SUSTAINABILITY - a healing megatrend of our century or just another (very intellectual) front in the battle between companies, lobbyists, activists and policy makers for the minds of the people?
There is considerable evidence for the first explanation in this issue: discover them through reading about the position and activities of EUROFER in the cover story, or examine the article 'Sustainability occupies the executive floors' about the European Business Ethics Network, or ...
What about PE? We believe and demonstrate in our day to day work that sustainability and long-term success go hand in hand. We are fully committed to the concept of sustainability, and are expanding and extending our products and services (see articles on the upgrade of GaBi databases and on our new companies in Austria and Australia). And we are taking responsibility for our own activities: from 2006 we are operating on a fully CO2 neutral basis!
Let us be your Experts for SUSTAINABILITY!
Michael Betz Managing Director of PE Europe
Cover story:
Steel and IPP - European steel industry initiative: promoting sustainable development through eco-design
The European Commission released a communication on IPP in 2003 to assess and improve the environmental performance of products over the life cycle, encouraging reuse and recycling of materials, without developing new legislation. ...more
The production of fuels based on renewable resources attracts different stakeholders. Car manufacturers as well as oil companies are showing interest in technologies for fuel solutions based on renewables. Different technologies are being utilised in a range of technological developments and production status and capacities. ...more
BioMinE - Biotechnologies for metal bearing materials in Europe
The "BioMinE" project, co-funded under the 6th Framework Programme has the aim of developing and investigating alternative industrial technologies for metal extraction. Thereby applications in bio-hydrometallurgy including bio-leaching, bio-oxidation and bio-flotation, as alternatives to conventional technologies (e.g. roasting and smelting) have the potential for a major technology breakthrough in Europe. ...more
One additional step of Baosteel towards sustainability
The final presentation of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) project and Energy Efficiency Analysis model was given at the Environment & Resource Institute, R & D Centre of Baosteel/Shanghai on 9th of May 2006. ...more
New ways for CO2 neutrality
Companies can benefit to a greater degree from JI or CDM projects in the upcoming 2nd emissions trading period 2008-2012. ...more
+ + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + +++ Manager Magazin 8/2006: Robert Gabriel and Peter Köberle of PE Europe report in the IT section of the magazine on emissions trading and how companies can realize profit from the Kyoto-protocol by using an emissions management-software (http://www.manager-magazin.de). +++ What does the future of a sustainable bus-based public transport look like? At the request of the Stuttgarter Strassenbahn AG (public transport operator in Stuttgart, Germany) PE Europe will be answering this question. +++ Optimised Material and Energy Flows established at Gardena - via clarifying graphical presentation of flows, analysis of results and highlighting optimisation potentials. This project was successfully undertaken on behalf of Gardena and the LUBW (http://www.lubw.baden-wuerttemberg.de). +++
GaBi software in the Japanese Semiconductor Industry
The JEITA-JSIA (Japanese Semiconductor Industry Association) LCA working group presented the developed assessment model for energy and material consumption at the recent International Semiconductor Environmental Safety and Health (ISESH) 2006 conference (http://www.esia-events.org).
Easy-to-collect, on-site consumption data was utilized to make the environmental assessment by using parameters in GaBi. Furthermore, besides performing an environmental assessment, this model will give the user an opportunity to build up an optimisation scheme for energy and operating material usage.
More info: j.gediga@pe-europe.com
GaBi 4 Database Upgrade - we empower you for future tasks
What's new? ? All GaBi 4 databases - lean, professional and extension databases - provide new LCI information (as part of the LCA database) based on data sources from 2002 - 2004. ? 60 additional country specific power grid mix modules and the possibility to set up individual power grid mixes make GaBi 4 the most comprehensive LCA database on energy systems world-wide. ...more
Client Statement "After having analysed different available supporting tools we decided to use the GaBi 4 software and its sector specific databases for our work on environmental assessment and eco-design of vehicle security systems. Since then GaBi 4 has efficiently supported us to characterize the eco-profile of a specific product during its life cycle and to identify and validate alternative design solutions to reduce environmental impact."
L. Thomazetto - COBRA Automotive Technologies
M. Pierini, M. Delogu - University of Florence - Department of Mechanics and Industrial Technologies
+ + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + +++ Nice to know: Every now and then we like to let you know about tips and tricks in GaBi 4 +++ Did you know that you can change the graphic size/appearance of processes by dragging the small black squares, called handles, which appear after clicking on a process instance? When moving the handle, they jump to a certain grid in order to facilitate the orientation of graphical elements. This will also work when moving process instances. The grid size can be set with the GaBi options. Hold down the "Alt"-key to turn off the grid. +++ Did you know that you can access the database process on which a process instance is based by holding down the "Ctrl"-key and double clicking on the process instance, or by right-clicking and selecting "Details"? +++
Interview with Luc Van Liedekerke (President of the European Business Ethics Network).
How do you perceive the development of the sustainability community in Europe? The best development I can see is that it is no longer a community. The ideas of sustainability are being integrated into economic science from universities to the desks on the executive floors. ...more
PE founds subsidiary for Central and Eastern Europe: PE CEE
The international business is growing continually and PE has expanded into a worldwide operation. On the 31st August 2006, the foundation of PE CEE (Vienna) was the next logical step in this concept. ...more
Public private partnership - a win-win concept?
WIN=WIN, a consultancy on PPP projects, hosted a workshop where German companies explained their approach to social responsibility in developing countries. All concepts presented at the exclusive workshop in July 2006 in the castle of Kirchheim had in common that the companies do not see their commitment to development projects solely as a good ...more
Is third time the charm?
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) will launch the 3rd version of its reporting guidelines at their Amsterdam conference from 4th to 6th October. GRI now gives more attention to the reporting process than to the report content itself. This shall prevent mere 'ex-post communication' and encourage companies to really integrate sustainability concepts into their management. A number of prominent speakers such as Al Gore and Margot Wallstr?m will contribute to the conference.
+ + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + NEWS + + + +++ The annual NETINFORM conference on Emissions Trading and Climate Change in July 2006 in Munich looked back on the first year of emissions trading. However, perhaps more importantly it looked into the future and delivered interesting news on the new German national allocation plan. The conference proved again to be a most useful discussion and networking platform for Clean Development Mechanism projects and company internal emissions monitoring. +++ A standard on social responsibility is currently being developed by an ISO working group. Much speculation had occurred on the content of the new ISO 26000 standard: will it be a management standard modelled on ISO 14001, an assurance standard like SA 8000 or neither? The best way to track its progress is still by accessing the documents of the working group on: http://www.iso.org/wgsr. Publication is expected in late 2008. +++
After opening the new subsidiary PE Australia, PE's experts for sustainability started their activities "down under". PE Australia's Director Simon Whitehouse co-organised the Alternative Transport Energies Conference in Perth in September 2006, and fellow Director Michael Faltenbacher contributes with a presentation on ecological evaluation on future transport fuels. ...more
Hungary: LCA is growing up
"In Hungary LCA still walks in children's shoes", as local experts say. FEBE ECOLOGIC, LCA consultant and GaBi sales partner, is active in raising awareness and in diffusion of LCA knowledge, collaborating with the main actors in the Hungarian LCA community. ...more
New manager of LCA Centre Denmark
Jan Poulsen has been appointed as Head of LCA Centre Denmark after Jeppe Frydendal moved to a position at Eco-labelling Denmark. Jan Poulsen has worked with LCA and life cycle thinking for several years and is one of the leading experts for LCA software in Denmark. ...more
Greening Supply Chains in Taiwan
The first "Green Supply Chain Exhibition 2006" held on 5 - 7 September 2006 in Taipei was organized by the Plastics Industrial Technology Development Center and the Taipei Computer Association. The main visitors were companies exporting their products to European countries and interested in subjects such as RoHS, WEEE and EuP.
The exhibitors were suppliers of Green materials, Green components, Green technologies and Green products and service providers for products testing & analysis, management
consulting, etc.
PE participated in this event represented by Guttech International Corp.
PE and its cooperation partner Five Winds International will be participating at the InLCA/LCM in Washington (October 4-6, 2006) having an exhibition and presenting various papers.
Harald Florin will present PE's view on "Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as part of Life Cycle Management (LCM) in daily application within corporations" and Marc Binder will talk about "How to provide LCA information of building materials in an efficient way" and will give answers to the question: "Are alternative fuels a major step towards a sustainable road transportation of tomorrow?"
PE Europe invites you to an EcoDesign workshop (http://www.care-electronics.net/CI06) at the CARE Innovation 2006 conference on "Electronics and the Environment" in Vienna (Nov. 13-16, 2006). Experts from industry, research and NGOs will discuss sustainabi-lity questions, environmental tools, LCA, data questions, eco-design and issues of the new EuP directive in the electronics branch. PE will participate with an exhibition booth and two invited sessions on "The Ecodesign of EuP Directive - Theory and Practical Examples" and "Ecodesign Toolbox for Energy Using Products in the System 'House'".
PE will be present at the Greenbuild in Denver (November 15-17, 2006). Please visit us at our booth #536. We will be happy to discuss with you our perspective on sustainable construction, what is happening in Europe (e.g. Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) of construction materials), how LCA and LEED fit together and how our LCA tool GaBi 4 can support you to efficiently answer questions about how to move towards a sustainable world.
The 7th International Conference on Eco-Balance will take place in Tsukuba, Japan, November 14-16, 2006. Dr. Martin Baitz is a member of the International Advisory Board and PE will contribute to the conference with two presentations entitled "Biofuels in Life-cycle Practice; Intermediate Step or Final Goal towards Sustainable Road Transport?" and "LCA software requirements of companies/associations with distributed data providers - are consistency and multi-user approaches compatible?"
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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Steel and IPP - European steel industry initiative: promoting sustainable development through eco-design
L. Thomazetto - COBRA Automotive Technologies
M. Pierini, M. Delogu - University of Florence - 
