PE INTERNATIONAL confirms the advantages of the disposal system for agricultural packaging

The disposal system for agricultural packaging PAMIRA is not only more profitable than alternative ones; it also causes the least ecological damage in the overall perspective. This is certified by a comprehensive eco-efficiency analysis, whose result was reviewed by PE INTERNATIONAL.

“The results of this analysis demonstrate that we are following the right way with PAMIRA. The German plant protection industry considers itself responsible for its products and the disposal of the packages is an important aspect in this regard”, comments Volker Koch-Achelpöhler, chief executive officer of the industrial association Agrar, on the survey.

The eco-efficiency analysis on PAMIRA was ordered to evaluate possibilities of system improvement and estimate alternative approaches concerning logistics and further processing. In the course of this analysis, six hypothetical alternative models were compared with the actually realised collections of the years 2007 and 2008 and were examined by BASF SE with regards to costs and environmental impact. Afterwards, the results were reviewed by PE INTERNATIONAL.

The actually applied PAMIRA system includes the possibility for farmers to return their packages to the 273 collection points, which are established within the trade sector, once a year for four days. Within the eco-efficiency analysis, the data which was collected in the course of these collections was compared with alternative scenarios, such as two collection dates in a year, collections throughout the year and two models which contain that disposal companies fetch the packages from the farmers, etc. But the eco-efficiency analysis revealed that, by applying these alternative models, not only the system costs would almost increase fivefold due to a great number of additional trips, but that the environmental impacts would seriously aggravate as well.

PAMIRA is a voluntary redemption system which is successfully applied nationwide by the German plant protection industry in collaboration with the trade sector since 1996. Through PAMIRA, the industry wants to ensure that its packages only get into controlled disposal channels. In this way, in 2009, a total amount of 2400 tons of package material was redeemed through the system and led to further processing. The rate of return of the packages sold accounted for approximately 75 percent.

Infinitely recyclable aluminum can more sustainable than ever, shows LCA

New life-cycle analyses from PE Americas for the Aluminum Association shows a carbon footprint reduction of 44% over the last 17 years.

PE Americas has recently completed “one of the most comprehensive and transparent life-cycle analyses (LCA) ever conducted by an industry group for the Aluminum Association.” The independent study of aluminum cans, carried out by PE Americas, part of strategic consultancy PE INTERNATIONAL, was undertaken in part to respond to Walmart’s packaging scorecard, which calls for its suppliers in all sectors to reduce their carbon footprint.

The results confirm major reductions in the aluminum can’s product carbon footprint and energy use over the last 17 years and have been provided to both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Walmart. Major findings include:
• Reduction in overall carbon footprint of the aluminum can by 44%
• 30% less energy usage
• Reduction in package weight of 15%
• 68% total recycled content, the highest of any beverage package material

“The data shows that we are using significantly less material and less energy to produce same-size beverage cans as compared with 17 years ago,” says Steve Larkin, president of The Aluminum Association. “The aluminum industry has made tremendous gains in sustainability. The aluminum can is more sustainable than ever.”

The comprehensive life-cycle study analyzes the entire production process—from bauxite mining to can manufacturing. The study incorporates the latest available information on energy and material consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and other environmental releases. The study examines the can manufacturing process using both the cradle-to-cradle closed-loop approach and the recycled-content approach. It conformed to ISO methodology and was peer-reviewed by experts from the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry and the EPA.

Says Larkin, “The aluminum industry has made every effort to ensure the integrity and transparency of this important project.” In addition to being posted on the association’s website, the results and supporting data have been provided to the EPA, where they will be used to update the existing Life-Cycle Inventory database and the agency’s Waste Reduction Model.

“The study also confirmed our belief that the key to continuing to improve the carbon footprint of the aluminum can is to increase recycling rates,” says Pat Persico, manager of corporate communications for Novelis and chair of The Aluminum Association’s Can Committee. She notes that the aluminum industry is committed to a goal to increase the recycling rate to 75% by 2015, up from it’s current rate of 54. %.

The study is publicly available at www.aluminum.org/lca.

Sustainable buildings awarded for the first time in Austria

The first real estate projects received the DGNB-certificate for sustainable building in Austria. The The Austrian society for sustainable real estate economics (ÖGNI) prices nine office and trade buildings and one kindergarten. In four projects the ÖGNI founding member PE Central and Eastern Europe carried out the audit for the certification.

With the help of the detailed planning, PE accomplished a pre-certification of the „SPAR climate protection supermarket“ (Murau), which reached the gold status. PE continues to conduct the project and after completion, PE is going to examine the SPAR climate protection market again, according to the sustainability criteria of the DGNB certification. Furthermore, PE CEE audited the kindergarten Guntramsdorf as well as the two Viennese office buildings BIZ ZWEI and RUND VIER of the IC project development, which all has been certified or pre-certified with silver.

With the DGNB certificate, buildings are examined and assessed for their sustainable method of construction according to about 50 criteria in six topics (ecology, economy, socio-cultural and functional aspects, technology, processes and location). ÖGNI took over the proven system of the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) and adapted it to the Austrian market.

PE and Tata Consultancy Services partner for integrated sustainability management

PE INTERNATIONAL launched a partnership with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading IT services, business solutions and outsourcing organization. We will collaborate on the further development of our corporate sustainability solution SoFi and jointly implement integrated corporate sustainability management solutions for customers worldwide.

Michael Betz, CEO of PE describes the partnership: “We are delighted to partner with TCS. As a pioneer in the area of information technology, TCS has a large global client base in the IT space as well as access to very well trained professionals who will be instrumental in scaling the deployment of SoFi around the globe.”

 

The partnership will blend TCS’s IT services, business solutions and outsourcing expertise with PE’s 20 years of experience in helping client’s understand and improve sustainability performance. “With this unique combination we can offer our clients a leading corporate sustainability management solution coupled with world class IT services” said Betz.

Lakshminarasimhan Srinivasan, Head of Eco-Sustainability Services at TCS, explains:”SoFi is the most flexible corporate sustainability solution to manage complex business requirements on the market today. We currently are deploying SoFi for our own operations and have found that SoFi significantly increases the efficiency of corporate sustainability information management within TCS.”

Brochure Sustainable Building 2010 released - Becoming a supplier to Masdar City

Are you interested in supplying products in the construction and operation of Masdar City? In order for Masdar City to reach its ambitious goals of being one of the world’s most sustainable urban developments, Masdar City encourages suppliers to find out the carbon footprint for the products they sell and join in on taking actions towards improving sustainability throughout their production processes and supply chain.

As LCA consultants to MASDAR City, we at PE INTERNATIONAL are looking forward to helping you better position your products with Masdar City as well as in the global sustainability market. Please download our 2010 Sustainable Building brochure wherein you will find information on several developments in the construction arena that should convince you that a sustainability is the only way forward for businesses who want to be competitive in today’s marketplace. 

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.

LCA for the Corrugated Packaging Alliance (CPA)

PE Americas conducted a life-cycle assessment (LCA) for the Corrugated Packaging Alliance (CPA) to evaluate the environmental impact of corrugated packaging products. With such an LCA study, the CPA and its constituent associations can assist others in understanding and communicating the environmental footprint and environmental benefits associated with using corrugated. At the same time, this study helps describe the environmental impacts of corrugated’s different life-cycle stages in relation to overall environmental performance, and the potential environmental benefits of process improvements. Beyond the operations of a single manufacturing site or package specification, the study evaluates the environmental performance of an industry-average corrugated product throughout its entire life cycle.

Download Summary Report

PE INTERNATIONAL conducted a Life Cycle Assessment for Pumas new packaging system "Clever little bag"

PUMA launched the next pivotal phase of its ambitious long-term sustainability program. By introducing its cutting-edge sustainable packaging and distribution system by renowned industrial designer Yves Behar, PUMA will set new standards within the Sportlifestyle retail industry. The new innovative solution will significantly reduce the amount of waste and CO2 emissions that traditional product packaging such as shoe-boxes and apparel polyethylene bags generate and underpins PUMA's target of reducing carbon, energy, water, and waste by 25%, and developing 50% of its international product collections in footwear, apparel and accessories according to best practice sustainability standards by 2015.

Behar designed a "Clever Little Bag" to replace the cardboard shoebox with a re-usable shoe bag, that protects each pair of shoes from damage from the point it leaves the factory until the consumer takes it home -- thus generating savings on the production side due to less material used, reducing weight during transport and eliminating the need for extra plastic carrier bags.

PE INTERNATIONAL conducted a Life Cycle Assessment to consider all elements of the life cycle, from the overall manufacturing including supply of material and energy carriers to the end of life, when analyzing the environmental performance of the various footwear-packaging options. 

For more information about the "Clever little bag" watch the movie!

Enterprise Carbon Accounting will see explosive growth

A new research report by Groom Energy Solutions predicts that despite the slow economy software purchases for Enterprise Carbon Accounting (ECA) or Corporate Carbon Footprints will grow 600% by 2011. The research report identifies three main drivers for the future growth: customers and investor demanding improvements in company image, cost savings from sustainability initiatives and supply-chain programs like Walmart’s Supplier Sustainability Assessment.

Meanwhile, the number of ECA solution vendors has grown to 60 and the research report aims to guide decision makers in choosing the right offering for their needs. The report evaluates vendors using the following criteria: number of customer deployments, technology features, market vision and financial stability.  

PE INTERNATIONAL has been identified as an Emerging Leader based on these criteria for the second consecutive year. Paul Baier, vice president of consulting at Groom Energy and author of the report confirms “With its large ECA customer base and global organization, PE INTERNATIONAL is ideally positioned for success in the market.”

Track your personal Carbon Footprint with the new iPhone app "iCarbonCalc"

PE INTERNATIONAL is happy to announce that the iPhone application "iCarbonCalc" is now available in the App Store.

This app allows it to track the personal carbon footprint by adding a variety of activities (Car/Train/Flight/Live) in different time ranges. The results can be shown either in a 2D Bar or a Table and specific personals goals can be set.

 

The app increases public awareness of personal carbon footprints and the personal estimate provided by the app can help individuals identify the aspects of their lifestyles that contribute most to global warming.

 

The “iCarbonCalc” is freeware and can be downloaded here:

http://itunes.apple.com/de/app/icarboncalc/id350343811?mt=8

Life Cycle Analysis in the building planning

The resources used for a building, the resulting environmental impact and the costs caused during its useful life exceed the costs emerged from its production and construction. In particular, this concerns the expenditure of energy and CO2 emissions.

With the development towards a more intensified sustainability in the building sector, an extreme increase of requirements to buildings came along during the last years. Already in the planning there have to be taken into consideration topics like climate change, preservation of resources, demographic change and monetary stability. Furthermore, the temporal horizon has widened: in addition to the building phase, the whole life cycle of buildings becomes integrated progressively into the process of planning, including maintenance, overhaul and renaturation.

The book “Lebenszyklusanalyse in der Gebäudeplanung”, released by the publishing company DETAIL, imparts necessary knowledge to planners, which they need to react appropriately on the change of requirements. Johannes Kreißig, expert in sustainable building of PE International and his co- authors explain the development of buildings during their life cycle and the influence, the risks of ageing and obsolescence can have in this regard.

They describe the methods of life cycle assessment and life cycle costing and present the most important tools for integral planning. The practical application of the life cycle analysis is illustrated by examples of buildings and these examples furthermore show how environmental impacts and life cycle costs can be taken into consideration already in the phase of planning. The book is an indispensable tool for all those who dedicate themselves to the certification of sustainability of buildings and can be obtained at DETAIL.

Order online:

Life cycle analysis in the building planning

Contact

In case of questions concerning the topic of sustainable building please contact Johannes Kreißig, our expert in building and co-author of the book.

E-Mail: j.kreissig[at]pe-international.com

CO2 - the new currency

1.2 tons of carbon dioxide have been caused by Andreas Große Habuer, Tobias Bayer and Joachim Zepelin through their research for the story „CO2- the new currency“, published in the november edition of the business magazine Capital. PE INTERNATIONAL calculated a carbon footprint of about 1.2 tons as the result of every journey, telephone call and piece of paper, which the journalists needed for their research.

Among others, they communicated with Deutsche Post, one of our SoFi software customers. „Years ago, as we were experimenting with carbon- accounting, we were even sneered“, says Michael Lohmeier, CO2 manager of Deutsche Post. Nowadays, nobody laughs. „Because of the extensive system of numbers we now exactly know how to save CO2 and therefore money“.

The big problem in accounting CO2 is, that Deutsche Post is just able to detect and have an effect on 20 percent of their emissions. The big rest arises from the suppliers, who have to make up the balance for the emission of CO2 for themselves to enable Deutsche Post to provide significant data. „We just started to ask our business partners for their emissions of CO2“, says Lohmeier.

Factoring primary products and supply chains which provoke emissions of CO2 into the own accounting of C02 gains immensely in importance. In the future, the huge trading company Wal-Mart claims C02 data of its 100.000 suppliers, for instance. Therefore, selecting a supplier will become a question of C02 emissions.

„Now, questionnaires are sent back and forth around the world“, says Michael Spielmann, Coordinator Carbon Management at PE INTERNATIONAL. „It will not take much longer and  the smallest companies will have to expose their C02 emissions“, mentions Spielmann. „Soon each company will be affected by the topic of C02 – in effect, carbon dioxide is developing itself into a currency. The sooner companies adapt themselves to it, the better“.

read the full article (german)

Towards Zero Waste in Industrial Networks - PE INTERNATIONAL is partner in the EU-project ZeroWin

Waste prevention has been assigned the highest priority under European waste management law. However, the initiatives which have been taken so far have not reduced the regular annual increase in total waste arisings across Europe; we are still some way from achieving sustainable use of resources. That’s why the European Union started ZeroWIN, a project "Towards Zero Waste in Industrial Networks".

PE INTERNATIONAL is a official partner of ZeroWIN and will support the methodological part of the project with its extensive know how in environmental assessment methods and tools.  Also PE coordinates work package 4. Beside this the practical experiences from regularly consultancy with industry and companies makes PE an essential supporter in accompanying some of the case studies including outline definition, case study progress and final assessment and its dissemination. 

With a rising level of prosperity in industrialized countries, an increasing number of products and services are being produced and consumed. This development is reflected in the amount of waste generated. According to Eurostat, the EU27 is annually generating about 4 billion tons of agricultural, domestic and industrial wastes.

The problem here is not only the quantity of waste but also the quality, i.e., the intrinsic hazardous nature of some types of waste, especially industrial waste. Industry today in general uses a wider range of materials and produces more complex products than in past decades. There has also been an overall increase in the quantity and variety of products and services and a continuous creation of new products (Commission of the European Community, 2003).

Idea of ZeroWIN

The main idea of ZeroWin is that waste prevention has to be seen from a holistic perspective to make it work efficiently and effectively.

Expected Results

• a decrease of at least 30% of greenhouse gases emissions,
• at least 70% of overall re-use and recycling of waste,
• a reduction of at least 75% of fresh water utilisation.

More Information

More information about the project and partners is available under www.zerowin.eu

LaserNetworks – one of the TOP 10 Green Solution Providers

The Canadian Dealer News has selected LaserNetworks as one of the TOP 10 Green Solution Providers. In the last years the company has taken numerous measures internally around power consumption and alternative energy use, packaging, recycling and natural or diesel gas vehicle use. Company’s president, Brian Stevenson, say that although many new printers consume less energy during operation, there is a significant carbon footprint in their manufacture.

That’s why LaserNetworks provides its customers with the ability to use highly-reliable and more environmentally-friendly Reflexion toner cartridges, which Stevenson notes were found in an independent study by PE INTERNATIONAL to provide greater than 50 per cent reduction in carbon emissions, acidification emissions and global warming emissions when compared to fully recycled OEM cartridges.

The research was conducted using the 4345 cartridge, a model representative of the entire Reflexion product range. The environmental information sheet (according to Environmental Product Declaration ISO 14025) by PE INTERNATIONAL analyzed the environmental impact of the complete life cycle of a remanufactured Reflexion cartridge in comparison to similar products and examined the four distinct operational factors that impact the environment: manufacturing or remanufacturing, packaging, logistics, and end of life.