PEF and OEF: measuring and communicating the environmental impact of products and organisations in accordance with common methodologies, and identifying areas for improvement

Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) and Organisation Environmental Footprint (OEF) are measurement and improvement tools designed to help assess the environmental performance of products/services/organisations across their life-cycle. 

Promoted by the European Commission under Recommendation 179/2013, PEF and OEF were formulated to establish a common methodological approach, for Member States and the private sector, to assessing, declaring and commercialising the environmental performance of products, services and organisations, based on assessing their environmental impacts throughout their life cycle.

Organisation environmental footprint (OEF) and product environmental footprint (PEF) both make it possible to quantify environmental performance from a life cycle point of view. Whereas the method for calculating PEF is specific to individual products or services, the method for calculating OEF applies to the activities of organisations as a whole, i.e. to all activities associated with the products and/or services supplied by an organisation in terms of its procurement chain (from extraction of raw materials, to use and options for the final disposal of waste).

Determining PEF and OEF can therefore be seen as a supplementary activity, undertaken in individual cases to support specific applications. Calculating OEF does not require multiple product analyses.

Rather, OEF is calculated using aggregate data representing the flows of resources and waste that cross a defined organisational boundary. Once OEF is calculated, however, it may be disaggregated to the product level using appropriate allocation keys. In theory, the sum of the PEFs of the products provided by an organisation over a certain reporting interval (e.g. one year) should be close to its OEF for the same reporting interval.

Benefits

PEF and OEF provide a measurement of the environmental performance of your organisation and/or products and services so that you can identify potential improvement actions.
They demonstrate to stakeholders that your company is committed to environmental sustainability and responsible conduct in relation to environmental issues. They also facilitate the management of green supply chains. 

Why choose IMQ?

The experience and professionalism developed by our team over the years provides customers with a guarantee that they are benefiting from rigorous, reliable services, in line with the latest regulations.

 Management system certification is the endorsement enjoyed by organisations that have chosen to equip themselves with efficient management systems and suitable skills and structures, aimed at continuous improvement. And the higher the prestige of the awarding body, the higher the value of the guarantee. Equipped with state-of-the-art technology, our laboratories have full capability to put products through all the checks required by the major European directives and international standards. The certifications issued by IMQ are synonymous with trust. They guarantee safety, performance, efficiency and quality standards. More than 10,000 companies have turned to IMQ to certify their products and stand out on the market. Notified body for the main EU directives, IMQ offers tests and CE certifications to assess the conformity of the products to the requirements required to be marketed on the European market. Inspections and audits validate the conformity of electrical installations, equipment, supplies and services with the applicable technical and legislative specifications. IMQ services add value and enhance brand image by distinguishing organisations that have invested properly in safety and quality. They are internationally recognised, managed by expert personnel and constantly updated, on the strength of IMQ’s membership of the main working groups on international standards. From the market’s point of view, IMQ services testify to the transparency and reliability of the organisations that choose them. And they cut time to market.