Making Sense of the Minefield of Footprint Indicators
In recent years, footprint indicators have emerged as a popular
mode of reporting environmental performance. The prospect
is that these simplified metrics will guide investors, businesses,
public sector policymakers and even consumers of everyday
goods and services in making decisions which lead to better
environmental outcomes. However, without a common “DNA”,
the ever expanding lexicon of footprints lacks coherence and may
even report contradictory results for the same subject matter.
In the European Union, the proliferation of inconsistent
footprint methodologies has been identified as the underlying
issue hampering the functioning of a market for green products.5
The benefits of harmonization are many: reduced implementation
costs for business, avoidance of market access barriers, a common
basis for industry to seek out resource efficiency opportunities with
supply chain partners, and increased consumer understanding
and confidence that footprint communications are trustworthy.5
The solution we propose is the development of a coherent set of
footprint indicators based on LCA.
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