Requirements on Consumer Information about Product ... - ANEC

Consumer Information about PCF
Direct and indirect Land use changes
The change of land use due to agricultural and forestry use of area changes the greenhouse
gas emissions due to the changed amount of carbon stored in the soil. Direct land use
changes (e.g. coffee is grown on an area that was natural wood before) contribute to the
PCF as well as indirect land use changes (e.g. cultivation of plants for biofuels on places
where food was produced before may lead to the use of land for food production where
natural wood was grown before). Direct as well as indirect land use changes influence the
PCF of affected products. Experiences show that indirect land use changes can be
significant and should therefore be considered. In contrast PAS 2050 proposes only to
include direct land use changes.
Storage of CO2 in products
PAS 2050 proposes to subtract CO2 stored in products according to a specified formula.
Examples are products made of wood (e.g. furniture, construction material), paper (e.g.
books) or geogenic carbon (e.g. cement/concrete, quicklime). As it is difficult to foresee the
real life time of a product, and therefore its real storage function, this is problematic.
According to the understanding of IPCC and UN-FCC (United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change) the intermediate storage of biogenic carbon is not seen as
carbon sink. Carbon emissions are only postponed to the next generation. Geogenic carbon
could instead be more likely to be seen as sink, as it is more probable that constructions
(really) last long and thus justify such a proceeding. Still in order to insure comparable
proceeding, a product category rule should be requested.
Significance of capital goods
In general, capital goods are seen to be of little significance for the PCF and are therefore
often neglected when undertaking life cycle assessments. Capital goods may very well be
relevant for the result of PCF calculations for certain products, product groups or services. If
this is the case, they should be included in respective product-specific guidelines (potentially
in Product Category Rules, PCR).
Allocation in cases of co-production
Emissions should be allocated to their actual source in accordance with the specifications of
the ISO 14040ff standard and then substantiated in product-specific rules. The reasons for
choosing a particular allocation method must be outlined. What is more, it makes sense to
use at least one other method and then present and analyse the differences in the results.
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