There is an increasing requirement from business and other organisations to understand and communicate the contribution their products and services make to climate change. To date, methods are well developed for measuring, reporting and verifying the “direct” GHG emissions from processes, e.g. defined in the WBCSD/WRI GHG protocol [1] and ISO14064 on Greenhouse Gas Quantification and Reporting.
Methods for measuring the GHG emissions from “indirect” emissions embodied in products and services across all lifecycle stages (while incorporated in guides e.g. GHG Protocol as “Scope 3 emissions”) are less well defined in practice. There are already techniques for measuring GHG emissions from products and services. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) enables a detailed, rigorous (“bottom up”) quantification of climate change and other impacts across the lifecycle of products and services and is well developed in standards (e.g. ISO14040-44, 14048), guides (e.g. ISO14047 and 14049) and tools (in full and abridged versions). However, in its non abridged form LCA is highly resource intensive and different results could be obtained depending on how the LCA is scoped or the boundaries set. At a more general level, Environmental Input Output (EIO) analysis can be used to provide a general, “top down” understanding of where the most significant impacts are. Hybrids of these approaches e.g. EIO (“top down”) and LCA ( “bottom up”) are also used to combine the strengths of both and can be an appropriate option for measuring impacts at a product group level. However, comparability between results can be problematic at product specific level due to method & data limitations.
The PAS aims to bridge the gap between the existing detailed and more general approaches and provide a standardised, consistent method organisations can practically use for measuring the GHG emissions embodied in products and services. This will incorporate whether different degrees of accuracy and precision can be used to reflect the different uses of the resulting information. Consistency with existing related standards and initiatives will also be a key element of the PAS process.
The PAS method may be used for a variety of formal and informal processes for improving and communicating the GHG performance of products and services. These include processes for product improvement, Green Supply Chain Management, sustainable procurement, Environmental Management Systems, Environmental Product Declarations such as labels, consumer awareness campaigns and business reporting. In addition to this PAS, a range of related initiatives are underway e.g. Climate Disclosure Standards Board project incorporating Scope 3 emissions reporting, Carbon Trust carbon footprint, reduction and communication initiative (including a pilot carbon reduction label), and retailer initiatives carbon labelling their products and services.
[1] World Business Council for Sustainable Development, World Resources Institute , GHG Protocol, A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard
