iGuzzini publishes PEP ecopassports of products
iGuzzini has become one of the first major lighting manufacturers to publish Product Environmental Profile (PEP) ecopassports of its products.
The Italian architectural luminaire maker has started uploading PEP ecopassports to its website.
The PEP ecopassport is an environmental declaration based on an electrical product’s life cycle assessment.
The methodology complies with the European standard on environmental labels and standards, which states that any metric should be based on life cycle assessment, quantify the relevant environmental impacts, be performed in the framework of a declaration program with a critical review of rules and the consultation of stakeholders on those rules, and have independent verification of the declarations.
One of the first products with a published PEP ecopassport is iGuzzini’s innovative Light Shed, a modular, sound-absorbing system aimed at spaces without a traditional ceiling. The 12-page document includes a full breakdown of the components in the Light Shed, its metal, plastics and other materials, including packaging.
It also shows a calculation of the product’s potential impact on a range of environment aspects, including the depletion of abiotic resources, global warming, ozone depletion, photochemical ozone creation, acidification of soil and water, eutrophication (the enrichment of nutrients in water), the total use of primary energy and the net use of fresh water.
In March, LightingEurope joined the PEP Association, the developer of the PEP ecopassport in a move which was widely see as backing for the organisation’s life cycle assessment model.
However LightingEurope is adamant that life cycle assessments (LCA) and related environmental product declarations (EPDs) should not become a mandatory requirement.
The cost and complexity would, it believes, be prohibitive for its luminaires maker members across the continent.
LightingEuropes says that LCAs entail a complex process and significant resources to deliver a lot of information. ‘There will be cases when all the information is not needed or useful and where the effort is not justified’, it says.
