Legislative proposal on substantiating products’ environmental footprint
Take part in a public consultation and give your view on the proposal
“The European Green Deal states “Companies making ‘green claims’ should substantiate these against a standard methodology to assess their impact on the environment”. The 2020 Circular Economy action plan commits that “the Commission will also propose that companies substantiate their environmental claims using Product and Organisation Environmental Footprint methods.” It is important that claims on the environmental performance of companies and products are reliable, comparable and verifiable across the EU. Reliable environmental information would allow market actors – consumers, companies, investors – to take greener decisions.“ (European Commission, 2020)
Related to this, the European Commission published a roadmap on a legislative proposal on product and organization environmental footprint. The EU Commission wants to investigate possible legislation of performing Product environmental footprint (PEF) and Organization environmental footprint (OEF).
The overall aim of the initiative is to create opportunities for the circular and green economy (growth of green markets, opportunities through value chain thinking, environmental benefits in particular on a more efficient use of resources). Specific objectives include moving to a more harmonised approach for providing reliable environmental information, increasing simplification and reduction of administrative burdens, especially for SMEs.
Following proposal will be managed in the investigation:
- Baseline: No modification to the 2013 Recommendation and no further action.
- Option 1: Updating the 2013 Recommendation based on the outcome of the 2013-2018 pilot phase.
- Option 2: Establish a voluntary EU legal framework enabling companies to make green claims in accordance with the Environmental Footprint methods, as a complement to existing methods (developed by private or public entities, at national or international level).
- Option 3: Establish an EU legal framework requiring companies making claims related to the impacts covered by the Environmental Footprint methods.
The investigation will be presented in Q2 2021.
A public consultation is open and designed to gather stakeholders view with the overall aim “To give all citizens and organisations the opportunity to inform policy development” and ”To gather opinions on policy options and their potential impacts.”
More information
Legislative proposal on substantiating products’ environmental footprint
Public consultation questionnaire on a potential legislative proposal on substantiating green claims
Environmental footprint background document
Swedish Life Cycle Center Environmental footprint expert group
Swedish Life Cycle Center hosts an expert group with representatives from industries, academia, research institutes and government agencies with the overall aim to follow, understand and influence the overall Environmental footprint process.
