EUROPEAN COMMISSION 
                          JOINT RESEARCH CENTRE 
                            
                          Institute for Environment and Sustainability 
                          H08 Sustainability Assessment Unit 
                         
             
             
                                                      Analysis of Existing 
                                            Environmental Footprint 
             
                                                        Methodologies for 
                                                                Products and 
                                                              Organizations: 
                                                      Recommendations, 
             
                                            Rationale, and Alignment
             
                                        Deliverable 1 to the Administrative Arrangement 
                                        between DG Environment and Joint Research 
                                        Centre No. N 070307/2009/552517, including 
                                        Amendment No 1 from December 2010. 
                                        European Commission (EC) 
                                        Joint Research Centre(JRC) 
             
                                        Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) 
             
                                        Authors: Kirana Chomkhamsri, Nathan Pelletier 
                                        Project Leader and main reviewer: Rana Pant 
                                        Action Leader and reviewer: David Pennington 
                                        Approved: Constantin Ciupagea (HoU) (April 29, 2011) 
             
             
             
            Ispra, Italy, November 2011, updated after feedback by ADEME, DEFRA, WRI, ISO 
           
          
          
          
          
          
           
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       Content 
       Content...................................................................................................................................................2 
       Executive summary.................................................................................................................................3 
       1. Abbreviations......................................................................................................................................5 
       2. Glossary...............................................................................................................................................6 
       3. Procedure of Analysis..........................................................................................................................7 
       3.1 Methodological issues considered for product environmental footprinting...................................7 
       3.2 Methodological issues considered for corporate environmental footprinting..............................12 
       4. Short description of analyzed methods............................................................................................14 
       4.1 Product Environmental Footprint...................................................................................................14 
       4.2 Corporate Environmental Footprint...............................................................................................16 
       5. Results of the analysis of existing methods......................................................................................20 
       5.1 Product Environmental Footprint...................................................................................................20 
       5.2 Corporate Environmental Footprint...............................................................................................43 
       6.1 General issues.................................................................................................................................57 
       6.2 Common approaches......................................................................................................................57 
       6.3 Divergent approaches.....................................................................................................................58 
        
          
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         Executive summary 
             The “Analysis of Existing Environmental Footprint Methodologies for Products and 
             Organizations” forms the starting point for the development of a harmonized European 
             methodology for environmental footprint that can accommodate a broad suite of relevant 
             environmental performance criteria, including greenhouse gas emissions. The results suggest 
             that advancing European guidance documents that provide for a greater degree of 
             methodological specificity than existing methods and standards is required to move towards 
             more consistency and reproducibility of results. This will be much more challenging for the 
             company side where, in contrast to product footprint, life cycle approaches have not 
             previously played an important role.  
              
              
             Background and policy context 
             In the context of increasing global awareness of anthropogenic climate change, the carbon 
             footprint concept is now widely used both as a marketing tool and to mobilize public 
             sentiment. In its conclusions on the Sustainable Consumption and Production Action Plan the 
             Council invited the Commission "taking into account Member States' experience, to start 
             working as soon as possible on common voluntary methodologies facilitating the future 
             establishment of carbon audits for organizations and the calculation of the carbon footprint of 
             products". 
              
             As a follow-up to the Council conclusions, the European Commission concluded a study on 
             product and corporate Carbon Footprint methods that involved analyzing existing 
             methodologies and initiatives and how they might relate to future policies. One of the main 
             outcomes of this study was that it is important to take into consideration all environmental 
             impacts of products in a balanced way in place of sole focus on greenhouse gas emissions. 
              
             Recently, in its conclusion on the "Sustainable materials management and sustainable 
             production and consumption" (December 2010), the European Council invited the 
             Commission to "develop a common methodology on the quantitative assessment of 
             environmental impacts of products, throughout their life-cycle, in order to support the 
             assessment and labeling of products". 
               
             The European Commission therefore decided to extend the work on carbon footprinting to 
             include other environmental aspects. Thus, the Product and Corporate Environmental 
             Footprint project was initiated with the aim of developing a harmonized European 
             methodology for environmental footprinting that can accommodate a broader suite of relevant 
             environmental performance criteria. 
              
              
             Scope and objectives 
             This analysis focuses on key methodologies and standards (or drafts thereof) that aim at 
             calculating the environmental footprint of products and organizations. Seven product-specific 
             and seven organization-specific methodologies are considered. The analysis does not include 
             issues related to communication. Rather, the intention of this study is to provide a more 
             detailed analysis of the selected methodologies as a basis for formulating guidance and 
             requirements for a common European environmental footprint methodology. Key 
             methodological decision points in existing standards are compared. Subsequently, 
             recommendations and supporting rationale are advanced for each decision point as 
             necessary to move towards more reproducible product and corporate environmental footprint.  
              
              
             Results of the analysis 
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