Environmental Footprint pilot phase An De Schryver Environmental Footprint Team Eco-innovation and circular economy European Commission - DG Environment

what is environmental sustainable ? Environmental footprint: Common method Life cycle based Multiple environmental indicators Common tool for internal market Identify environmental hotspots Credible information for communication Today we have a proliferation of green claims and labels. Nobody knows what they mean or what is behind. We need a better understanding of what is environmental sustainable. And this is the goal of the environmental footprint pilot phase! To develop a common method to assess environmental impacts (LCA based and multiple indicator based) To develop a common tool for internal market To point out environmental hotspots To provide credible information for communication

Test the process for the development of PEFCRs and OEFSRs 3-year pilot (2013 – 2016) Test the process for the development of PEFCRs and OEFSRs Test different approaches for verification systems Communication vehicles Inter-national SMEs Data

With this we aim for high quality, allow economic profitability and reducing costs in calculating environmental footprints. To guarantee quality we request more than 50% market involvement for each document. We assure high consistency through guiding documents, issue papers, transversal working groups (packaging working group, cow model working group, construction working group). The governance structure (committee meetings), external reviewers and public consultations assure expert inputs and approval. We are testing different verification approaches to validate a pef compliant study. Each PEFCR identifies what really counts: and thus allows companies to focus on the most important issues. The aim with this is to increase transparency throughout the supply chain, which reduces green washing and therefore correct competition

24 product groups & sectors Batteries and accumulators Decorative paints Hot and cold water supply pipes Household detergents IT equipment Leather Metal sheets Footwear Photovoltaic electricity generation Thermal insulation T-shirts Uninterruptible Power Supply Intermediate paper product Retail Copper Beer Dairy Feed for food-producing animals Packed fresh meat from bovine, pigs and sheep Wine Uncooked pasta Packed water Pet food Olive oil PEFCRs & OEFSRs

Fresh meat pilot Three representative products: Beef Pig meat Lamb Unit: 100 g of fresh meat including inedible animal parts (such as bone) presented to consumer in retail packaging Scope:

100gram packed and sold Resource depletion Climate change Water depletion Particu-late matter Land transfor-mation Radiation Human toxicity Acidifi-cation Eutro-phication Ozone depletion Eco-toxicity

Packaging in PEF Primary, secondary and tertiary packaging shall be included in each assessment: Production of packaging Reuse, recycling, waste treatment Product waste related to packaging Assessment on the level of 'product consumed'?

Assessment at 'product consumed'? Slaughterhouse Consumption + x gram packed 100gram packed and sold 100 gram consumed x gram lost at storage, retail or consumer Food loss How does packaging affect product shelf life?

Packaging in PEF Primary, secondary and tertiary packaging shall be included in each assessment: Production of packaging Reuse, recycling, waste treatment Product waste related to packaging Depending on packaging material? Packaging material % of food waste Vacuum packaging X % PP tray with LDPE Y % …

Final Steering Committee meetings: May/June 2017 Timeline Where are we standing in the pilot phase? 06/14 Kick-off M03 1st physical consultation Approval of scope and representative product by SC Start screening studies M05 Draft PEFCRs ready M13 Approval of draft PEFCRs by SC (January 2016) M17 Start of supporting studies M18 Final consultation for Fresh Meat pilot: 16/09/2016 2nd consultation: 05 August - 16 September M24 External review: October - November M28 Communication Final PEFCR ready: 21st December M30 Non-food pilots are 2 months earlier Final Steering Committee meetings: May/June 2017 Approval of final PEFCR by SC: June 2017 M36 Release of final PEFCR M36

Experience gained: Content-wise More guidance is needed on the granularity of the functional unit Better market data are needed to define the representative product(s) The development of « benchmarks » is technically feasible The definition of classes of performance requires further thoughts No information yet on verification approaches No information yet on communication

Outlook 2017 2018 - EC Evaluation Policy discussion Peer review Consultations https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/wikis/display/EUENVFP/

Twitter: @EU_EnvFootprint For any further information http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/smgp/ https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/wikis/display/EUENVFP/ env-environmental-footprint@ec.europa.eu Twitter: @EU_EnvFootprint