The world is suffering in all kinds of ways from the results of Climate change. The past years a genuine intention has arisen to get into a more active mode. Lead by several, previously focussed, nature preservation organisations, we now see many other organisations taking responsibility to also contribute to a better and more nature friendly way of operating. They often struggle with logically connecting it to their company DNA, culture and ways of operating.
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Governmental Ruling on Product Environmental footprint categories
The European Commission has formulated Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR) for many products and organisations and dived them into several categories . These rules have been formulated as a part of a “recovery plan for Europe*, leading the way out of the crisis and building a greener, more digital, and more resilient Europe.
Within this plan Europe is striving to be the first climate neutral continent in the world and has formulated a European Green Deal with clear sustainable development goals , including clear guidelines per product category to influence industries to take a joined and united responsibility in providing insights on environmental impact of their products.
Whereas the emission reduction is leading, as it is most spoken about and it fulfills a central role in offsetting compensations and trade of these emission rights. The impact on products eg. IT hardware products is not only measured on these climate change emissions ((kg CO₂ eq.). An independent body ECOinvent has a broader perspective on this.
They also carefully assesses the impact on resource use, like minerals and metals (kg Sb eq.), Fossil fuels (MJ); and particulate matter (disease inc.). When concerning the environmental impact of IT Equipment, it is important to report on these four impact categories, as they are used in the Environmental Footprint 3.0 method (EF 3.0 method), and acknowledge as a legitimate reference source
“…. but it is not governmental guidance alone that is driving the neccessity to explain how industries are contributing to a more sustainable world…”
PAIA an industry collective path to future sustainable ICT
Technologies have significantly changed the way we live, work and think. ICT has played an important role in our economy evolution and will most probably play an important role in our collective efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GhG) emissions as well.
Now resulting in increasing pressure from society to provide environmental impact information for these ICT products. The industry has collaborated with MIT and Quantis from 2009 onwards to adhere to this need and created PAIA. The Product Attribute to Impact Algorithm - PAIA
At its core a unified method of determining the footprint of the various products produced within this category. Once collected, environmental impact information is presented utilizing a common set of variables which allows for efficient and clear comparison.
Besides measurements on the actual production phase impact, the economic lifetime value and its associated usage are important impact influencers. All fully in line with the reporting you would expect from a linear oriented economy. All providing a clear picture on the actual emissions (kg CO₂ eq.) that are applicable for the respective product.
