In October, Isabel participated in the online training on the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF).
The PEF has been initiated by the European Commission to establish more detailed and harmonised guidelines for conducting a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The objective is to make environmental footprints undertaken by different practitioners more comparable across products. The guidelines reduce the number of decisions that need to be taken by the LCA practitioner, reducing the scope for error and value judgement: which processes and steps of the life cycle of the product do I take into account? Where shall I source production data such as input material or energy from? How do I analyse the results in order to find all relevant environmental hotspots? The PEF gives answers.
In order to shed light on the jungle of PEF rules, PRé consultants - the developers of the modelling software SimaPro - organised a one week training course. Participants learned about the guidelines established so far and ongoing discussions, as PEF is still under development. Most likely PEF will become a compulsory methodology for companies who want to certify the environmental performance of their products to consumers in Europe. We will then be able to judge which beer or T-shirt is the more environmentally responsible choice.
Even if practitioners choose not to conduct an official, certified PEF, many of the specific PEF guidelines may be adhered to out of simple good LCA practice. Following this week long course, Isabel has developed new ideas on how to refine her current and future LCA studies. Last but not least, she learned new tricks in the use of SimaPro software.
Thanks to our funders for supporting Isabel’s participation in the training. Also thanks to the great instructors Laura Golsteijn and Marisa Vieira and all participants for a very interactive and fun workshop!
