Environmental-related information in the catalogue

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User Story

It is intended that business documents like invoices, catalogues etc. should support the emissions reporting, disclosing the the emissions and their calculation related to an item that of invoiced, offered or ordered. See

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52024DC0072 (p. 5)

The objective by provinding this information is

• on the one side, to promote the selling of items with less emissions
• and on the other side to prevent green-washing by requiring the disclosure of how the emissions related to an item are calculated

Right now such information is not providers. Buyers have to trust the figures provided by the suppliers.

Background

There is no unified calculation method. The calculation method depends on the product and the industry. So, the calculation method itself has to be described as well that was applied for the emission calculation for an item. Some examples for such methods

• ISO 14067:2018 Greenhouse gases — Carbon footprint of products — Requirements and guidelines for quantification:
  • https://www.iso.org/standard/71206.html
  • Defines the Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) to cover othe emissions than CO2 (amount of carbon dioxide by weight that is emitted into the atmosphere having the same impact)
• Product Attribute to Impact Algorithm (PAIA)
  • https://msl.mit.edu/projects/paia/main.html
  • IEC TR 62921:2016 Quantification methodology for greenhouse gas emissions for computers and monitors
• Product Environmental Footprint method
  • https://green-business.ec.europa.eu/environmental-footprint-methods/pef-method_en
  • ISO 14040:2006 Environmental management — Life cycle assessment — Principles and framework: https://www.iso.org/standard/37456.html
• Calculation method for industrial gases

• https://www.eiga.eu/uploads/documents/DOC167.pdf

Existing proposals:

• NO extended therir EHF: https://anskaffelser.no/verktoy/veiledere/koder-bruk-i-ehf-katalog-merkeordninger-miljo-og-arbeidslivskriminalitet
• UBL has a draft for the invoice: https://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.2/mod/summary/reports/UBL-Invoice-2.2.html#Table-EnvironmentalEmission.Details

Proposal

Add a information for the item-related emissions (CO2e by weight) to an item including a specification on which method was used for prociding the item on the line.