How can we help with LCA to guide consumer decisions?
In the recent past, several initiatives were launched to show the carbon footprint or other life cycle based environmental information for consumer products. While the provision of environmental product information (EPI) may contribute to more informed purchase decisions and would help to increase the attention of companies towards environmentally more efficient products and production processes, several key aspects still need clarification.
ESU-services investigated the feasibility for providing such information for the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment. The feasibility study investigated a possible concept for EPI. This shows the main challenges for meaningful information that should direct consumer decisions. A special issue of EPI is the consideration of the use and end-of-life phase. These phases may be very important, depending on the type of product. However, the use phase often shows a high variability and different end-of-life options exist. Furthermore, the use and the waste management of a product can only partly be influenced by the producer. One has to decide also about the level of decision making addressed by the approach and thus about the functional unit for which information can be shown. It is also evaluated which environmental indicators such as eco-points are sufficiently comprehensive and accepted internationally.
Feasibility study
Niels Jungbluth, Sybille Büsser, Karin Flury, Rolf Frischknecht, Matthias Stucki (2012): Feasibility and Challenges for providing Environmental Product Information based on LCA. Presentation of the software and database platform MEANS, for multi-criteria assessment of agri-food systems. INRA UMR SAS, Rennes - 6 March 2012
Jungbluth N., Büsser S., Frischknecht R., Flury K. and Stucki M. (2011) Feasibility of environmental product information based on life cycle thinking and recommendations for Switzerland. In: Journal of Cleaner Production, doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2011.07.016, (download file accepted for publication).
Niels Jungbluth, Sybille Büsser, Rolf Frischknecht, Marianne Leuenberger, Matthias Stucki (2011) Feasibility study for environmental product information based on life cycle approaches. ESU-services Ltd. im Auftrag des Bundesamtes für Umwelt (BAFU) (Zusammenfassung und Mediengespräch des BAFU).
Niels Jungbluth, Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Umweltinformation zu Produkten. EB-Info “Umweltbelastung und Ökoindikatoren” am 24.11.2011 in Zürich, ewz, Erneuerbare Energie und Energieeffizienz
LCA discussion forum:
DF 41 Environmental product information and LCA, June 22nd 2010, Ittigen near Berne, Verwaltungszentrum des UVEK (in English) organized by ESU-services Ltd.
Geneviève Doublet and Niels Jungbluth 2010: Environmental product information (EPI) and LCA, Ittingen-berne, Switzerland, June 22, 2010. Int J LCA, online first, DOI 10.1007/s11367-010-0244-8
N. Jungbluth: Feasibility and Challenges for providing Environmental Product Information based on LCA
G. Doublet: Environmental Production Information and LCA: An Example of the Swiss Ecological Time Unit
