| Front page | | Contents | | Next |

Model for selection of future target areas in the Danish Program for Cleaner Products

Summary¹

Background and aim
Method
Input of products
Input of industrial sectors
Results of the projects
Selection of relevant product areas
Former actions have been environmentally relevant
Recommended future types of action
Further development of the model

During the past five years the main efforts of the Danish Program for Cleaner Products have been focused on selected industrial sectors and anchored in the respective trade associations. Experience shows that this procedure in most cases is successful.

However, an industrial sector-oriented action often starts with the production of the goods while the phases of use and final disposal of the products with their associated environmental impacts not in the same degree are subject to action. On the other hand the action has to be anchored on a suitable place and the trade associations appear to be useful in that context.

The very ideal of a future action would be to focus on improvements during the whole life cycle of the products and to involve trade associations and similar centrally placed players.

Background and aim

The Danish Council for Cleaner Products launched in the year 2001 a project for the development of a "Model for selection of future target areas in the Danish Program for Cleaner Products". The model should assure that the future product-oriented actions had focus on the most relevant products and create a concise and correct basis for environmental assessment of all product groups. The model should also facilitate the selection of future areas of action.

The present project has the aim of developing the first, preliminary issue of such a model. The project is a forerunner for a more detailed study, which aim is the further development of the model as well as to strengthen the weak spots, which by nature are inherent in a first issue of a screening-based model.

A secondary aim of the project has been to relate the industry-oriented product actions carried out until now with the selection of product groups, which until now have not been submitted to an industrial sector-oriented action.

Method

The model for selection of future target areas consists of an Access-database, which is structured with an input of products and industrial sectors. The database is basically structured around the Danish Statistics of Goods ("Varestatistikken"), the Danish Statistics of Raw Materials ("Råvarestatistikken") and the Danish Statistics of Foreign Trade ("Udenrigsstatistikken"). All three statistics are issued by Statistics Denmark. In order to have clearness the model operates with a total of 95 product groups (two-digit KN-code level) and 106 manufacturing industrial sectors supplemented with 40 non-manufacturing industrial sectors within the building industry and commercial activities (three-digit DB code level, correspondent to the international NACE code system). Via the Statistics of goods the product groups have been related to the manufacturing industries. Further information allows for calculation of the supply factor, which indicates the economic importance of the product group in Denmark. Via the Statistics of foreign trade the product groups are related to the non-manufacturing industrial sectors (the building sector and the commercial sector are not included in the Statistics of goods). Furthermore preliminary evaluations of the flow through the supply chain have been carried out based on information from the Statistics of goods respectively foreign trade. These evaluations cover the flow from extraction of raw materials, through manufacturing to marketing of finished goods. Since no information about the flow of goods in the supply chains is available, it has been necessary to draw a picture based on information from a number of other statistics.

Input of products

For each of the 95 product groups an environmental assessment has been carried out and subsequently the products have been ranked according to the three levels "High", "Medium" and "Low". This assessment is based on the American input/output database "eiolca" (Economic Input/Output LCA), which comprises information about 485 product groups. The American product groups are to a certain degree comparable to the Danish product groups. By using the American method it has been possible to create a consistent and uniform basis for evaluation of all 95 Danish product groups. This was not possible with the other two methods studied.

An input/output analysis does not cover the whole life cycle, but only the phases from extraction of raw materials until and including manufacturing. Therefore the phases of use and final disposal are not included. This in combination with the fact that the consumption of resources is not included in the environmental assessments probably is the most important limitation for use of the American database.

The database "eiolca" has a large number of environmental parameters of which the following eight have been selected as representative for an assessment at screening level:

Figure 1:
The eight environmental parameters used in the environmental screening.

For each of the 95 product groups an evaluation has been made with regard to the eight parameters, which results in the scores "High", "Medium" or "Low", and a total evaluation, which is the result of the environmental assessment and also results in a score of "High", "Medium" or "Low". This ranking having three levels has been chosen for the present study while the American method has a number of inherent uncertainties. Also the chosen level of product groups presents uncertainties. Therefore a detailed ranking having more than three steps does not make sense.

The evaluation of a product group and the subsequent ranking of "High", "Medium" respectively "Low" has been carried out according to the following procedure:

1. For each of the chosen environmental parameters the product groups have been classified according to their environmental impact, starting with the most polluting ones. Subsequently the product groups have been divided into three groups featured by the scores "High", "Medium" respectively "Low".
2. After this a total assessment of the product group has been made based on the scores for each of the environmental parameters. The total assessment also is awarded a score of "High", "Medium" or "Low" according to the following principles:

Subsequently as a supplement to the environmental assessment an enviro-economic evaluation has been carried out. In this evaluation the supply factor, which is defined as the total of import and production minus export, has been multiplied by the total environmental assessment of each product group thus expressing the importance of the product group with regard to environment and economy.

Input of industrial sectors

The Access database also comprises information about the product-oriented environmental actions, which have been carried out until now. This information is divided into two parts, the industry-oriented action comprising product panels and branch-related projects, and the product-oriented actions comprising eco-labelling and environmental guidelines for the public purchasers issued by the Danish EPA.

The Access database also comprises information about earlier actions carried out under the Program for Promotion of Environmental Management and Audits launched by the Danish EPA as well as information about categories of companies submitted to environmental approval according to article 5 in the Act of Environmental Protection. This information may at a later time be included in the criteria for selection of a product-oriented action within the industrial sectors.

The development of the model for selection of future target areas and its application in selecting potential future areas of action has been carried out in five steps as indicated below, see Figure 2.

Figure 2:
The 5 steps in development and application of the model

Results of the projects

Selection of relevant product areas

Application of the model for selection of future target areas on all product groups (95) results in 45 product groups being ranked "High". Simultaneously 34 product groups are ranked "High" according to the enviro-economic evaluation. As a total result, 19 product groups are ranked "High" in both evaluations.

For these 19 product groups it has been studied whether or not an industry-oriented environmental action according to the Danish Program for Cleaner Products has taken place within the related industrial sector. In the affirmative case the product group in question has been withdrawn from the study.

Former actions have been environmentally relevant

A comparison of the industrial sectors submitted to an environmental action according to the Program for Cleaner Products with the present environmental assessment of product groups shows that the former actions have been environmentally relevant. Industrial sectors such as textiles, electronics, building and civil engineering, plastics, cleaning products, varnishes and paint and transportation which have had or still have environmental actions are all featured by products being ranked "High" in the present study.

Recommended future types of action

In order to choose the relevant type of action for future environmental actions the 14 selected product groups have been studied in detail based on the information in the Access-database. As an example, environmental information for each product group has been examined in order to find the most important environment parameters with regard to life cycle considerations until and including manufacturing. Furthermore the product groups’ relation to one or more industrial sectors is described and the main features of the companies covered by the industrial sector have been identified. Information about the economic importance of the product groups for the Danish national economy, the relations between product group and industrial sector, as well as information about import-export is also included in the model for selection of future target areas. A large amount of information has been included in order to carry out preliminary considerations about the supply chain and the potential players in the field. This information is useful for an environmental action including the most important phases in the life cycle of the products.

Examination of the 14 selected product groups also shows important differences. Some product groups are featured by large imports. This applies to goods such as chemicals, rubber, iron and steel, copper and articles thereof. This finding indicates that it is relevant to put focus on international co-operation and supplier management in international supply chains.

Other product groups such as miscellaneous chemical products, iron and steel, articles of iron and steel are featured by an important role of wholesalers/retailers. In this case it is relevant to focus on actions involving both producers and wholesalers/retailers.

The types of action recommended by the present study are as follows:

1. Industry-oriented action targeting manufacturing companies, which until now have not been subject to environmental action. A prerequisite is that the action can be based in a trade association.
2. Supplementary industry-oriented action with relation to on-going activities.
3. Supply chain projects laying emphasis on management in international supply chains.
4. Supply chain projects laying emphasis on manufacturing, use and final disposal of the products in which producers, wholesalers and retailers are involved or in which the users have influence on the earlier steps in the supply chain.
5. Individual projects laying emphasis on utilization and spreading of existing knowledge including the use in public tenders.
6. Inclusion in other product groups such as product groups comprising primary raw materials and sub-products.

For each of the 14 selected product groups it has been examined which of the above-mentioned types of action present the most promising potential. Different types of action may be relevant to one product group.

Further development of the model

The model developed in the present project is based on screening. That means a number of delimitations and choices have been included during the process of development. By nature this has influence on the decisive power of the model.

The strength of the model for selection of future target areas is that it gives a uniform and consistent environmental base for selection of relevant product groups for future actions. The disadvantage of the model for selection of future target areas is primarily related to the information of American origin and the selected level of details concerning product groups and sub-trades.

Due to the fact that the American database is based on input/output analysis the phases of use and final disposal of the products are not included in the life cycle considerations. This should be kept in mind and emphasized in a possible further development of the model. Furthermore information about the consumption of resources and other environmental aspects such as waste and chemicals should be included in the model since these aspects are not respectively to a limited extent included in the American data base.

In order to handle the amount of information related to product groups and industrial sectors on a screening level a superior level comprising 95 product groups, 106 producing as well as 40 non-producing industrial sectors has been chosen. This choice implies that some information has been put together and therefore may cover a broad spectrum of products and industrial sectors. In a possible further development of the model for selection of future target areas the degree of details should be increased where practical possible. But it cannot be taken for granted to have access to more detailed information since the existing information already at the present level is limited due to confidentiality.