Benchmarking and additional environmental information in ... - ANEC

• Criteria for assessment of the environmental performance of products
within the selected product groups were derived from eco-label criteria.
The EU Flower, the Nordic Swan and the German Blue Angel are all
assumed to cover a wide range of relevant environmental issues in their
award criteria, and these were therefore used to establish a check-list for
each of the selected product groups, giving consumers the possibility to
identify where a given product comply with the criteria – and where not.
The EU eco-label was preferred for this purpose, but where these lacked,
national/regional criteria were used. Where no such eco-label criteria can
be found, e.g. in the case of insulation, the approach was to use criteria
for products with similar features, e.g. relating to use/non-use of chemical
substances, labelling of plastics, etc.
• A scoring system for the potential impact on indoor air from the use of
(building) products, using either a simple system (“approved” or “nonapproved”)
or a more elaborate system in which the potential impacts are
demonstrated by a colour code similar to that used in energy labelling.
• A scoring/ranking system for the content of chemicals in a given product,
allowing consumers to assess the toxicity of a chemical product at a
quick glance, using a colour code similar to that found in energy labelling.
The format for an EDS is two pages, where the first page contains technical and
environmental information on the product in question, while the second page
gives a short life cycle perspective on the product group (what are the
environmental impacts compared to other products?), and describing the
selected environmental issues briefly.
4.1 Selected product groups
Eight product groups, i.e. five energy-using products and three products used in
building and construction, were selected for development of Environmental Data
Sheets.
For illustrative purposes, FORCE Technology was asked by ANEC to include a
reference product/service, i.e. driving 10 km per day in an average car.
4.2 Life Cycle Information
In the examples, a limited number of environmental impacts are quantified in a
life cycle perspective, primarily due to lack of good inventory data and/or
adequate assessment methodologies. In a dedicated EPD-scheme, LCA
information can be standardized without significant problems, simply because
they in general will comprise an extract of the full information made available
through calculations.
In the LCA part of the example EDS, the following types of environmental
exchanges and impacts are included, where possible:
• Total energy consumption, either calculated by using the Gross Energy
Requirements as is the case for energy-using products or by the
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