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Aug 31, 2010
sustainability 2.0 - from green to blue - Registration is open!
More information and registration
Aug 30, 2010
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.
Aug 29, 2010
Carbon neutral travel in Australia
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
Aug 28, 2010
French Environmental Product Declaration (FDES) requirements
Aug 27, 2010
Outcomes of the GHG Protocol workshops
Summary of the workshop on the Scope 3 standard
The scope 3 standard will be an extension to the current GHG Protocol – Corporate Standard (revised edition 2004) and will cover all indirect emissions from a company including their supply chains and downstream emissions. About 60 companies representing a diverse range of industries have volunteered to ‘road test’ the draft. As expected there were a variety of preferences and individual agendas howeverconsensus was able to be achieved on many issues:
The most divergent views surfaced on questions about the essential strategy behind the standard, i.e. whether it should be a standard that is primarily about good and complete emissions accounting practice along a corporation’s value chain, or a standard focused on supplier engagement and driving change through this. It was suggested that the standard may be both, and that companies should declare which strategy they are pursuing for carbon accounting and reporting.
Another interesting topic was the setting of boundaries i.e., how much of the scope 3 emissions should the standard require to be reported. The current draft suggests an 80% threshold. Many companies said that in order to do this they will have to determine how much 100% is anyway, and that in this case they may as well report 100% provided it is acceptable to have a higher variance/uncertainty attached to the remaining 20%.
One positive development was in relation to data types and quality: The current draft requires separate reporting of emissions from primary and secondary data where primary data includes supplier supplied data and secondary data includes sources such as literature, LCA data bases and I/O data bases. The next version of the standard however, may not require separate reporting of primary and secondary data. Instead, it may just require “reporting the emission totals for each category (16), together with an indication as to what percentage of emissions is based on ‘physical relationships”. This – in our view - increases the accuracy of reporting plus it increases the likelihood of scope 3 reporters using LCA data for their emissions calculations.
Summary of the workshop on the product standard
In contrast to the companies involved in the Scope 3 workshop, there was a broad consensus among road testers on the application, interpretation and optimizations required in the current draft of the product standard:
All road testers confirmed that attributional Life Cycle Assessment was the adequate approach for the accounting of product GHG emissions. It was therefore recommended the section on consequentional LCA be erased in the current draft of the standard.
All road testers confirmed that capital goods were insignificant within the life cycle of the products under investigation. As a result of this, deletion of capital goods from the analysis is being considered. Alternatively, the investigation of capital goods may be limited to facilities owned or controlled by the company performing the carbon footprint analysis. In summary, it was concluded that there is no absolute need for inclusion of capital goods in all upstream and downstream processes.
Most road testing companies did not agree that primary data should have priority, as outlined in the current draft of the standard.. The quality of the Data is the key to identifying preferred data sources. In the current draft of the standard, data quality is only referred to in the reporting phase. It was recommended to change this to using data quality as a criterion to identify the most representative/appropriate data to be used in the analysis.
As many road testers had already undertaken numerous, recent LCA studies, it was concluded that a specific chapter on how to convert an ISO 14044 LCA into the GHG Protocol Product standard, should be included in the standard.
It was emphasized that the standard will provide the building blocks for standardization. However some areas may be not finally standardized, e.g. allocation. Fine tuning of the specifications and choices could occur within the framework of a program or industry specific standards based on the GHG Protocol Initiative. It is likely that the standard will contain a section on how to set up/ write PCRs based on the GHG Protocol standard.
Many road testers expressed their desire for more guidance for tracking biogenic carbon storage (the need for a case study was mentioned). There was disagreement on the PAS 2050 approach to carbon storage credits, however no alternative was available at present.
If you are interested in the ongoing developments of the GHG Protocol initiatives and/or other ongoing standardization such as ISO 14067, PAS 2050, French Grenelle, etc. PE INTERNATIONAL can provide customized workshops and seminars.
Aug 26, 2010
GaBi 4.4 update release
We are happy to announce that the GaBi 4.4 update will soon be released. This update includes a number of new features and functionality in response to changes in the Life Cycle Assessment industry.
We’ve implemented the ILCD format, and added a number of features that should make documenting process information, and preparing documentation for EPD certification, much easier. We’ve also updated and extended database content by adding life cycle working environment and land use data, adding the complete ELCD database and splitting the existing carbon dioxide flows into CO2 from fossil resources and CO2 from biotic resources. These changes should improve your modelling flexibility and improve your analysis. For those using GaBi’s automatic update function, the software will update automatically. Others will receive the update via email or post. Once successfully updated, you will have the opportunity to view a short video explaining the improvements in more detail. We look forward to the release!
Aug 25, 2010
Who will take the lead? - Trends from the GRI Conference 2010
Although the Copenhagen negotiations in 2009 did not deliver on the much anticipated “Hopenhagen” and governments are still slow to implement mandatory requirements, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) announced ambitious goals at this year’s Amsterdam Global Conference on Sustainability and Transparency.
The GRI would like to see all large and medium-sized companies – about 80,000 firms worldwide – reporting on their material environmental, social and governance performance (also called ESG performance) by 2015. Indeed the number of organizations issuing GRI reports has risen by 46% from 2007 to 2008, with about half of the reports coming from Europe and North America in second place.
Notably, Asia and Latin America are catching-up as interest in social and environmental reporting in these regions is growing fast. One obvious sign was in evidence at the GRI’s 2010 READER’s CHOICE awards ceremony when three Brazilian companies swept the awards which recognized the sustainability reports that best meet the needs of the readers.
Along with these encouraging developments, some would like to see governments more active in setting minimum standards and encouraging voluntary disclosure. According to a report on global approaches to sustainability reporting by UNEP, KPMG and others; 142 mandatory and voluntary country standards are currently in place. Next to regulation, additional forms of successful government involvement were discussed including leading by example and further implementing sustainability reporting in public agencies.
Voluntary reporting standards are equally evolving. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) plans to release the new ISO 26000 Social Responsibility Standard at the end of 2010. The new standard defines fundamental expectations of a company that claims to operate under the concept of sustainable development and is intended to complement existing international agreements. However, ISO’s Deputy Secretary-General, Kevin McKinley, emphasized that the standard provides guidance only and companies cannot be certified against it.
The business community has embraced sustainability reporting as much more than just a boiler plate to promote the company in public. Reporting has become a management tool that helps to improve corporate ESG performance. As Barbara Kux, Siemens' Chief Procurement Officer and Chief Sustainability Officer put it:”What gets measured gets done”.
The increased focus on performance is necessary to improve the credibility of sustainability reports among stakeholders. Just ticking boxes and business as usual are not enough according to Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace International. BP’s recent oil-spill-disaster illustrates that outstanding sustainability reporting measured by current standards does not necessarily reflect the whole picture of environmental, health and safety performance of a company.
A much discussed topic at the conference was the need to give investors a clearer sense of a company’s financial risks and opportunities. The combination of financial reporting and ESG reporting and the development of one global standard for such integrated reporting by 2010 was one of the GRI propositions. The International Integrated Reporting Committee (IIRC), an initiative of Prince Charles' Accounting for Sustainability Project, seeks to develop guidance for integrated reporting with strong involvement from the investor community.
Standardizing sustainability reporting need to be addressed urgently. How can stakeholders compare the ESG performance of companies whose businesses are` diverse and who are facing varying environmental issues because they operate in different geographical contexts? How can a single report satisfy the needs of different stakeholder groups and how can stakeholders be more engaged in the process? Ultimately, collaboration and partnerships between government, business, NGOs, financial markets and consumers will need to be expanded, so that a global standard for sustainability/ integrated reporting can emerge.
Jun 5, 2010
PE INTERNATIONAL confirms the advantages of the disposal system for agricultural packaging
“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.
Jun 4, 2010
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
• 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.
Jun 3, 2010
Sustainable buildings awarded for the first time in Austria
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.
Jun 2, 2010
PE and Tata Consultancy Services partner for integrated sustainability management
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.”
Jun 1, 2010
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.
May 31, 2010
SoFi first verified software solution by GRI
May 10, 2010
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.
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.
May 8, 2010
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.
May 7, 2010
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.
May 4, 2010
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.
May 3, 2010
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 .
May 1, 2010
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.
Apr 29, 2010
LCA for the Corrugated Packaging Alliance (CPA)
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