Sixty corporations today begin measuring the greenhouse gas emissions of their products and supply chains by road testing a new global framework that is part of the GHG Protocol Product and Supply Chain Initiative.

Developed by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the two new GHG Protocol standards - the Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard and the Scope 3 (Corporate Value Chain) Accounting and Reporting Standard - provide methods to account for emissions associated with individual products across their life-cycles and of corporations across their value chains.

GHG emissions across a product's life cycle

While many companies have been measuring the emissions from their own operations and electricity use, the Scope 3 Standard will  allow companies to look comprehensively at the impact of their corporate value chains, including outsourced activities, supplier manufacturing, and the use of the products they sell. Road testers of the Product Standard will measure the climate change impact of products ranging from magazines, food and jeans to computers, wind turbines and steel.

The draft standards were developed over the last year through a global, collaborative multi-stakeholder process, with participation from representatives from industry, government, academia and non-governmental organizations. The road testing process should provide real-world feedback to ensure the standards can be practically implemented by companies and organizations from a variety of sectors, sizes, and geographic areas around the world. The final standards are scheduled to be published in December 2010.

Companies participating in the road testing represent 17 countries from every continent and more than 20 industry sectors. The companies include: 3M Company; Acer Inc.; Airbus S.A.S.; AkzoNobel; Alcan Packaging; Alcoa; Autodesk, Inc.; Baoshan Iron & Steel Co. Ltd.; BASF SE; Belkin International; Bloomberg LP; BT Plc; CA, Inc.; Coca-Cola Erfrischungsgetränke AG; Colors Fruit SA (Pty) Ltd.; Deutsche Post AG; DuPont; Eclipse Networks (Pty) Ltd.; Ecolab; The Estee Lauder Company; Ford Motor Company; General Electric; U.S. General Services Administration; Highways Agency (UK); Hydro Tasmania; IBM; IKEA; Italcementi Group; JohnsonDiversey, Inc.; Kraft Foods; Lenovo Corporation; Levi Strauss & Co.; Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation; National Grid; Natura Cosméticos; New Belgium Brewing Co.; Otarian; Pinchin Environmental Ltd.; PricewaterhouseCoopers (Hong Kong); Procter & Gamble Eurocor; Public Service Enterprise Group, Inc.; Rogers Communications, Inc.; SAP AG; SC Johnson; Shanghai Zidan Food Packaging & Printing Co., Ltd.; Shell International Petroleum Company Ltd; Swire Beverages (Coca-Cola Bottling Partner); TAL Apparel Limited; Tech-Front (Shanghai) Computer Co., Ltd./Quanta Shanghai Manufacturing City; Tennant Company; Veolia Water; VT Group Plc; Webcor Builders and WorldAutoSteel.

While negotiations on future global climate policy currently culminate in Copenhagen, 2009 has also seen considerable developments in very practical approaches to managing GHG emissions, particularly in product carbon footprinting:

• First drafts of the upcoming international standards in product carbon footprinting, the GHG Protocol Product Standard and ISO 14067 “Carbon Footprint of Products”, have been elaborated.
• Reporting, labelling and communication schemes increasingly take shape in France, Sweden, Japan, Korea and other countries.
• Companies are making substantial practical experiences in the application of product carbon footprinting and the management of supply chain GHG emissions.
• The general framework for measuring carbon footprints in the value chain is more or less set, practical solutions for reducing GHG emissions and sector approaches are gaining in importance.

After the first two PCF World Summits, it is now time to take a closer look at best practices in supply chain GHG management and sector approaches to product carbon footprinting:

• What are best-practices in managing GHG emissions in different sectors? Sector champions in agriculture, ICT, logistics, retail, packaging and others will present best practices and solutions to reducing their own GHG emissions and those of their customers
• How do sector approaches link to the emerging global standards for product carbon footprinting and for measuring supply chain GHG emissions?
• How are emerging international initiatives taking sector specific requirements and realities into account?

The two-day Third PCF World Summit “Sector Approaches to Product Carbon Footprinting” will take place on March 17-18, 2010 in Berlin, Germany.

Register online or through the offline fax registration form until January 31th to enjoy the early bird discount.

On December 15th the most relevant standard setting intiatives in Product Carbon Footprinting will meet during the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference (COP15) to discuss latest developments. This roundtable is made possible through the support of the Federation of German Industries (BDI).

Product Carbon Footprinting - Enabling climate-conscious consumption
International approaches towards a common standard

Tuesday, 15 December 2009, 13h to 15h
COP15, Hall C7, Federation of German Industries (BDI)

Participants
- Andrea Brown (WBCSD / GHG Protocol Initiative)
- Paul Dickinson (Carbon Disclosure Project, UK)
- Oliver Rapf (WWF International)
- Dr. Klaus Radunsky (Co- Convenor ISO)
- Guido Axmann (Product Carbon Footprint Project, Germany)
- Jean-Pierre Tabet (ADEME, France)

Chair: Jacob Bilabel (PCF World Forum / THEMA1)

If you want to participate, please contact Lucile Barras, +45 24 66 83 47

(Access possible only for COP15 delegates!)

The World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) will host five one-day stakeholder workshops to get stakeholder feedback on the Scope 3 and Product Standard drafts, both of which will be released for stakeholder comment prior to the workshops. These workshops will be held in Berlin, Germany (17 November), Guangzhou, China (17 November), Beijing, China (19 November), London, UK (20 November) and Washington, DC, USA (1 December).

You can register through the GHG Protocol website at: www.ghgprotocol.org/stakeholder-registration

A draft workshop agenda is available on the GHG Protocol website: www.ghgprotocol.org/files/stakeholder-workshop-agenda-draft.pdf

Details for the Berlin workshop are as follows:

Date: Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
Start Time: 8:30 (Coffee and Continental Breakfast from 8:00 - 8:30)
End Time: 17:30
Location: Seminaris Campushotel Berlin, Takustrasse 39, 14195 Berlin

If you have any workshop questions, please contact Holly Lahd at hlahd@wri.org or Andrea Brown at brown@wbcsd.org

The 2nd PCF World Summit took place on 23/24 September 2009 at the Heinrich-Boell-Foundation in Berlin. Over 100 representatives of retailers, companies, international organisations, non-governmental organisations, research institutes and governments from 17 countries gathered and exchanged their experience and views on product carbon footprinting with regards to harmonisation. Various approaches practised in different initiatives and pilot projects were presented along with the status quo of key standardisation processes. The participants actively discussed a broad range of questions. Find first impressions in this short video:

Click to watch interviews and order the documentation dvds including all presentations, an information kit and further pictures here.

The 3rd PCF World Summit will take place on 18/19 March 2010. Save the date!

More pictures available in the documentation dvds.

… will be discussed at next week’s Second PCF World Summit. Even if you cannot join yourself you may want to encourage your colleagues to register for this timely event.

The extraordinary lineup of speakers and participants will be welcomed on September 23rd by Timo Mäkelä, Director Sustainable Development and Integration at DG Environment, European Commission, with a keynote on “The role of Product Carbon Footprinting in European Climate Policy”.

Professor Dr. Matthias Finkbeiner from Technical University Berlin and the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative Carbon Footprint Project will open the second day of the Summit with a reflection on “The future of Product Carbon Footprinting: where should we go from here?”

For further information and registration, please click here.

Programme

Impressions of the first PCF World Summit (February 26-27 in Berlin):

Seven months after the first global summit, all major international players in Product Carbon Footprinting and related consumer communication will gather for the second time on the 23rd and 24th of September 2009 for the 2nd PCF World Summit to discuss practical experiences and lessons learned:

Product Carbon Footprinting: On the Road to Harmonisation? Business Responses to Diverging Approaches

• What do standardisation schemes do for harmonisation?
• Are different retailer standards emerging?
• Are international policy approaches aligned?
• Do pilot projects pay off?
• In-depth discussions at the exclusive network dinner

Among the speakers:
Yumie Kawashima, Aeon Group, Japan
Frances Way, Carbon Disclosure Project, UK
Robin Dickinson, Carbon Trust, UK
Corinne Mercadie, Casino, France
Chie Nakaniwa, CFP Pilot Project, Japan
Dr. Klaus Radunsky, Co-Convener ISO14067, Austria
Luke Upchurch, Consumers International, UK
Timo Mäkelä and Pavel Misiga, DG Environment, European Commission
Claudia Sprinz, Greenpeace, Austria
Corinne Diethelm, Migros, Switzerland
Alison Watson, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, New Zealand
Christian Hochfeld, PCF Project, Germany
Prof. Dr. Sven-Olof Ryding, Swedish Environmental Management Council, Sweden
Stefan Dierks, Tchibo, Germany
Ralf-Martin Mueller, TÜV Rheinland Group, Germany
Prof. Dr. Matthias Finkbeiner, UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative/Technical University Berlin, Germany
Jeffrey D. Rice, Wal-Mart Sustainability Index Consortium, USA
Cynthia Cummis, WBCSD/WRI, Switzerland/USA

Please find further information at www.pcf-world-forum.org/summit

Register for the 2nd PCF World Summit now and save your seat! Find the detailed programme here.

Experts, businesses and public representatives gathered on July 1st for the Update Workshop “International standardisation, legislation and consistency” in Berlin. During the meeting, which was organised within the PCF World Forum, various experts working in the field of product carbon footprinting shared their views on recent developments in the branch. Insights on Sweden’s “Climate Declaration Scheme”, Japan’s “Carbon Footprint System” and the Carbon Trust “Footprint Expert” were supplemented by presentations on recent outcomes of the ISO process on product carbon footprint standardization as well as of the GHG Protocol Product and Supply Chain Initiative.

In the afternoon the focus was on government activities in the field. Some background information on European Commission’s plans on product carbon footprinting was given. Later on the audience followed a short overview on recent trends in U.S. Congress legislation. A representative from Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment completed the workshop by giving background information on Germany’s activites in product carbon footprinting.

The PCF World Forum will hold an update workshop on “International standardisation, legislation and consistency in product carbon footprinting“ on July 1st, 2009 in Berlin. With both major standardisation processes, the ISO 14067 “Carbon Footprint of Products” and the “GHG Protocol Product and Supply Chain Initiative”, having major meetings in June and the issue gradually making it into legislative processes it is time to hold a PCF World Forum update workshop:

PCF World Forum Update Workshop
“International standardisation, legislation and consistency in product carbon footprinting”
July 1, 2009 / 10:00 - 17:00
Hotel Schweizerhof
Budapester Str. 25 , 10787 Berlin, Germany

For programme and registration see www.pcf-world-forum.org/events

PCF Quarterly #1

The PCF World Forum is introducing a new format for information on current international developments and upcoming events in the world of product carbon footprinting and related communication to consumers. The first issue of this quarterly update is attached and highlights developments around the world: PCF Quarterly #1.

This first issue is free of charge, the next three issues can be purchased for a nominal fee of 105 Euro (+ VAT), including a free copy of the 3 documentation DVDs of the First PCF World Summit with all presentations and speeches (instead of 275 Euro). Order now!

New initiatives seem to be emerging at an ever increasing pace. The next PCF World Summit will take place from September 22 to 23, 2009, in Berlin. We will be taking a close look at international standardisation efforts. The PCF World Summit will again be presenting major international developments in product carbon footprinting and carbon labelling. Please make sure to mark the date in your calendar.

The valuable international contributions of experts form around the world at the first PCF World Forum Summit (26-27 February 2009) have been recorded on video and are available on DVD now. Simply order the Documentation DVDs today, featuring all talks (video recordings), presentations (PDF files), impressions from the conference and a list of participants for a service charge of EUR 275 incl. postage & packaging, excluding VAT.

Impression of GHG Protocol Steering Committee meeting in Geneva

On March 19-20 the Steering Committee of the GHG Protocol Product and Supply Chain Initiative met in Geneva to advance the development of the new Standard. Over the past months seven Technical Working Groups have worked hard on individual issues such as methodology, allocation, data and verification for both the product and new scope 3 standards.

The Steering Committee now decided on important open issues to guide the next steps of the Technical Working Groups, such as the goals of the standard, the basic methodological approach and need for further anaylsis. In June the Technical Working Groups will have their next in person meeting in Washington, DC to start work on a common draft outline and resolve cross-cutting issues.

The first PCF World Forum Summit (26-27 February 2009) attracted a surprisingly high level of interest from abroad. More than 150 participants from 20 countries and more than 12.000 life-stream viewers from all over the world followed the exciting talks of the first PCF World Forum Summit. The valuable international contributions have been recorded on video and are available on DVD now. Simply order the Documentation DVDs today, featuring all talks (video recordings), presentations (PDF files), impressions from the conference and a list of participants for a service charge of EUR 275 incl. postage & packaging, excluding VAT.

Discussing first results publicly

More than 300 participants discussed first results of the German PCF Pilot Project in Berlin’s Red Town Hall . The project initiators and the 10 business partners presented key learnings and recommendations concerning the assessment and communication of Product Carbon Footprints in the context of 15 individual case studies. Following the presentations of the results, a panel discussion was held on „Perspectives of climate friendly consumption“ with Prof. Lucia Reisch (Copenhagen Business School), Matthias Kopp (WWF), Achim Lohrie (Head of Corporate Responsibility /Tchibo), Guido Siebenmorgen (Director Strategic Purchasing Food 2 / REWE) und C.-A. Weinberger (Chief Marketing Officer, Global Laundry and Home Care /Henkel). Further information on the PCF Pilot Project is available at  www.pcf-project.de and recent images from the results conference can also be viewed on  PCF Pilot Project’s Flickr stream.

Japanese prototype carbon label

The first products with a prototype Carbon Label were presented at the Eco-Products Fair 2008 in Tokyo. The introduction was part of a larger cross-industry campaign in Japan to develop a Carbon Footprint system and Carbon Labels for a range of products. Trials including in-store sales of Carbon Labelled products are planned for 2009, and the system is to be implemented by 2012. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) also established the Domestic Committee for International Standardization of the Carbon Footprint System earlier in 2008 to discuss which policy Japan should follow to develop international standards for the Carbon Footprint system by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and in consideration of domestic activities.

The aim of the Committee is to make a proactive contribution to the debate on establishing international standards for the Carbon Footprint system, as spelled out in the Action Plan for Establishing a Low Carbon Society, approved by the Cabinet on July 29.

PAS 2050 and Guide to PAS 2050

The British Standards Institution (BSI) today officially launched the Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 2050. The PAS was developed together with the British Carbon Trust and defra.  The PAS 2050 standard marks the first attempt at establishing a unique standard for consistent measurement of greenhouse gas emissions related to the full lifecycle of goods and services (Product Carbon Footprint).

.

Migros labels cane sugar

Bio Max Havelaar cane sugar from Paraguay is the latest product in Migros „CO2-Champions” series. According to climatop, this sugar has the lowest climate impact of all six calculated sugar products, including a sugar from Switzerland.

Bio Max Havelaar’s climate impact is approximately 40% lower in comparison to domestic and German sugar. This is mainly due to the fact that the cultivation of sugar cane is much less energy- intensive than the cultivation of sugar beet. In addition, organic agriculture does not employ pesticides and machinery use is limited. The energy needed to process sugar cane in the factory is climate-neutral as it is extracted from sugar cane waste. The extensive cultivation and the abandonment of burning the fields before harvesting leads to a total environmental impact  much lower than in other sugar products - despite the longer distances. According to climatop, sugar cubes and crude sugar from Columbia also have better results in comparison to European sugar.

Third "CO2-Champion": Léger cream

Léger cream (with a fat content of 15 %) is the third Migros productto be awarded a CO2 label. According to the independent organization climatop, léger cream’s climate impact is 35 % lower than the average of Migros’ cream product range.

Climatop calculated the climate footprint of seven cream products. The best performer was the low fat cream léger. The climate impact in comparison to other cream products is approximatelyt 35 % lower and also clearly lower than the second best performer, Valflora cream (with a fat content of 25 %).

One litre of cream was used as a basis for comparison. Greenhouse gas emissions were measured for the whole lifecycle of the cream, that is from the production of the milk, including stock farming to the production of the cream itself and the transportation to the disposal of the packaging.

The World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development have launched a comprehensive stakeholder process for developing frameworks for assessing product and value-chain related greenhouse gas emissions. Development of the standard will take two years and is based on the previously introduced GHG Protocol for assessing corporate greenhouse gas emissions.

The first meeting of the Steering Committees took place 10 September 2008 in Washington, D.C., and defined the basic objectives and prepared the groundwork for the Technical Working Groups.