Europe – identifying products with the greatest potential for environmental improvement

The Commission announced in the Communication on Integrated Product Policy (COM(2003) 302 final) the intention to launch a work with the purpose of identifying products with the greatest potential for environmental improvement from a life-cycle perspective. This work started in 2004 and is being led by the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) in Seville, which is part of the DG Joint Research Centre. This work is carried out in two phases:



The first phase is to identify products with the greatest environmental impact from a life cycle perspective. For this purpose a methodology for identifying the products needs to be developed and applied. This is done in a study named Evaluation of the Environmental Impacts of Products (EIPRO). This study is carried out for the IPTS by partner institutions of the European Science and Technology Observatory (ESTO). The first phase of the project will end in 2005. More information on the study is to be found in the “questions and answers” document (pdf~90K). The second phase is to identify products with the greatest potential for environmental improvement based on the results delivered in phase one. The second phase of the project will end in 2007.



Step one of the first phase began with a literature review of existing work to identify such products. This initial analysis of existing studies showed that, while substantial and useful research had been undertaken already, the existing knowledge was not sufficient to give a full consolidated picture. Therefore, additional research turned out to be necessary to complement the state of knowledge.



Step two of the first phase was to develop an operational methodology to identify the products with the greatest environmental impacts. This resulted in a transparent methodology that allows building on the methods and results of previous research as far as possible and complementing this with a new systematic analysis of the environmental impacts of products for the EU-25. A top-down oriented approach based on environmental input/output analysis (IOA) was identified as most suitable for the new analysis. During this work the Commission asked for comments on the proposed methodology from stakeholders and organised two scientific expert workshops in May and September 2004 as well as meetings with the stakeholders who submitted comments. The work was also discussed in September the same year at the IPP Regular Meeting.



The IPP Regular Meeting is a stakeholder forum with a primary purpose of assisting the Commission in its development and implementation of IPP. IPP Regular Meetings are held twice a year and they are chaired by the Commission and have representatives from Member States and other stakeholders.



In step three of the first phase the methodology has been refined and applied. The study team has now written a full draft report and annexes of the study presenting the analysis of the life cycle environmental impacts of products related to the final consumption of the EU-25