Suggestions for updating the organisation environmental footprint (OEF) method

The product environmental footprint (PEF) is a life cycle assessment (LCA) based method to quantify the environmental impacts of products (goods or services). It builds on existing approaches and international standards. The overarching purpose of PEF information is to enable to reduce the environmental impacts of goods and services taking into account supply chain activities (from extraction of raw materials, through production and use and to final waste management). This purpose is achieved through the provision of detailed requirements for modelling the environmental impacts of the flows of material/energy and the emissions and waste streams associated with a product throughout its life cycle. The rules provided in the PEF method enable to conduct PEF studies that are more reproducible, comparable and verifiable, compared to existing alternative approaches. However, comparability is only possible if the results are based on the same product environmental footprint category rules (PEFCR). The development of PEFCRs complements and further specifies the requirements for PEF studies.