The European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) has released a practical guide for developing green products and services. The new report provides the method to assess the impact of services and products on the environment.
The important information is targeted at business managers and policy makers, and it aims to pave the way to design sustainable products and a resource-efficient Europe. Most present methods used for production and consumption of goods are affecting the environment by reducing natural resources and causing climate change.
Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) is a concept that aims to improve the environmental performance of services and goods. It studies the impact of various activities such as production, distribution and consumption on the environment. The affect from the start to completion including natural resource extraction, disposal of waste and recycling is observed.
The new report titled “The International Reference Life Cycle Data System” (ILCD) is a practical guide aimed at better quality and consistency of Life Cycle Assessments (LCA). LCA is a scientifically structured method standardized according to ISO 14040 and 14044 for implementation of LCT. The report enables public administrations to utilize the ILCD as a reference document for issuing tenders and for business managers to implement Life Cycle Thinking and develop better technologies and products.
LCA can be used for carbon footprinting, environmental footprinting, ecodesign, green procurement, waste management, ecolabelling and for evaluating the impact of policy options on the environment.
Source: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc/
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