Miljøprojekt, 1063/2006 - Integrated Supply Chain Information

Integrated Supply Chain Information

1 Introduction

During the last decade, a number of schemes have been developed by authorities and private organisations intended for the communication of environmental (and health) performance of company activities including their products and services to customers, investors and others.

Typically, the development and implementation of these schemes have taken place based on separate legislations and agreements without much reuse or attempts of synergy between the schemes. Each arrangement has its own unique character, organization and decision flow. From a user point of view, information tools with similar objectives and similar data should be integrated to facilitate re-use of data, easy management and co-ordinated verification.

This report analyses the possible synergies between the following schemes which all include incentives or obligations to inform stakeholders, customers or the public regarding issues of relevance to health or environmental protection:

The Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (Council Directive 96/91/EC) (IPPC)
The Safety Data Sheet Directive (Dir. 2001/58/EC) (SDS)
The EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (Reg. 761/2001/EC) (EMAS)
The Revised Community Eco-label Award Scheme (Reg. 1980/2000/EC) (EU Eco-label)
Member states initiatives regarding Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) based on ISO 14.025 (type III labelling)

There are other schemes applied on a global or regional scale, e.g. the EU energy label, the ISO environmental management standard (ISO 14.001), and the ISO type II standard regarding environmental self-declarations (ISO 14.024). The above 5 schemes have been selected as they are identified as being among the most important voluntary tools in Commission Green Paper for Integrated Product Policy and Commission Announcement on IPP (2003) (EMAS, Eco-label, EPD) or is obligatory for many European enterprises (IPPC, SDS).

The Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (IPPC) defines common rules of approval of industrial installations. All installations covered by Annex I of the Directive are required to obtain an authorization (permit) from the national authorities. A public accessible European Pollution Emission Register has been elaborated containing emission data from IPPC facilities.

Safety data sheet (SDS) is a tool used to communicate hazardous properties of substances and products (preparations) as well as measures to reduce the risk, especially the occupational health of professional customers. Companies producing or importing hazardous chemical substances or products are obliged to prepare safety data sheets as defined in the relevant EU Directives. The Directive is expected to be amended within a few years (2005/06) due to the new EU chemical legislation (REACH) as SDS' are to be expanded to include information regarding uses/exposure of hazardous substances in the product chain.

The EU-regulation ”Eco-Management and Audit Scheme” (EMAS) includes the obligation to elaborate a public accessible Environmental Statement. The purpose of the statement is to communicate the company's efforts to reduce the environmental impact from its facility to the public. The regulation came into force in 1993 and was revised in 2001. The revised scheme (EMAS II) is intended to be more product-oriented. In addition to direct environmental aspects, the products should also be considered in a life cycle perspective. The environmental statement is based on a third party verified environmental management system. Participation is voluntary.

The EU eco-label provides companies with a tool to communicate the lifecycle-based environmental qualities of their products to the consumers in a simple and reliable fashion. The label is third party verified (ISO type I). Participation is voluntary.

The environmental product declaration (EPD) is a tool for communicating life cycle based environmental data of a product to the company's professional customers. At present, there are no international adopted schemes in force. In Sweden, Italy and other countries, voluntary third party verified systems have been developed and implemented within the past few years (ISO type III). In Denmark, a system similar to that in Sweden is under development.

There is an increased focus on the need to establish a better synergy between the above tools. At the IPP authority network meeting in Copenhagen (October 2002), potential synergies were discussed. The recommendations from the meeting – distributed to a number of stakeholders – mentioned that in the long run an “intelligent integration” should be developed between environmental labels, environmental management systems and environmental product declarations.

The Commission announcement on IPP (2003) highlights the need for a coordination of IPP tools, and it is stated that environmental management systems (EMAS/ISO) provide a good framework for integration of the lifecycle way of thinking. Also the announcement identifies the need for integration with other policy areas including chemicals.

Presently there are good possibilities of improving the synergy between the five information systems. The eco-label regulation is to be analysed by the Commission regarding needs for update (2005). The EMAS regulation is to be revised (2006) and the Commission is about to define how the product dimension in the regulation is to be interpreted. As an input to the revision process, the Commission have initiated an evaluation of both schemes, which will be finalised by the end of the year (2005). The Directive on safety data sheets is to be revised in 2005-07 in connection with the implementation of EU's new chemical legislation (REACH).

The objectives of the present analysis are to identify measures, which may increase synergies between the five schemes.