Making Sense of Climate Change - for businesses and consumers: measuring greenhouse gas emissions ( carbon footprint )

Transcription

1 1 Making Sense of Climate Change - for businesses and consumers: measuring greenhouse gas emissions ( carbon footprint ) Anne Ferguson, BSI British Standards Contents 2 Some necessary definitions What we need from standards Description of PAS

2 What is a PAS? [1] 3 CONSENSUS ISO Benefits: Consumer awareness Marketing potential Risk management Credibility European Standard British Standard (BS) Publicly Available Specification (PAS) Types of documents: Technical specifications Codes of practice Methods Guides Private Standard Company Manuals CONTROL What is a PAS? [2] 4 Publicly Available Specification (PAS) PAS A consultative document the development of which mirrors the BS process Any organization, association or group that wishes to document standardized best practice on a specific subject can commission a PAS BS and PAS A British Standard must reach full consensus, whereas a PAS does not require full consensus Timescales for development: months+ for a BS, whereas a PAS takes 8 12 months to develop 2

3 What is a Carbon footprint? [1] 5 A measure of the impact our activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases we produce. It is measured in units of carbon dioxide. Carbon footprint can be of: An organization An individual, or a A product (goods or services) What is a Carbon footprint? [1] 6 In the case of PAS 2050, the calculation: takes into account a range of greenhouse gases (GHG)*, not just carbon dioxide aims to cover the life cycle of a product (raw materials, manufacture, use and disposal, and attempts to cover both direct emissions (e.g. fuel used in vehicles) and indirect emissions (e.g. from electricity use) * carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) 3

4 Standards Climate for Change Measuring & energy and Managing 4 steps GHG Emissions 7 Measurement Reduction Offset Declaration Direct and indirect GHG emissions Standards promoting good practice for improving resource and energy efficiency Standards for quality of offset projects Standards providing framework & boundaries for claims and reporting to ensure credibility & comparability PAS Overview 8 Title Specification for the assessment of the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services Aim A standard & consistent method for measuring the life cycle GHG emissions of goods and services Enable organisations to measure the climate change related impacts of their products (i.e. goods and services) Enable organisations to identify hotspots and improvement opportunities Partners 4

5 PAS 2050 Scope [1] 9 Designed to be applied to all products, i.e. goods and services (e.g. washing machine, bag of coffee beans or online bank account) Intended for use by organisations of all sizes, within all sectors of industry Draws on ISO standards such as14040 &14044 (Life cycle assessment),14064 (quantifying & reporting on GHG emissions) and (Environmental labels & declarations) PAS 2050 Scope [2] 10 Considers all lifecycle stages along the supply/value chain of a product, from raw materials to end of life (e.g. manufacturing, selling, using & eventual disposal of a washing machine; growing, harvesting, distributing and selling a bag of coffee beans or setting up & operation of an online bank account) Includes the six GHGs identified under the Kyoto protocol (CO2, CH4, N2O, HFCs, PFCs and SF6) Specifies requirements for system boundary, sources of GHG emissions that fall inside or outside the system boundary, data requirements for analysis and calculation of results 5

6 PAS 2050 Scope [3] 11 Does not include requirements for communication and reduction of GHG emissions (so labelling not included in the PAS) Does not assess other potential social, economic and environmental impacts (e.g. fair trading, use of child labour, etc) Pilot trials of PAS 2050 [1] 12 The Carbon Trust has worked with a broad cross-section of companies & brands to test the PAS as it evolves: 6

7 Pilot trials of PAS 2050 [2] 13 The method has been trialled with various kinds of product: Single-ingredient foods, such as tomatoes Multi-ingredient foods, such as beer Non food products, such as electric iron A service: an online bank account Example of use of Carbon footprint method 14 Carbon footprint of a packet of crisps* (potato chips) 1. Key stages in supply chain sowing potato & sunflower seeds, getting crisp packets on shelves, disposing of the packet 2. Looking at energy consumption directly involved in these stages, and converting this into the resulting amount of carbon emissions. 3. Adding up the carbon emissions from each stage to get the calculated value. Raw materials Potatoes, sunflowers and seasoning 44% Manufacture Producing crisps from potatoes 30% Packaging crisps 15% Distribution 9% Disposal of empty packets 2% Total 76g CO2e * Based on figures from Walkers website: 7

8 PAS Benefits 15 For organizations that supply goods and services: Allows internal assessment of existing life cycle Facilitates evaluation of alternative approaches Benchmark for ongoing programmes to reduce GHG emissions Comparison of goods and services For consumers: Common basis for communication of impacts Improved understanding of life cycle GHG emissions PAS 2050 Timeline 16 Work started June 2007 Key stakeholder consultation (over 200 organizations and associations, including 1:1 visits) October 2007 Review Panel consultation over 6 weeks (approx 900 participants UK and international) closed 28 March 2008 Steering Group meeting held on 8-9 April to review the outcome of the latest consultation Ongoing technical work, PAS update and stakeholder engagement Planned publication: September

9 Possible next steps 17 Several standards exist or are in development (e.g. PAS 2050, ISO series) Challenge for today is what gaps consumers wish to see filled at an international level. Information and Communication on PAS Further information is available at BSI Project Manager Maria Varbeva-Daley BSI Steering Group Observer Katherine Hunter Carbon Trust Project Manager Iciar Vaquero Carbon Trust Technical Author Graham Sinden Defra Project Manager Kay Williams 9