These, it is hoped, will help manufacturers develop more sustainable products, and help the implementation of life cycle-based environmental policies, like the European Union's Sustainable Consumption and Production Action Plan.

The indicators are in draft form, and the underlying assumptions and methodology are the subjects of a consultation that is open until the end of September.

The indicators will include the environmental impacts of services and processes outside the European Union that affect services and products within the 27 states.

They are aimed to be consistent with other instruments – such as Ecodesign, Ecolabel and Green Public Procurement.

They are ultimately required not only on the level of the EU27, but also for each EU Member State.

The standards have been developed by the Joint Research Centre (JRC)'s Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES), which leads the European Platform on Life Cycle Assessment.

A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) quantifies and assesses the emissions, resources consumed, and pressures on health and the environment attributed to different products over their entire life cycle. It quantifies all physical exchanges with the environment, whether these are inputs (resources, materials, land use and energy), or outputs (emissions to air, water and soil).

The indicators

According to the IES, the indicators can be used to monitor the environmental impacts of relevant goods and services consumed by EU citizens as well as the transition towards more sustainable consumption behaviour.

They can also help assess the impact of policy measures with regard to more environmentally sound goods and services, the IES adds. There are five classes:

  1. The resource efficiency indicators measure the environmental impact of the European Union and each member state in relation to the sources used, including data on imported and exported products.
  2. The resource productivity indicator measures productivity progress in the use of natural resources, such as GDP in euro per kilo of iron extracted or cubic metre of water consumed.
  3. The resource-specific impacts indicator evaluates how negative environmental impacts have been de-coupled from resource use over time.
  4. Basket-of-products indicators reflect environmental impacts such as climate change or eutrophication, and resource-use linked to the final domestic consumption of an average EU citizen over the entire life cycle of goods and services including nutrition, shelter, consumer goods and mobility.
  5. Waste management indicators cover the entire waste management chain from collection to treatment and include recycling, recovery and final deposition of any remaining waste.

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