We are happy and very proud to announce that the PEFCR ‘Feed for Food Producing Animals’ was approved by a large majority at the Environmental Footprint Steering Group meeting in Brussels on 15 February 2018. The feed PEFCR (Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules) is the first PEFCR to be officially approved by the European Commission.

This is an important step forward for the environmental footprinting of feed production!

View Feed PEFCR

In April 2013 the European Commission (EC) published a Communication to the European Parliament and the Council called ‘Building the Single Market for Green Products: Facilitating better information on the environmental performance of products and organisations’. It introduces two methods for measuring and communicating environmental performance throughout the life cycle: one for organisations, the Organisational Environmental Footprint (OEF), and one for products, the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) method.

Framework of general requirements and principles

The proposed PEF method is a framework of general requirements and principles. This means that the main methodological choices in LCA studies can be standardised. It will then in principle not make any difference who carries out these studies; if all the methodological rules are followed and all requirements met, the results will be virtually the same.

The PEFCRs will standardise the use of primary data and background data and ensure the data are as reliable as possible and that any missing data are drawn from the same background database. In addition, system boundaries, allocation rules and the method for calculating environmental impacts will be harmonised.

PEF Pilot Projects

In 2014 PEF pilot projects for 21 product groups were started to prepare more specific technical guidance in PEFCRs. Some of these pilot projects have been discontinued. It is expected that in coming months several other PEFCRs will be approved by the EC.


Learn more about PEF

Approval of PEFCR Feed major step forward

On 15 February the feed PEFCR was approved by a large majority at the Environmental Footprint Steering Group meeting in Brussels. The feed PEFCR is the first PEFCR to be officially approved. During the development of the feed PEFCR, Blonk Consultants supported the Technical Secretariat of the PEF pilot on ‘Feed for Food producing Animals’, chaired by FEFAC, the European Feed Manufacturers' Federation. This involved all the technical work needed to define the representative product, the screening study and drafting the PEFCR.

The feed PEFCR is a crucial building block for the feed industry’s efforts to develop a framework for conducting meaningful LCA studies. It provides important pointers for calculating the environmental footprint of feed products and production, and complements other activities such as the development of a global feed LCI database and a global feed LCA tool. Blonk Consultants and its Agri-footprint database are helping the industry to achieve its ambitious agenda.