In March the EU Commission proposed new rules to fight greenwashing by obliging companies to prove their environmental claims. The Commission proposes a Green Claims Directive to ensure that citizens receive reliable information and do not face misleading greenwashing practices. It introduces clear rules on how companies should prove their environmental claims and labels. To help companies to identify, measure and reduce the impacts of goods, services and organisations the Environmental Footprint methods have been developed.

Swedish Life Cycle Centers has been taking active part in the development of the EU Environmental Footprint methods and are now managing the project “Environmental footprint in Swedish Industry – increased understanding and implementation” that started in December 2022. The aim of the project is to raise awareness among actors in Sweden of product-related policy development based on Environmental Footprint at the EU level and at the same time contribute to the development of the methodology. The project has now defined two case studies that will test part of the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) method to better understand what effects an implementation can have in the industry. Case studies will be carried out by RISE Research Institutes of Sweden and IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute together with industry partners.

Case studies

One case study will focus on modelling the impact on climate change with focus on biogenic carbon in an interlinked product systems and in long living products. The case study is managed by IVL. SSAB participates as case industry, having several different types of biogenic carbon flows that are relevant to include, for example carbon in the final product included.

The other case study will focus on better understanding the consequences of implementing the circular footprint formula (CFF), which is part of the PEF framework, within the automotive industry and with focus on materials used in batteries. The focus arises from the interpretation that the proposed Battery regulation, will require that the PEF method and product environmental footprint category rules (PEFCR) for batteries should be followed. RISE leads the case study which includes several industries: Volvo Car Corporation, Höganäs AB and CEVT.

If you want to know more about the project you can follow the link below or contact Maria Rydberg, maria.rydberg@chalmers.se

Read more about the project