CONTENTS March 2007 Consulting Activities Product Sustainability Corporate Sustainability International Scene Calendar and Outlook Newsletter as PDF-Download

Dear Reader, Greetings from PE CEE in Vienna! The Stern review and the new IPCC report teach us 35 years after ‘The Limits to Growth’ – that the consequences of climate change might be more crucial than the cost of avoiding it - an inconvenient truth! Society, industry, policy makers and researchers are challenged to set priorities. Implementing a trustworthy sustainability strategy goes hand in hand with adding value to your organisation and society! But how we do this practically? With this issue, then, it is clearly the right time for us to introduce our services for CO2 neutrality! You can also find cutting-edge stories on social aspects in comparative LCA´s, how LCA is applied in early design stages and – on the corporate level - how to deal with the complexities of sustainability standards and consequently implement meaningful performance indicators. Cordially, Georg Greutter Managing Director of PE CEE Cover story: Clemens Stroetmann Sustainability of Packaging Systems for Fruit and Vegetable Transport in Europe Interview with Clemens Stroetmann, State Secretary ret., Managing Director “Foundation for Reusable Systems“ Why was the study commissioned? The year-round supply of fresh fruit and vegetable requires a complex logistical system. The quantification and analysis of the individual aspects and impacts of the major packaging systems for fruit and vegetable transport in Europe under a comparable situation was the main goal of the study commissioned to LBP, University of Stuttgart and PE. What and how was evaluated? The major packaging systems are plastic crates which are employed as returnable packaging (multi-way solution) and wooden boxes and cardboard boxes (one-way solutions). For evaluating the environmental, economic and... more

to top CO2 neutrality starts ‚at home’ Source: Photocase.com Global climate change is becoming an ever more real problem and is now fully recognised as one of the main threats facing the international community. There is no longer any doubt that greenhouse gases (GHG) from human activities are one of the most significant causes of global warming. Attempts to reduce these GHGs, particularly those from fossil fuel combustion, are being undertaken on many levels. more Sustaining the Fashion Industry Five Winds International recently completed a holistic study commissioned by a world class women’s fashion company, EILEEN FISHER. Using the GaBi 4 software, EILEEN FISHER’s facility (Eco-Footprint) and products (Eco-Profile) were assessed. The impact of facilities included electricity and natural gas usage as well as consumables such as shopping bags, plastic bags, shipping boxes, clothes hangers, and office paper. The Eco-Profile examined the fabrics used in their apparel products (silk, organic and conventional cotton, polyester, and leather). more EU Workshop on “Sustainability and Decoupling Indicators: Life cycle based approaches” The 3rd International Life Cycle Thinking Workshop organised by DG JRC-IES took place on January 22-23 in Larnaca, Cyprus. 50 Experts from more than 20 countries discussed how life cycle thinking could be included in sustainability decision support and monitoring. PE contributed with a paper: ‘Beyond LCA – Life Cycle Sustainability?’ Outcomes from the workshop include a position paper and pilot studies. All presentations can be found at http://viso.jrc.it/lca-indicators/ Workshop “Sustainable Biofuels – The why and how of certification! Martin Baitz (PE) More than 70 experts from research, consulting and political arenas participated in this workshop, hosted by Econsense on February, the 9th in Berlin. During the workshop, Econsense - the Forum for sustainable development of the German Economy - argued for the certification of biofuels based on sustainability criteria. Representatives from Econsense, BASF and Volkswagen, discussed with European experts how the certification of biofuels could be organized. PE participated by giving a presentation on the quality, reliability and trustworthiness of biofuel certificates. www.econsense.de/_veranstaltungen_bilder/_veranstaltungen_bilder ...NEWS....... PE received orders from Arcelor, Belgium for performing Energy Efficiency Benchmarking studies according to the Flemish covenant. Ambitious goal of the covenant is to push the Flemish industry latest 2012 into the pole position of the ranking of the most energy efficient industries worldwide. EU commission demanded from Germany to lower the limit for future CO2 emissions in the second National Allocation Plan (2008-2012) from the suggested 482 Mio tons/year to 453 Mio tons/year. After longer discussions with the EU commission the German government finally accepted the decision. CEWEP, the Confederation of European Waste-to-Energy Plants, is contributing to the LCA activities of the European Commission by providing a representative dataset to the European Platform on LCA. CEWEP relies on PE´s competence in modelling input-specific thermal waste treatment.

to top ECI Ecodesign Toolboxes 1 and 2 – eco-design for nonprofessionals The European Copper Institute (ECI) has recognised the need for ecodesign and a product environmental assessment. In addition the EuP Directive requires manufacturers to reveal the environmental effects of energy-using products (EuPs), from their production, use and End of Life phases. As a result, PE was asked to provide the ECI with an Ecodesign Toolbox for electric motors, transformers and cables. The tool only requires GaBi 4 Reader and it can be tuned even by non-experts. more Design for Environment at Renault Mrs. de Brauer (Renault) right with the French Minister Nelly Olin Alice de Brauer (right) has won the 'Environmental Management for Sustainable Development' prize presented from Nelly Olin, the French Minister of the Environment and Sustainable Development, one of the '2006 Companies and Environment' awards. more Client statement Source:www.sxc.hu Dr. Ing. h.c F. Porsche AG: "Both the consultancy services of PE International GmbH and the use of the software system GaBi 4 assist us in our product-related environmental measures. New automobiles can be analysed regarding their environmental impacts as early as in the design phase and optimization potentials are identified. This system-wide approach of life cycle analysis yields detailed information and evaluations which are used profitable in different sections of our company." Database for social LCA to be released Sustainability assessments are becoming more and more important. After years of research, development and data collection at LBP GaBi, University of Stuttgart and PE, background data on major social impacts are now available for all GaBi databases. For the first time, you can assess social impacts in Life Cycles as well as environmental and economic impacts. The new social impact databases will be delivered free of charge to all current GaBi users and will be an integral part of the standard GaBi package for new users. The first edition includes social indicators for working time, qualification profiles of jobs and lethal and non-lethal accidents. ...NEWS....... An open source project addressing an LCA data format converter, initiated by GreenDeltaTC, has gained the support of PE as funding consortium member. The first generation of the format converter should support ELCD, ISO@Spine, Ecospold, and of course the GaBi format. More info: Michael Betz. GaBi 4 growing success: GaBi 4 – has been the most powerful and widely used LCA software tool world wide for the past 15 years. Our users are located in 50 countries on 5 continents. GaBi 4 shows high growth rates within every industrial sector, in policy making as well as in research, development, and as a learning tool. Due to GaBi’s great success we have enhanced the team dedicated to customer relations and support with the appointment of Eloïse Byrne. She will be in touch with our dedicated GaBi customers, and we invite you to also contact her directly: Eloïse Byrne.

to top Measure the immeasurable? First Step: Set-up of environmental performance indicator systems Source: www.sxc.hu There is an increasing recognition that good environmental and sustainable performance raises a company's competitiveness. But, besides improving processes, reducing environmental impacts and saving costs, how can a company measure, manage and communicate environmental performance in a transparent and comparable way? Introducing articulated environmental performance indicators (EPIs) supports both a company's environmental management and its communication. It provides a basis for internal control for improving environmental performance as well as for credible reporting of achievements to external stakeholders. more Sustainability standards – confusing variety or flexible toolbox? Companies are confronted with growing expectations from their stakeholders regarding their sustainability activities. This includes their active management of all relevant sustainability issues, reporting for communication or rating purposes, as well as meeting the requirements of authorities, for verification and certification. To respond to these requirements, many companies still struggle with “patchwork reporting”: sustainability information is often found in many different systems addressing different needs, inconsistent figures are communicated in parallel reports, and the information flow and workflow are not efficient, causing unnecessary costs. In the long run, only a very structured and integrated approach, involving all relevant departments, and handling all information in one central information pool, can truly lead to a “sustainable” approach. more ABN Amro is preparing worldwide SoFi roll-out ABN Amro one of the largest Banks worldwide with its headquarters in the Netherlands has successfully finished an evaluation project for European sites using SoFi and is preparing a global rollout in March. SoFi is used for the collection of environmental data according to the VFU guidelines for over 150 sites worldwide. An extensive collection of key indicators combined with several, predefined analyses are enabling quick and efficient benchmarking, monitoring and reporting of environmental issues on site, country and corporate level. Workshops for corporate sustainability Source: www.sxc.hu In the rapidly developing field of corporate sustainability management, more and more companies look for guidance from external experts. Based on its lengthy experience with customers from all sectors, PE now offers two sustainability workshops. In the first workshop, PE gives an overview of all relevant sustainability standards, and how their complexity can be reduced to a toolbox ready for use. A company-specific “mix of standards”, providing the formal basis for sustainability management, is jointly defined. The second workshop explains to companies the requirements of the new GRI G3 standard, and how it can be integrated into existing sustainability reporting activities. Contact: Alexandra Saraev ...NEWS....... The launch of the new G3 guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in Amsterdam in October 2006 has been followed by release events for the different national translations. The German G3 version will be released in Stuttgart, on 25 April 2007, in the context of the Envicomm Forum. Other countries have been quicker – the GRI guidelines are already available in nine languages, including Portuguese, Russian and Korean. SoFi has been subject to substantial and dynamic growth. As a consequence, it is now being used in 66 countries on six of the seven continents, with Antarctica being the only exception (and challenge…). The three SoFi product lines – SoFi EH&S (environmental management/work safety), SoFi CSM (corporate sustainability management) and SoFi EM (emissions management) - are currently being used in 20 different economic sectors.

to top SETAC Symposium 2006 in Stuttgart, Germany The 13th SETAC Europe LCA Case Study Symposium on Environmental Product Declarations with focus on the building and construction sector took place on the 7th and 8th of December in Stuttgart. More than 130 participants from 26 countries elaborated on and discussed the current stand and future developments of EPDs. A huge scientific program framed the conference. more ECOMONDO 2006 in Rimini In November 2006, FEBE ECOLOGIC and PE CEE from Vienna participated as exhibitors of GaBi and SoFi products in the International Trade Fair ECOMONDO, the most important Italian exhibition on Material, Energy Recovery and Sustainable Development. As an indicator of current trends, ECOMONDO is proof that the environmental sector is becoming a growth market in Italy and Italian industry is intending to meet the new,strict legal requirements. Customer interest at the exhibition and customer contact since, indicate that increasing awareness and investment in ecological improvement stimulates the economy.They also indicate that German knowledge and technology in the field of sustainability, environmental technology and energy efficiency still has an enviable reputation. LCA on the rise in Australia The application of Life Cycle Assessment is growing steadily in Australia, as it is internationally, especially in the context of sustainability evaluations. The recently held 5th Australian LCA conference (http://lca-conf.alcas.asn.au/) brought together experts from Australia and around the globe to share their LCA experiences in different sectors such as building, water, food & agriculture and energy just to name a few. It became clear during the conference that LCA or aspects of LCA are increasingly being used in a variety of tools and approaches with the goal to give improved decision support for questions regarding sustainability. PE Australia was a proud sponsor of this event and contributed a presentation on LCA of Biofuels. Huge interest in sustainable building in the USA Source: www.aboutpixel.de The fifth Greenbuild Conference held in Denver in November 2006 was a major success. The participation of over 13,000 attendees shows the huge interest in sustainable building and construction. At the booths of PE AMERICAS and Five Winds International many interesting discussions took place on sustainability, the integration of LCA into LEED, Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) and how LCA for building materials/ assemblies and whole buildings can be performed. PE Americas presented an efficient way for “whole building LCA” which was well received. The USGBC announced a goal to come up with a plan to integrate LCA into LEED by the end of 2007. PE AMERICAS and Five Winds International are delighted with this goal and invite all interested parties to support this effort. Malaysia: Environment in Trade, Productivity and Innovation Presenters from the EC, UNCTAD and consultants from U.K., USA, Japan and Germany provided insights into changes that are taking place in the supply chain in compliance with emerging environmental requirements and market demand prevalent in the developed countries. Johannes Gediga (PE) presented two view points to decision makers of Malaysian industry in January. The first part (authorised by the Joint Research Centre of the EC) was on “Life Cycle Thinking in the EU”. The second part focussed on “Views and experiences of EU developments in the industry from the consulting point of view”.

to top 3rd „Forum EnviComm“ April 24 to 25, 2007 in Stuttgart, Germany. This forum on environmental issues, sustainability and CSR brings together representatives from politics, media and NGOs with decision makers and communicators from German companies. www.envicomm.de Within the forum, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) will launch the German version of the recently published G3 sustainability reporting guidelines. www.globalreporting.org International Life Cycle Assessment and Management 2007, October 2 to 4, 2007 in Portland, Oregon (US). “From Measurement to Investment” is the motto of this year’s InLCA/LCM conference that will take place in Portland, Oregon. PE AMERICAS will be present at the Conference and we are looking forward to interesting discussions with the conference attendees. We are inviting all interested parties to a pre-conference workshop on our softwares, GaBi 4 (LCA) and SoFi (Corporate Sustainability). For more information and the Call for Papers see: http://www.lcacenter.org/InLCA2007/index.html. SETAC Europe 17th Annual Meeting, May 20 to 24, 2007 in Porto, Portugal. This meeting will focus on "The multiple stressors for the environment - present and future challenges and perspectives". The organizers have received more than 2000 abstracts and expect almost 2000 representatives from governmental and non-governmental organisations, businesses, corporations, research facilities, consultancies, professional societies, colleges and universities to be present. www.setaceumeeting.org/porto Carbon Offset: In collaboration with PE INTERNATIONAL SETAC is making it possible for participants to make their journey to the SETAC annual meeting in Porto, carbon neutral. This is a service by Carbon Competence. www.pe-international.com/index.php?id=6001&L=0 ›› Fairs ›› Events ›› Dates 2007 In the table you find up to date information, when and where we and the employees of our cooperation partners are present on exhibitions, conferences, etc. Make use of the possibility to meet us there and arrange an appointment. Our contributions to the events are indicated by an "X". Abbreviations: › P = Presentation › W = Workshop › B = Booth Enlarge Image

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