European organisation and product environmental footprints

A company wishing to sell their product as one that is respectful of the environment on European Union member state markets faces a wide variety of methods and initiatives to sell products with this label. Sometimes a company will have to use different initiatives for different markets, and this may lead to higher company cost and consumer confusion. According to Ecolabel Index portal data, there are currently 463 global eco-labelling systems in the world, which apply to a total of 199 countries and 25 industrial sectors.

In order to resolve problems of confusion and cost, the European Commission has developed Organisation Environmental Footprint (OEF) and Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) methods as a common way of measuring environmental performance. The focus was implemented during a preliminary period between 2013-2018 with the development of various pilot programmes in which more than 280 volunteer organisations and companies participated on a global level.

Its application will continue through a new period covering 2019-2021 with the development of new pilot programmes and real-life application cases for companies and products.