to incorporate sustainability considerations into relevant processes; decision-making at the product design and procurement stages, and to facilitate engaging sustainability communications by marketing and sales teams.

Click here to download the report

First Light house

Victoria University of Wellington, in New Zealand’s capital city, has been selected as one of 20 university teams to compete in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011 – the only entry, ever, from the southern hemisphere.

The First Light house is designed not only to operate as a sustainable, energy efficient and high performance building that minimises the environmental burdens and conserves resources but also focuses on recreation, socialisation, and outdoor living. However, the students realised that the operational environmental impact is only one part of the picture.

Although a Life Cycle Assessment is not one of the competition categories, the students were keen to use a LCA as part of their story around their house. PE INTERNATIONAL supported the students by undertaking a comprehensive analysis to quantify the environmental performance of the First Light house for construction, operation, maintenance and disposal. In addition to this we trained Victoria University students in the GaBi software and provided LCA seminars.

PE INTERNATIONAL wishes the First Light Team all the best for the completion of the project.

About the competition:
The US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon challenges 20 university teams, through a series of 10 contests, to demonstrate inventive clean-energy solutions by building solar-powered houses that feature cost-effective, energy-efficient construction and incorporate energy-saving appliances and renewable energy systems.

This year the Solar Decathlon will take place on the National Mall’s West Potomac Park, which is nestled amongst national landmarks and memorials, and is just a stone’s throw from the White House. The competition runs from September 23th to October 2nd.



more information: www.firstlighthouse.ac.nz

EAC selects leading Sustainability Reporting System from PE INTERNATIONAL

EAC has chosen leading sustainability expert PE INTERNATIONAL to provide a sustainability reporting system featuring its class leading SoFi software. This will be used by 70 data collectors to enable EAC to document sustainability in a project that will be a cornerstone in bringing its UN Global Compact commitment forward.

Innovia Films

Innovia Films have established sound environmental credentials for their products and processes by using  Life Cycle Assessment and Scenario Modelling-tools in the GaBi Software. Andrew Sweetman, Business Development and Sustainability Manager at Innovia Films describes the benefits thus “When we are looking towards possible process changes, our department is now being consulted to see if there might be any impacts, positive or negative, associated with these changes. So it´s helping to lead our investment programme and make sure that, if we do plan to change anything, we understand the impacts and make an informed choice between different options, before we commit the capital investment.”

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 and Five Winds are joining forces

PE INTERNATIONAL and Five Winds International have merged and are now forming one company in North America, PE INTERNATIONAL, Inc.

PE and Five Winds started their long-term partnership more than a decade ago and have been working together as a Joint Venture, PE Americas, since 2006. This natural progression of the partnership enables us to provide our clients value-added services and solutions across the globe and brings together the expertise and competencies of both organizations.

Five Winds will become a branded services offering within PE INTERNATIONAL worldwide allowing us to extend strategic consulting methodologies, practices and experience to an even broader global audience. This next phase of our development is focusing on helping our clients with their sustainability needs with our expanding range of software products and services offerings.

This new era is ushered in via reports about the amazing future both of our industry and our company, as well as testimonials from our customers representing the value of our integrated work.

More information: Press Release/Download

Deka-Bank: A business case for environmental and sustainability management

Many large organizations are facing demands to adopt environmentally responsible and sustainable business practices. Various stakeholder groups including investors and customers are calling for a stronger focus on sustainability. But can a business take ecological and social good into account and be economically successful at the same time?

Read how DekaBank saved half a million Euros in two years by implementing an Environmental Management System and centralizing sustainability management using the SoFi Software solution. To the Case study or contact Markus Michalzik

Best Practices and Performance Management now in SoFi

The new SoFi Software 4.3 has been released, the most-widely used enterprise solution for sustainability management,  featuring 100,000 best practices in energy and resource efficiency from over 12,000 companies.

The Best Practice Library provides insights into investment costs versus benefits and enables clients to easily find improvement projects that have been successfully implemented by their peers in the same industry or geographical region.

The new release also features an advanced module for sustainability performance management - Strategic Planning & Forecasting - that is designed to help sustainability professionals identify the most suitable projects for their own operations based on the highest return on investment. The module enables decision-makers to develop the optimal action plan that meets their corporate sustainability targets by employing  advanced analytics such as cost abatement curves, benchmarks and projected performance against targets.
For more information please contact Neil D´Souza.

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

New report ranks PE as Enterprise Energy and Carbon Accounting Leader

On February 8, 2011, Groom Energy Solutions released its report entitled “The 2011 Enterprise Energy and Carbon Accounting (EECA) Software Market -- A Buyers Guide”. The report evaluates 75 vendors across several dimensions to determine the strength of the technology and of the company. The main focus was on customer deployments and quality of customer references, along with the solution capabilities for carbon management and energy management.


“We selected PE INTERNATIONAL as a 2011 EECA leader for the fourth time in our report because the capabilities of the SoFi Software solution reflect the 20 years of sustainability domain expertise and market insight of the company, “ said Paul Baier, Vice President Consulting at Groom Energy Solutions.  “The large number of new customer deployments in various sectors and regions confirms the ability of PE INTERNATIONAL to provide enterprise sustainability solutions that deliver superior business value for its clients.”

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.

Green Awards 2010

Congratulations to our partner Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks! Their CAD software SolidWorks Sustainability has been been recognized as the winner in the category “Best Green New Product Innovation” by the UK Royal Society of Arts. This software for sustainable design is built on GaBi software and database, leveraging its strength and flexibility to provide integrated product lifecycle assessment and environmental performance insights.

Judges thoughts: “This entry is our favourite. This software has the potential to revolutionise the way designers design their products.  By integrating lifecycle thinking into the design process, SolidWorks helps designers to lower the environmental impact of their creation from the design stage.  Their partnership with independent organisation PE INTERNATIONAL which provides life cycle inventory database makes their product robust and reliable. A must have in any designer’s tool box.”

For more information please contact Susan Fredholm Murphy

More information about SolidWorks Sustainability Software: "Best New Green Product Innovation"

Release of GaBi Build-it

© Behnisch Architekten

This new software solution from the GaBi family allows you to calculate a complete building-LCA without in depth-knowledge about LCA modeling. More than 600 datasets of building materials, energy supply and end of life applications are included in the generic model, which are structured according to their utilization within the building.

The maintenance cycles and the end of life scenarios are implemented according to the regulations of the DGNB (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen, German Sustainable Building Council).

A detailed report of the results, with a predefined analysis includes a comparison with a reference building. The report can be used both to optimize buildings and for the DGNB certification process.

Download the brochure

GaBi 4.4 released

GaBi 4.4 was released on the 21^st of September. The new GaBi 4.4 provides assistance in documenting your processes according to the ILCD format and in preparing the documentation for Environmental Product Declaration certification.  It also takes into account social aspects with the ‘Life Cycle Working Environment’ approach and considers the effects of land use. This update was the first to be delivered completely electronically in the GaBi 4 software family and makes the update procedure much quicker, more reliable and much easier for the user. Find out more about these exciting developments here

PE Americas joined the Sustainability Consortium

PE Americas has joined the Sustainability Consortium, a group of independent scientists and engineers working to develop a global database of information on the lifecycle of products.

Managed by the University of Arkansas Applied Sustainability Center and the Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University, the Sustainability Consortium will attempt to quantify the lifecycle of various consumer goods. These findings will identify sustainability hotspots throughout the value chain, helping retailers and suppliers move forward on the path to sustainability.

As the first Life Cycle Assessment /Sustainability consulting firm to join the Sustainability Consortium, PEA will be on the steering committee with involvement in the Sustainability Consortium’s working groups.
To quantify product impacts, the Sustainability Consortium will be using our GaBi software that supports the collection, organization, analysis, and monitoring of the environmental performance of products and processes.

GaBi Software - User Forum Back!

After being temporarily unavailable, during the move to the new website, the GaBi User Forum is back!

The User Forum is designed to allow registered GaBi users to ask each other questions, share experiences and learn from each other.

Check out the forum topics now; perhaps you’ll be able to answer someone’s question.

Go to the GaBi User Forum now!

French Environmental Product Declaration (FDES) requirements

The French National Department of Health and Environment is planning that during 2010 50% of construction products put on the French market have an FDES (Fiche de Déclaration Environnementale et Sanitaire.) The new GaBi-tool FDES-CREATOR now enables you to automatically generate  LCI and LCIA tables in one click, as well as the FDES report as requested by the standard NF P 01-010 and in compliance with the AIMCC official format of 2005, format 9.7.

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.

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