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.

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.

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.

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).

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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.

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.

Casino has now presented an updated version of the so-called “Indice Carbone’” it intends to eventually put on more than 3.000 of its products. The Indice Carbone shows the amount of GHGs emitted in the manufacture and distribution of 100 g of a product up to the point of sale. Use of the product is not included in the calculations. The Indice Carbone label is stuck on the front of selected Casino products with more information to be found on the back and on the internet.

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The DFLCS is a platform for stakeholders to share experiences and build synergies in the development of low-carbon market tools that accelerate the transition to a low-carbon society. The third Dialogue Forum Low Carbon Society on “Product Carbon Footprinting and CO2-Labelling in Europe” hosted in Brussels was the first event of its kind to bring together international Carbon Labelling initiatives, aimed at sharing experiences and stimulating an international dialogue in itself.

Participants included representatives from: BASF, Bavarian Representation to the EU, Coca Cola, Coop Switzerland, Deloitte, DG INFSO European Commission, DG SANCO European Commission, Environmental Resources Management (ERM), European Climate Forum (ECF), European Environmental Bureau (EEB), Evonik Degussa, Factor-X SPRL, GALLEHR + PARTNER, IBM, Intesa Sanpaolo, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark, Liaison Office of Saxony in Brussels, Migros, PepsiCo, SAP, Tesco, TÜV Rheinland, Thema1, Tropicana Europe NV, United Technologies International Operations, University of Manchester Sustainable Consumption Institute, Veolia.

For documentation of the third DFLCS, see the “History” section.

Tesco unveiled a range of 20 products which will carry the Carbon Trust’s Carbon Reduction Label. These will be from four different categories - orange juice, washing detergent, light bulbs and potatoes - enabling shoppers to compare the carbon impact of like-for-like products for the first time.

The carbon footprint of the labelled products is measured using the draft Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 2050 methodology, a single standard to measure the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of a product or service. This draft standard is being developed by the Carbon Trust and defra in collaboration with the BSI British Standards Insititute.

To date Walkers, Boots, innocent Drinks, Continental Clothing and Halifax have trialled the Carbon Reduction Label while Mey Selections and Morphy Richards have also committed to launching labelled products shortly.

Tesco products will carry a new label design featuring a carbon footprint logo, the carbon footprint figure, an endorsement from the Carbon Trust and a written commitment to reducing carbon emissions.

dm-drogerie markt, FRoSTA, Henkel, Tchibo, T-Home and Tetra Pak today announced their involvement in the Pilot Project for assessing so-called Product Carbon Footprints. Under the project leadership of the WWF, Öko-Institut - Institute for Applied Ecology, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and THEMA1, the six companies have launched a joint Pilot Project to assess emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, so-called Product Carbon Footprints (PCFs), for selected products. Together, they are actively promoting the emergence of common standard for assessing Product Carbon Footprints. In view of international developments, the Pilot Project also acts as a forum for discussing how to best inform customers and consumers of product-related life cycle emissions. Further information about the PCF Pilot Project Germany: www.pcf-project.de

The DFLCS is a platform for stakeholders to share experiences and build synergies in the development of low-carbon market tools that accelerate the transition to a low carbon society. At the second Dialogue Forum Low Carbon Society in the British Embassy Berlin on “Lessons learned from England? CO2-Labelling for products in Germany” representatives from BASF, Bombardier, Boots, British Embassy, Carbon Trust, Coca-Cola, Deloitte, Deutsche Post, German Environmental Ministry (BMU), Henkel, Johnson & Johnson, McDonalds, Memo AG, MGM International, Öko-Institut - Institue for Applied Ecology, PepsiCo, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Primondo, Sinus Sociovision, Systain Consulting, Tchibo, Tetra Pak, THEMA1, Verbraucherzentrale Nordrhein-Westfalen, WWF, Yanick + Fée and 3C/ first climate discussed about the status quo of and the options for CO2-labelling of products. For documentation (in German) of the second DFLCS see the “History“section.

The Carbon Trust announced nine leading companies will make up a new wave of partners to use the draft product carbon footprinting standard, currently being developed in partnership with Defra and BSI British Standards.

The new partners and products are as follows:

• Aggregate Industries - Hard landscaping products (paving stones etc)
• Cadbury Schweppes – Cadbury Dairy Milk bars
• Coca-Cola – A sparkling beverage and a still beverage from its product range
• The Co-operative Group – 200g and 400g punnet strawberries
• Halifax – Halifax Web Saver Account
• Kimberly-Clark – Andrex Toilet Tissue and Huggies nappies
• Marshalls – Hard landscaping products (paving stones etc)
• Mϋller Dairy (UK) Limited – One type of yoghurt from its product range
• Scottish & Newcastle – Fosters Lager and Bulmers Original Cider

The new pilot partners will use the draft standard to calculate the embodied carbon emissions of selected products. It is the intention of the partners to reduce product carbon emissions and to work together with the Carbon Trust to explore the best way to communicate this information to consumers.

Carbon reduction labels appears on point of sales materials in Boots stores nationwide and across the full range of Walkers crisps, as the Carbon Trust’s carbon reduction label trial moves into its next phase.

The Carbon Trust launched the initial phase of the pilot in March 2007 with commitments from Walkers, Boots and innocent to trial the label. Walkers Cheese and Onion crisps were the first product to be labelled and all 13 flavours of Walkers crisps will now carry the label displaying their individual carbon footprints. Point of sale material showing the carbon footprint of a range of Botanics shampoos will also be displayed in more than 250 Boots stores nationwide.

Since its launch, more than 150 companies have registered their interest in the Carbon Trust scheme across a wide variety of industries. The label displays a measure of a product’s carbon impact as well as demonstrating a commitment from the manufacturer to reduce the carbon footprint of its products.

The Dialogue Forum Low Carbon Society (DFLCS)  is a platform for stakeholders to share experiences and build synergies in the development of low carbon market tools that accelerate the transition to a low-carbon society. At the first dialogue forum “Making business sense of climate change: trends, opportunities and challenges in the promotion of climate-friendly products” representatives from Alcan, BASF, Boots, BP, Carbon Trust, Deloitte, Enablon, Henkel, McDonalds, Metro Group, MySpace, Öko-Institut, Otto Group, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Primondo, Sinus Sociovision, THEMA1, WWF, 3c/first climate discuss current trends in marketing climate-friendly offers with a focus on “carbon labelling” and “carbon offsetting”. For documentation (German) of the first DFLCS event, see “History” section.

 

Walkers, Boots and innocent commit to using label that demonstrates a commitment to reduce the carbon footprint of their products. 

 

In this initial phase of the scheme’s development, the label and methodology will be trialled by a number of major brands including Walkers, Boots and innocent. The first product to appear on shelves with the new logo will be Walkers Cheese and Onion crisps. The new packs will appear in major supermarkets and independent retailers from mid-April. Boots will be introducing point of sale material with the label to accompany the launch of Botanics and Ingredients range shampoos with a reduced carbon footprint. This material is expected to be in more than 250 stores from July. innocent will be displaying the label for all smoothie recipes on the company website, starting with the mango and passionfruit smoothie.

Companies displaying the label will sign up to a ‘reduce it or lose it’ clause whereby if they fail to reduce the carbon footprint of the product over a two year period they will have the label withdrawn by the Carbon Trust.