Carbon Trust announces new lifecycle standard

In late October, the British Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, Carbon Trust and BSI British Standards (BSI) released a new standard for lifecycle analysis (LCA). The standard—called PAS 2050—is a consistent method for counting the greenhouse gas emissions embedded in goods and services throughout their entire life cycle.

BSI says the standard includes sourcing from raw materials through to manufacture, distribution, use and disposal. BSI says the new standard was developed to help businesses move beyond managing the emissions of just their own processes and to look at reduction opportunities in the design, manufacture and supplying of products.

During development, the standard was tested with 75 different products including some produced by PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP), Cadbury (LON: CBRY), Continental Clothing Company and British Sugar.

One company that took part in the testing of PAS 2050—Boots, a Britain-based beauty-products company—redesigned its logistics network for its Botanics shampoo product line. The company discovered efficiencies could be gained by delivering product direct to stores. Along with reduced miles traveled, the new supply chain design reduced packaging and the carbon footprint associated with the manufacture of the shampoo by 10 percent, BSI says.

PAS 2050 is not the only LCA standard developed in an open process by an independent organization. The American National Standards Institute or ANSI offers one as part of its environmental management framework. Developed with the International Standards Organization (ISO), it is called ISO 14040 2006 and ISO 14044 2006.