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Green Business

Environmental Footprint methods

The European Commission has proposed the Product Environmental Footprint and Organisation Environmental Footprint methods as a common way of measuring environmental performance.

Overview

Companies that wish to market a product as environmentally friendly in the EU face a range of choices of methods and initiatives. Without a reliable, state of the art, life cycle assessment, companies are not able to make the right decision to improve their environmental performance. This results in costs for companies, lack of clarity for consumers and potentially a missed opportunity to promote truly sustainable products that are respectful of the environment. 

In December 2021, the Commission adopted a revised Recommendation on the use of Environmental Footprint methods, helping companies to calculate their environmental performance based on reliable, verifiable and comparable information. It also allows other actors (public administrations, NGOs, business partners, for example) to have access to such information. The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre has been driving the scientific and technical developments to ensure robustness and impartiality.

The Environmental Footprint transition phase

In the period between the end of the Environmental Footprint pilot phase and the possible adoption of policies implementing the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) and Organisation Environmental Footprint (OEF) methods, a transition phase is established.

The main aims of the transition phase are to provide a framework for

  • monitoring the implementation of existing Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCRs) and Organisation Environmental Footprint Sector Rules (OEFSRs)
  • developing new PEFCRs/ OEFSRs
  • new methodological developments

If you have technical questions related to the PEF and OEF methods, please write to EF_Helpdeskatsphera [dot] com (EF_Helpdesk[at]sphera[dot]com)

If you have questions on the process, please write to env-environmental-footprintatec [dot] europa [dot] eu (env-environmental-footprint[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu).

The EF-subgroup of the Sustainable Consumption and Production expert group

The EF sub-group gives expertise and advice to the European Commission on activities related to the Environmental Footprint transition phase.

An open call for new members was organised to identify organisations that would represent wider economic sectors. The call concerned the following sectors:

  1. Apparel & footwear
  2. Beverages
  3. Chemistry based final products
  4. Construction products
  5. Electrical & electronics
  6. Food products (including products not for human consumption)
  7. Materials and intermediate products
  8. Energy production and transmission

The results of this call will be available on the Register of Commission expert groups and other similar entities (europa.eu)

The Technical Advisory Board

The aim of the Technical Advisory Board (TAB) is to discuss methodological issues. Experts wishing to participate in the meetings have to apply for membership through the Register of Commission expert groups and other similar entities (europa.eu)