UK launches carbon footprint standard

The prospect of widespread carbon labelling of products and services will move a step closer to reality tomorrow with the official launch of a new standard providing firms with guidelines on how to measure the carbon footprint of products and services.

The Carbon Trust, Defra and BSI British Standards are to publish PAS 2050, a standard designed to show firms how to measure the greenhouse gas emissions embedded in goods and services throughout their entire lifecycle.

The publication of the standard follows an 18 month development period that has seen PAS 2050 applied to 75 different product ranges and involved feedback from 1,000 different organisations, including Tesco, Coca Cola, Boost and the Co-operative Group.

"It's been 18 months well spent," said Euan Murray, carbon footprinting general manager at The Carbon Trust. "We're confident we have the right mix between a standard that has analytical rigour but is still usable enought for firms to pick up."

The standard is voluntary and focuses on how to measure carbon footprints rather than how to communicate that data to customers, but it does lay the foundation for widespread adoption of carbon labels by many retailers.

Tesco has already pledged to feature carbon labels on all its products and Murray predicted that market forces were likely to ensure that more firms follow suit. "We are already seeing that consumers understand carbon labels and are giving companies credit for having used them," he said.

The standard has also already helped a number of firms involved in the pilot scheme identify areas where they can help to cut their emissions.

"One of the interesting findings is that the carbon footprint of washing powder is 50 per cent higher than a concentrated washing liquid," explained Murray. "They are products that serve the same purpose, so that is one area where you can immediately see where encouraging people to make a simple switch can have a big effect on emissions."

Work on expanding the standard is now expected to continue with new guidelines on how to more accurately measure the carbon footprint for products in specific sectors likely to be added over time.

"The initial focus is on food and drink," explained Murray. "But work will continue to widen it out to provide more sector specific information for other industries."