Real Business

19 September 2007

The Carbon Trust today announced nine leading companies will make up a new wave of partners to use the draft product carbon footprinting standard, currently being developed in partnership with Defra and BSI British Standards. The draft standard will measure the embodied greenhouse gas emissions in products and services.  

The new partners and products are as follows:• Aggregate Industries - Hard landscaping products (paving stones etc) • Cadbury Schweppes – Cadbury Dairy Milk bars • Coca-Cola – A sparkling beverage and a still beverage from its product range• The Co-operative Group – 200g and 400g punnet Strawberries• Halifax – Halifax Web Saver Account• Kimberly-Clark – Andrex Toilet Tissue and Huggies nappies • Marshalls – Hard landscaping products (paving stones etc) • Mϋller Dairy (UK) Limited – One type of yoghurt from its product range • Scottish & Newcastle – Fosters Lager and Bulmers Original Cider

The new pilot partners will use the draft standard to calculate the embodied carbon emissions of selected products. It is the intention of the partners to reduce product carbon emissions and to work together with the Carbon Trust to explore the best way to communicate this information to consumers. 

Climate Change Minister Joan Ruddock, commented: "The take up from business of the Carbon Trust's scheme shows that there's real appetite and willingness to firstly understand, and secondly to reduce the impact that their products have on our planet. It is encouraging that so many leading companies are stepping up to the plate on this. We are working with the Carbon Trust and others on a clear, standard way to measure the full carbon impacts of products. Not only are people becoming more and more aware of their own carbon footprint, and want to know how to reduce it, they also want to know what business is doing to reduce its own impacts. This initiative is part of that shared commitment to tackle climate change".

Tom Delay, Chief Executive of the Carbon Trust, commented: “We are delighted to be working with these new pilot partners on the next stage of development of a product carbon footprinting standard. UK businesses are increasingly looking to tackle the indirect emissions from products and services. This has been boosted by a rise in demand from consumers for more information on the climate change impact of products, coupled with the desire from companies to become more energy and carbon efficient. The unprecedented level of interest we have had in this initiative makes me confident that by working with manufacturers and producers to reduce indirect carbon emissions, we can move the UK another step closer to a low carbon economy”.

Aggregate IndustriesDr Miles Watkins, director of group environmental and corporate social responsibility, Aggregate Industries, said: “Sustainability is a core priority for Aggregate Industries and as part of the continual improvement of our business we are taking major steps to address this issue. 

“To us, sustainability means much more than simply complying with environmental requests, it is a fundamental part of our thinking. Our support of the Carbon Trust reinforces and takes our carbon management commitment to a higher level, ensuring that we encourage the adoption of best practice across the business community as a whole”.

Cadbury Schweppes Alex Cole, Cadbury's Corporate Responsibility Director said: "We're already learning lots about our carbon footprint. Whether it's British cows producing fresh milk or Ghanaian farmers growing cocoa, there's a whole bunch of activities that go into making a bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk. This process is helping us understand where our greatest energy impacts are - so we can bring them down as part of our "Purple Goes Green" project to do our bit for climate change".

Coca-ColaPaul Smith, Environment, Heath and Safety Group Manager, Coca-Cola Enterprises Europe, said: “At Coca-Cola, we are working hard to minimise the environmental impact of our products and operations. We already have a good understanding of the carbon footprint of our manufacturing operations in Great Britain, but we need to do more to understand the overall footprint of our individual products. This will be a complex task requiring a detailed analysis of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions across the product lifecycle. We are delighted to work in partnership with the Carbon Trust to undertake this task and hope to be able to support the proposed methodology and identify cost effective opportunities to reduce emissions generated across our supply chain”.

The Co-operative GroupPaul Monaghan, Head of Ethics and Sustainability, The Co-operative Group commented: "The development of a credible but practical product carbon footprinting standard is long overdue, and The Co-operative Food looks forward to playing a full part. We will be particularly interested to see how carbon reduction can be pursued whilst safeguarding the livelihoods of the world's poorest farmers and the role, if any, of good quality carbon offset".

HalifaxMike Regnier, Head of Savings, Halifax, said: “We are proud to be working with the Carbon Trust to develop this important new product standard. We want to help our customers better understand the carbon impact of banking products. Carbon footprinting represents a significant first step to do just that”.

Kimberly-ClarkDave Challis, Kimberly-Clark's Sustainability Manager for Europe, commented: "Working with the Carbon Trust is a perfect fit with our overall sustainability policies.  We have long held objectives to reduce carbon emissions through our 'Vision’ global environmental programme and this is an extension of that work.  For Kimberly-Clark, exploring how the entire retail industry reaches a common measurement for carbon emissions is vital and we are delighted to be involved at this early stage".

Marshalls Chris Harrop, Marketing Director, Marshalls Plc, said: "Marshalls is immensely proud to be a pilot partner of The Carbon Trust's carbon labelling scheme. Our research mirrored that of The Carbon Trust so this was a natural progression for us - and it clearly demonstrates the continued need for consumers to have environmental data on the products they buy. As a leader in our industry, we have been managing and reducing our carbon impact as a corporate objective since 2002 and earlier this year Marshalls launched the industries first ever carbon calculator. A single methodology and defined labelling scheme across all industries is key to accelerating consumer confidence and acceptance".

Mϋller Dairy (UK) LtdStewart Gilliland, CEO of Müller UK, commented: “Carbon emissions from production facilities, and the resulting contribution to climate change, is one of the biggest challenges that manufacturers face today and we understand how vital it is to reduce our impact on the environment. We are delighted to be working in partnership with the Carbon Trust and look forward to seeing the results in the future. We hope our involvement with the Carbon Trust will also encourage other manufacturers to do the same”.

Scottish & NewcastleRichard Naylor, UK Environmental Manager of S&N, commented: "Scottish & Newcastle is committed to minimising its impact on the environment, and recognises that carbon dioxide emissions form a significant part of this. Much has been achieved recently to reduce our impact on global warming, due to emissions associated with our brewing and cider making processes. However, we realise that we also need to better understand the part our supply chain plays in impacting the environment.  For this reason, we have joined the Carbon Footprinting Scheme, and we look forward to working with the Carbon Trust on some projects to better understand the impact of our products".

The Carbon Trust and Defra are working with BSI British Standards to develop a standard based on a method for measuring the embodied greenhouse gas emissions from products and services across their lifecycle that will be applicable to a wide range of sectors and product categories. The development of the standard is being overseen by an independent Steering Group chaired by Jim Skea, Director of the UK Energy Research Centre, with members from businesses, NGOs, government and academia. 

The Carbon Trust launched the carbon reduction label in March 2007 with Walkers, Boots, and innocent, to communicate the embodied emissions of their products and a commitment to reduce their product’s emissions over a two year period. If the emissions are not reduced over this period the label will be removed.  The label now appears on all flavours of Walkers crisps and on point of sale materials for the Botanics range of shampoos in Boots stores nationwide. Innocent drinks currently displays the label for their mango and passionfruit smoothie on their website and is working with the Carbon Trust to provide information across their entire smoothie range.

For more information on the draft standard’s development, please visit www.carbontrust.co.uk