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The Carbon Trust carbon footprint and labeling initiative has supported the development of standards and guidance to help companies measure, reduce and communicate the lifecycle GHG emissions (carbon footprint) of products (including goods and services). The aim of the initiative was to drive action in companies to reduce emissions across the value chain through transparent, robust and consistent information that serves as a basis for sound decision-making by business, consumers and other stakeholders. As part of this initiative, four main documents have been published:
- The BSI British Standards PAS 2050:2008 - Specification for the assessment of the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services (PAS 2050), which provides a common approach for the assessment of the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services.
- The Code of Good Practice for Product GHG Emissions and Reduction Claims (the Code) which sets out the requirements for organisations making consistent and credible claims regarding their products’ emissions and emissions reductions, as measured using PAS 2050.
- The Guide to PAS 2050: which is aimed at assisting non-experts in understanding the implementation of PAS 2050, and explores some of the more difficult areas of the standard. (Prepared by the Carbon Trust and Defra, and published by British Standards)
- The Business Case for carbon footprinting: which provides an analysis of the potential benefits to companies for carrying out product carbon footprinting, and a series of case studies from companies that we have worked with in this area. (Prepared by the Carbon Trust).
The Carbon Trust and Defra co-sponsored the development of PAS 2050, the product carbon footprinting standard, which was published by BSI in October 2008. PAS 2050 may be used for a variety of formal and informal processes for improving and communicating the GHG performance of products and services.
The Code of Good Practice for product GHG emissions and reduction claims was developed by the Carbon Trust and the Energy Saving Trust, with the help of consultants Arup, OneWorldStandards, the Pacific Institute and E4Tech. It builds on PAS 2050 but is separate from it.
These initiatives were overseen by two independent steering groups: one covering the Publicly Available Specification for a measurement method (PAS SG), and another covering the development of Code (Reduction & Communications SG). The PAS Steering Group made decisions specific to the BSI PAS 2050 for an assessment method, while the Reduction and Communication Steering Group made decisions relating to the Code. Both the PAS Steering Group and the Reduction and Communication Steering Group included members from a range of organisations, representing academia, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), business, Government, the Energy Savings Trust and the Carbon Trust.
Although the BSI PAS 2050 itself is a separate and distinct process concerned specifically with measurement methods, discussion on communication and reduction issues help to inform the thinking on PAS development. Therefore, and to ensure that links are developed, there is some cross-membership between the PAS Steering Group and the Reduction and Communication Steering Group.
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