Background

The environmental performance of food and drink production may be currently assessed by several standard methods. Except the ISO Life Cycle Assessment, Environmental Product Declaration^® and Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) methods, all the other international standards account for the single impact category of climate change. The PEF method requires the estimation of as many as 14 impact categories and is thus regarded as complex and expensive. Several independent studies have shown that climate change is the impact category with the lowest uncertainty level.

Scope and Approach

In this viewpoint paper, the mere assessment of the Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) using so-called secondary data was recommended as the most direct and economical method to allow SMEs to improve their sustainability via a simple and stepwise virtuous approach.

Key Findings and Conclusions

By applying a previously developed LCA model, the carbon footprint (PCF) of beer packed in 66-cL glass bottles in a medium-sized brewery was estimated (∼90 kg CO_2e hL⁻¹) and the main life cycle hotspots were identified. By resorting to 100%-recycled glass bottles, barley grown locally using organic agriculture methods, rail instead of road transport; etc., it was possible to reduce PCF to as low as 49 kg CO_2e hL⁻¹. A cost/benefit analysis might help SMEs to recognize which opportunities effectively reduce their product environmental impact, as well as to decide to invest on the collection of selected primary data to make PCF calculation more accurate, or further progress in the estimation of other selected impact categories.

中文翻译：

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当前的标准方法对减轻99％的欧盟食品和饮料企业对环境的影响是否有效？

背景

食品和饮料生产的环境绩效目前可以通过几种标准方法进行评估。除了ISO生命周期评估，环境产品声明^®和产品环境足迹（PEF）方法外，所有其他国际标准均解释了气候变化的单一影响类别。PEF方法需要估计多达14种影响类别，因此被认为是复杂且昂贵的。多项独立研究表明，气候变化是不确定性水平最低的影响类别。

范围和方法

在此观点文件中，建议仅使用所谓的辅助数据对产品碳足迹（PCF）进行评估，这是最直接，最经济的方法，可让中小企业通过简单而逐步的良性方法来提高其可持续性。

主要发现和结论

通过应用先前开发的LCA模型，啤酒的碳足迹（PCF）包装在66-CL玻璃瓶在一个中型啤酒厂估计（约90公斤CO _2E百升^-1），并确定了主要的生命周期的热点。通过使用100％回收的玻璃瓶，大麦使用有机农业方法在当地种植，用铁路代替公路运输；等等，可以将PCF降低到低至49 kg CO _2e hL ^-1。成本/效益分析可以帮助中小型企业认识到哪些机会有效地降低了其产品对环境的影响，并决定投资于选定的主要数据的收集以使PCF计算更加准确，或者在估计其他选定的影响方面取得进一步进展类别。