For your calendar, here is the date of the upcoming 7th PCF World Summit “Renewable Energy and Natural Resources in the Value Chain” on 17-18 April 2012 in Berlin, Germany.

The next Summit is dedicated to better understanding status and prospects of using and communicating about renewable energy and natural resources in products and value chains, measures taken or planned by many companies in their pursuit to lower the climate and environmental impact of their value chains. A close look at international developments in carbon and environmental footprinting will as always also be part of the Summit agenda. For those keen to reserve their place early, you may do so already now, enjoying a 20% Early-Bird discount.

Selected impressions from the previous PCF World Summit can be found at:
Sylvain Chevassus from the French Environmental Ministry on the ongoing environmental labelling experimentation
Laura Palmeiro and Richard Catteloin from Danone on the challenge to footprint its 35,000 products
A short wrap-up of the dedicated tracks on methodology, communication and talent:

See also what participants said at the last Summit: http://www.pcf-world-forum.org/statements/-/6th_pcf_world_summit

Please have a peace- and insightful Christmas and New Year’s time.
We look forward to continueing the dialogue with you in 2012!

You may provide your comments through the template provided until 28 November 2011.

The comments received by the deadline will contribute to the discussion during the stakeholder workshop that will take place on November 29-30. Please notice that participation in this workshop is by invitation only. Moreover please also notice that no written feedback will be provided to those who will send the comments. The Commission notes that it will carefully analyse all feedback received and include it in the next revision of the methodologies to the extent possible and whenever relevant.

The 6th PCF World Summit “Environmental Footprinting in Europe and Beyond: How Will it Shape the Corporate Agenda“ took place at the Umspannwerk Kreuzberg, on the 26 – 27 October 2011. About 140 international delegates and speakers were in attendance, from fields of business, government, non-government organisations and academic institutions.

The Summit explored current developments around environmental footprinting, i.e. standards, tools and initiatives that address the environmental performance of products and value chains, while keeping an eye on the global challenges and the business and policy imperative.

Click here for further details.

DANONE ON MEASURING THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF 35,000 PRODUCTS ON A REGULAR BASIS
On Day 1 of the Summit Laura Palmeiro and Richard Catteloin from Danone will speak on their effort to calculate, analyse and manage the carbon footprint of 35,000 products. To support its ambitious GHG reduction goals up to 2012, Danone has teamed up with SAP to simplify the measurement and management of the carbon emissions of 35,000 products, including a detailed view of every step in their life cycles.

FRENCH RETAILER CASINO ON THE ADVANCEMENTS OF ITS ENVIRONMENTAL LABELLING PROJECT
Marc Voinnesson from French retailer Casino will present the current status of its product environmental labelling project, which has evolved from the original “L’Indice Carbone” as part of the French Environmental Declaration Programme and shall include 300 products by the end of 2012. The project is implented in collaboration with other retailers, manufacturers, NGOs and supporting organisations.

NATIONAL INITIATIVES: UPDATES ON THE CARBON LABELLING PROJECT IN SOUTH KOREA
Kyung-hwan Kim from South Korea will introduce recent developments around the carbon labelling programme in South Korea.

LEVERAGING FUNDS FOR REDUCING GHG EMISSIONS OF SMALL-SCALE PRODUCERS WITHIN THE FAIRTRADE NETWORK
Pieter Louw from FLO-CERT will speak on how the Fairtrade network is raising funds for reducing GHG emissions in supply chains involving small-scale producers.

ACCOUNTING FOR LOWER GREEN POWER GHG EMISSIONS IN CARBON FOOTPRINT ASSESSMENTS
Instead of the originally foreseen debate on Day 2 we have decided to take up the issue of accounting for the use of “green power” in carbon footprint calculations. Current standards make the inclusion of lower emission factors from specific suppliers practically impossible. The session will stress the demand for better recognition of supplier specific emission factors, e.g. through the use of certified “green power”, and explore how this will or may be included in future standards and methodologies.
Please consider taking part in our short and anonymous three-question online survey on the inclusion of “green power” in product and corporate carbon footprint calculations:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/greenpower_carbonfootprint

Find the detailed programme here
There are still a couple of places left. Register here as soon as possible to reserve your place for the 6th PCF World Summit.

1. The long awaited two new GHG Protocol Standards for Product and Value Chain GHG assessments were officially released on Tuesday, 4 October 2011.
Please visit www.ghgprotocol.org for more information. Here you can also download the new standards for free, as well as a range of accompanying tools and guidance documents.

2. A revised version of PAS 2050, the first carbon footprint specification originally published in 2008, was released on 30 September 2011.
Please find background information and a download link at http://www.bsigroup.com/en/Standards-and-Publications/How-we-can-help-you/Professional-Standards-Service/PAS-2050/PAS-2050/

3. The European Commission has released a draft version of the EU environmental footprinting methodology currently under development.
Please find more information and the draft methodology at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/product_footprint.htm

4. Furthermore, new information on the currently ongoing French National Experiment for environmental labelling has been published, including practical approaches for communication:
Please visit http://www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/experimentation-affichage for more information.

Representatives from all these initiatives will introduce the new documents and developments at the upcoming 6th PCF World Summit “Environmental Footprinting in Europe and Beyond” on 26-27 October 2011 in Berlin, Germany, along with representatives from a number of other national and international initiatives. There are currently 25 places left. Register here

All these and many other standards and programmes make use of product category based specification to define measurement rules for particular product categories and sectors. Alignment and harmonisation of these rules across standards is a major issue. Current developments will be discussed at the 3rd PCR Round Table on 25 October 2011, 13-18 CET, on the Day before the Summit in the same location. Register here

Additionally, the GHG Protocol will offer a training on the two new standards on 28 October 2011 just after the Summit. Register here

With these major developments we are looking forward to insightful discussions at the 6th PCF World Summit on the future of carbon and environmental footprinting.

Amongst the speakers:
Thomas Albisser, Hop Cube, France  | Sylvain Chevassus, Ministry of Sustainable Development, France  |  Jacob Bilabel, Platform Climate Conscious Consumption / THEMA1, Germany  |  Cynthia Cummis, WRI / GHG Protocol Initiative, USA  |  Edouard Fourdrin, ADEME, France (tbc)  |  Gianluca Gondolini, Rainforest Alliance  |  Katerine Hunter, BSI, UK  |  Ulf Jaeckel, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Germany  |  Olivier Jan, BIO Intelligence Service, France  |  Masayuki Kanzaki, JEMAI, Japan  |  Enar Magnusson, Findus, Sweden  |  Pavel Misiga, DG Environment, EU Commission  |  Maureen Nowak, defra, UK  |  Rana Pant, Joint Research Centre / EU Commission, Italy  |  Rasmus Priess, PCF World Forum, Germany  |  Anna Richert, Climate Certification for Food and Svenskt Sigill, Sweden  |  Tom Savage, Savage&Hall, UK  |  Georg Schoener, The Sustainability Consortium, USA  |  Adebola Rasheed Shabi, Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency, Nigeria

Find the 6th PCF World Summit Programme here and register here before 7 October.

Environmental Footprinting in Europe and Beyond:
How will it Shape the Corporate Agenda?

We are happy to announce the 6th PCF World Summit on 26-27 October 2011 in Berlin. It will explore the relationship between product carbon footprinting and other environmental aspects and product sustainability labels. The past years have seen a strong focus on building the foundations for assessing GHG emissions in value chains. This work will continue and more emphasis will be placed on sector and product level specifications and actual implementation. Besides this important “deepening” of GHG management and reporting along value chains, a number of public and private initiatives are widening their scopes to assess the environmental and social performance of products in a more comprehensive and integrated manner. Prominent examples are the Environmental Product Declaration Programme in France which is currently in its long awaited experimentation phase and the recently launched Environmental Footprinting Project by the European Commission. Also many existing programs with a focus on other sustainability issues, such as organic, fair trade or eco-labels, are incorporating climate change considerations in their set of criteria.

Find the Session Overview and further information here and register online or by fax form.

Impressions from the 5th PCF World Summit:

Die Plattform Klimaverträglicher Konsum Deutschland richtet am 6. September und am 15. September zwei Dialogforen zu aktuellen Themen aus.

Über Ihre Teilnahme würden wir uns sehr freuen. Die Plätze sind begrenzt und werden in der Reihenfolge der Anmeldungen vergeben.

Dialogforum “Umweltkostenrechnung auf Basis der Ermittlung von CO2e-Emissionen in der Wertschöpfungskette: Was können wir von PUMA lernen?”

6. September 2011, 10:00-18:00 Uhr + Get-Together, Niedersächsische Landesvertretung, Berlin

Dialogforum “Nachhaltigkeitsbewertung über Unternehmen und Produkte im Web 2.0: Status und Perspektiven”

15. September 2011, 10-18 Uhr + Get-Together, Hessische Landesvertretung, Berlin

The 5th PCF World Summit took place at the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute in Zurich next to the Lake of Zurich, on the 7-8 April 2011. 150 international delegates and speakers were in attendance, from fields of business, government, non-government organisations and academic institutions. The Summit has addressed the issue of Credibility in Carbon Footprint Information, as related to assurance and verification, the emerging international standards, its consideration in different international initiatives and programmes and its practical relevance and implication for emerging economies and international trade.

Click here for further details.