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Content categories: Consulting activities I GaBi Product Family I SoFi Software
International Partners I Calendar and Outlook I Newsletter as PDF-Download

Dear Reader,

"Many thanks – a good and interesting read!"

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Thanks a lot for all your very positive feedback - this is a great motivation for us to continue with enthusiasm!

We will do our best to meet your expectations with this issue and the upcoming ones. This issue focuses on sound approaches in the context of the controversial EuP directive, on upcoming GaBi events (free update GaBi 4.2 and release of GaBi lite) and on emissions management.

Let's stay in touch!

Yours,

Michael Betz
Managing Director of PE Europe

Cover story:
 

Ecodesign Toolbox for Energy Using Products (EuP) - a Project from Industry for Industry

From a talk with Hans de Keulenaer, European Copper Institute (ECI), Brussels, leader of the ecodesign toolbox project:
Hans, what was the initial idea of the ecodesign toolbox project? ...more

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Consulting activities (www.pe-europe.com):
 

SuperLightCars for Reducing Carbon Dioxide

The achievements of SuperLightCar applied in series production beyond 2010 will serve as a basis for saving millions of tons of fuel and carbon dioxide due to significantly reduced vehicle weight. In order to prove and improve the environmental performance of the SuperLightCar concept ...more

Conference on EPDs of Building Products

The conference "EPDs in Building and Construction" took place
on 14th February 2006 in Stuttgart on invitation of AUB, a German society promoting environmental product declaration in the building industry.  ...more

HyFLEET: CUTE - Hydrogen Bus Demonstration Continues

As a result of the resounding success of the CUTE project, the European Commission has decided to fund a new project - HyFLEET:CUTE - through ist 6th Framework Programme. In the new project PE Europe will be responsible for the environmental and economic evaluation of the vehicles and hydrogen infrastructure which now also includes the bus operation in Berlin, Beijing and Perth. www.global-hydrogen-bus-platform.com

A Sound Approach to EcoDesign of EuP

Over the last year, a method for calculating Environmental
Performance Indicators for ICT products using the example of a
personal computer has been developed as part of the EU project
"EPIC-ICT". Interested stakeholders from electronics industry,
NGOs, associations ...more

+ + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + +
+++ Resource shortage and the Kyoto protocol are the main drivers for energy efficiency. Baosteel, the largest steel producer in China, is carrying out LCA and energy efficiency analysis as an investment in a sustainable future. +++ Automobile Industry Faces New Recycling Requirements: The new amendment to EU directive 70/156/EEC forces automobile producers to demonstrate that satisfactory recycling strategies are being implemented, in order to obtain type-approval for their vehicles. +++ The Vehicle Recycling Partnership (VRP) of USCAR has established an internal objective to understand the environmental trade offs associated with various end of life options for a vehicle. Therefore VRP is currently creating a LCI model together with PE, which maps different options for handling shredder residue. +++

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GaBi Product Family (www.gabi-software.com):
 

GaBi lite – The easy way to LCA – Developing report

The new member of the GaBi software family "GaBi lite" was successfully introduced to the public during the LCM 2005 in
Barcelona. In the meanwhile the programming of the software functionality has been completed by adding the chance to compare results within a user-friendly dialogue. ...more

GaBi 4.2 - Free Update

The release of the update of GaBi 4 will take place in March and April 2006. This free update is part of the included service for all GaBi 4 customers and contains:  ...more

Client statement

Volkswagen AG is using the GaBi software since 1996. Over the years GaBi has become a core tool for product and process related environmental activities at Volkswagen. Linked to the companies IT systems, GaBi provides the VW experts with detailed data for strategic decisions. Two reasons make GaBi 4 extremely useful for Volkswagen in its successful environmental product development and risk management: The complete functionality of the software itself and the high flexibility of PE Europe's experts to continuously develop customer specific solutions. Stephan Krink, Volkswagen AG

+ + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + +
+++ US LCI database: PE is investigating the efforts to make the datasets from the US LCI DB consistent with nomenclature used in GaBi 4. As a result, discussions with NREL have commenced. +++ Ecoinvent 1.2: From March on, PE will provide GaBi 4 clients who already have the ecoinvent database with the updated version 1.2. The database will be available in two versions which are "ecoinvent plain" and "ecoinvent integrated". The latter is compatible with the nomenclature of the GaBi 4 databases. +++ LCI web-questionnaire released: This brand new feature allows data collection for LCI/LCA work by interacting with an almost unlimited number of data collectors distributed worldwide. User administration and work-flow support features make it ideal for LCI projects in large companies or international industry associations. More info follows in the next edition. +++

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SoFi Software (www.sofi-software.com):
 

Successful Start!             

"Sustainability Management System (SMS)" – the Set-Up of an Operational Sustainability Management System with an Integrated Software Solution.
In January, the SMS project got off to a successful start with two opening workshops. To stay 'hands-on' and to test and adapt the findings in practice, four Austrian companies were enlisted to work on this project: ...more

Meeting the Carbon Challenge

A project team of Greenstream Network, Ruukki and PE Europe has created "SoFi for Emissions Management" – a comprehensive solution for the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. After a short development period of less than 9 months – only made possible by the joint effort and efficient work from all parties involved ...more

Logistics and Transport

The WEF's L&T Corporate Citizenship Initiative has decided to use SoFi as a sustainability benchmarking platform. The group members representing the global leaders of the logistics and transport sector can now easily compare their own key performance indicators with the best and average values of their competitors. Benchmarking their own company's performance is the first step towards picking up speed in sustainable development.

GRI G3
Sneak Peek, Munich

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) lifted the curtain on its revised sustainability reporting guidelines - G3 - in a series of 'Sneak Peek' events. In the role of an organisational stakeholder, PE Europe attended the only presentation in German-speaking countries. ...more

+ + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + +
+++ Copenhagen, 28th Feb: PE Europe presented "SoFi for Emissions Management" at the international conference "Carbon Market Insights 2006". Our software solution attracted much attention among the more than 1000 delegates. For conference proceedings see http://www.pointcarbon.com. +++ The German Emissions Trading Authority (DEHSt) has finally released its software for filing monitoring reports. Now that the format of the reports is determined, we will offer our SoFi Emissions Management customers a customised export function to communicate with the DEHSt software. This new interface will help to reduce the workload of emissions managers significantly. (see https://www.emissionsbericht.dehst.de). +++

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International Partners:
 

Capacity building on LCA and Sustainability in Thailand

An international workshop on 'Capacity building on LCA in APEC economies' took place on 15 - 16 December in Bangkok with more than 170 participants from Thailand ...more

Huckster-Consult

Huckster-Consult (HC) is specialised in consulting other companies in sustainability and global reporting matters. Since February 2005, HC is general representative for SoFi in Austria ...more

GaBi 4 Analyst to increase reliability of LCA results

ASIL S.p.A. manages a waste water treatment plant and faces problems related to sewage sludge disposal. The company decided to carry out a life cycle assessment to identify the environmentally most preferable disposal scenarios. A special difficulty was related to the different ...more

Hangzhou Green & Clean Environmental Technology Co., Ltd.

The company was established 2004 in Hangzhou, capital of the Zhejiang Province in China and is the profiled sales agent for GaBi software of PE Consulting Group in China. The managing director Mrs. Xiaohong Gu is an authorized Cleaner Production Auditor. ...more

New: GaBi 4 user web meetings

In cooperation with its sales partners, PE will start to offer web presentations. GaBi 4 users have the chance to get informed about new developments, participate in small teaching sequences on special functionality and exchange experiences. These meetings will take place every 3 - 4 months and will be offered in Europe, North America, South America, and Asia. The meeting dates are given in the calendar. To sign up for these events please check with www.gabi-software.com or send an email to gabi@pe-europe.com

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Calendar and Outlook:
 

Eco-Efficiency Conference from June 28 to June 30 2006

From June 28 to June 30 2006, PE Europe will co-organise the 2nd International Conference on Quantified Eco-Efficiency Analysis for Sustainability in Egmond aan Zee, The Netherlands. ...more

The UNEP SETAC Life Cycle Initiative

PE Europe and IKP, University of Stuttgart are sponsoring the UNEP/ SETAC Life Cycle Initiative for LCA projects in developing countries.
...more

» Fairs » Events » Dates 2006

In the table below you will find up to date information, when and where we and the employees of our cooperation partner IKP (University of Stuttgart) are present on exhibitions, conferences, etc. Make use of the possibility to meet us there and arrange an appointment. ...more

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