Sustainable Consumption and Production: JRC authored the Commission's handbook on how to assess the environmental impact of products

The products we buy and use every day contribute to our comfort and well-being.
However, they also contribute to environmental problems such as climate change, air and water pollution and the depletion of natural resources. Businesses are increasingly turning to Life Cycle Thinking and Life Cycle Assessment to improve the environmental profile of their products and supply chains to gain competitive advantage.
Life Cycle Assessments are very rigorous, demanding a lot of information and expertise. 
They are conducted by and for many governments and businesses to give robust insights into what are the main issues associated with a product or with policy options.  Based on these detailed assessments, the important issues are identified and more straightforward criteria are developed for different products or product groups. These criteria then become the basic standard for use in everyday business and policy, for eco-labels, carbon footprints, eco-design, eco-innovation, green public procurement, and corporate and regional environmental performance indicators.

For several years now, the JRC-IES has been developing the Life Cycle Assessment approach through the scientific work of its "ENSURE" (Environmental Assessment of European Wastes and the Sustainable Management of Resources) Action team.
The JRC-IES' co-authored paper "Recent developments in Life Cycle Assessment"  is currently (late March - early April 2010) the most downloaded paper in the Journal of Environmental Management (Elsevier).

The IES researchers provide the much needed reference for businesses and public authorities for ensuring quality and consistency of life cycle data, methods, and how life cycle assessments are performed. The IES products in this field ensure a best attainable consensus based on the achievements of the scientific and business communities worldwide. Life Cycle Thinking is a cornerstone in all policies and instruments in the European Commission’s Sustainable Consumption and Production Action Plan, as well as in a growing number of others.

The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach considers a wide range of impacts throughout the life of a product, starting with the extraction of natural resources, through to manufacture, distribution and use, and ending with re-use, recycling, and the disposal of remaining waste. The recently launched International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Handbook provides detailed guidance on how to conduct a Life Cycle Assessment to quantify the emissions, resources consumed and the pressures on the environment and human health that can be attributed to a product. It has been developed by two European Commission services, the JRC IES' ENSURE Action team in cooperation with the Directorate-General for the Environment. The ILCD Handbook is in line with international standards and has been established through a series of extensive public and stakeholder consultations.

The official launch event of the ILCD Handbook took place on March 12, 2010 in the Presidents’ Gallery of the Berlaymont Building in Brussels. The event was jointly organised by DG Environment and the JRC-IES. Around 90 participants, mainly from business, EU Member States and European Commission services, but also including a range of NGOs, researchers, and consultants, were in attendance. The Commissioner for the Environment, Janez Potočnik, opened the event, which was moderated by David Wilkinson, the JRC Programme and Stakeholder Relations Director. In his opening speech, Commissioner Potočnik focused resource efficiency. He is cited in the accompanying press release as saying:"If Europe is to have a sustainable future, it needs to become more resource-efficient and less polluting. This handbook will provide a much needed reference to support decision-making and ensure better environmental choices when designing goods and services. A scientifically robust and reliable approach is essential to support the requirements of business and policy-makers in a coherent and efficient manner." Ms Soledad Blanco, Director for Industry in DG Environment followed up with a description of the growing relevance of Life Cycle Thinking and Assessment in DG Environment’s policies, especially those related to Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) and waste. Prof. Leen Hordijk, Director of the Institute for Environment and Sustainability of the Joint Research Centre, went into more detail on the concept of Life Cycle Assessment and the support the ILCD Handbook can provide to the decision-making process both in policy and business.

To bring in also a perspective from outside of the European Commission, the speeches were complemented by a speech from Clare Broadbent, representing the worldsteel association. She described the diverging requirements from different sources that industry is currently facing. She expressed the hope and expectation that the ILCD Handbook will lead to an increased credibility of LCA, to higher data quality and more consistency and as a result to improved efficiency in terms of both time and money.

The main set of documents of the first edition of the ILCD Handbook is available online at http://lct.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications.

These documents provide detailed technical guidance on all steps of LCA:

• General guide for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) - Detailed guidance
• General guide for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) - Provisions and action steps
• Specific guide for Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data sets
• Framework and requirements for Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) models and indicators
• Review schemes for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
• Reviewer qualification for Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data sets
• Analysis of existing Environmental Impact Assessment methodologies for use in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) (Background document)

The related press release is available at:

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/10/273&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en