When the Nordic workshop regarding Product Environmental Footprint took part hundred LCA experts and practitioners came together in Stockholm, mainly from the Nordic countries.

The Product Environmental Footprint process aims to develop a harmonized methodology for the calculation of the environmental footprint of products, based on transparent methodology.

The aim of the workshop was to collect experience and input on the method to the EU Commission.

In the morning, the participants listened to representatives from the EU Commission, which presented some of the background and the overall process and results and experiences from the pilot studies so far. Presentations gave a short overview of the next steps in the process during 2017, after the pilot phase and the next step to take this further in existing policies, for new legislations and directives. The workshop ended up with a panel discussion about how the methods should be used for different applications; public procurement, eco-design, value chain management, EPD and ecolabelling.

The overall messages from the plenum presentations and discussion:
– Take the opportunity to contribute with your expertise and knowledge in the harmonization process
– PEF is a key role for education and own learning
– This about how the method could be useful for your organization
– Be prepared for the phase after 2017

The workshop part focused on Product segment structure in PEF – Granularity for relevant product comparisons and Weighting (valuation) and impact assessment methods.

The workshop part and input will be summarized in a report, published soon. The outcomes will also be discussed within the Swedish Life Cycle Center expert group on Environmental Footprint. These inputs will be transferred to the EU Commission during the Environmental Footprint Steering committee meeting and the Technical advisory board meeting in the end of March. Representatives in these groups are Cecilia Mattsson (S EPA) and Elin Eriksson (IVL).

The workshop was organized by The Nordic Environmental Footprint group of the Nordic Council of Ministers, IVL – Swedish Environmental Research Institute and Swedish Life Cycle Center.

The workshop is available here
Presentations is available on the Nordic PEF web site, http://www.nordic-pef.org/
The summary workshop report will be published soon, a link will be published here.