Consumer products and the environment
Action to improve the sustainability of key products, services and materials could significantly reduce their associated environmental impacts. All products and services cause environmental impacts throughout their life cycle (from raw materials to end of life). Impacts are wide-ranging and include greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, and waste. Materials used in products and services are also important as they are resources which are being depleted and can create waste and pollution.
Milk Roadmap (2 May 2008)
The Dairy Supply Chain Forum's Milk Roadmap - the first stage in a comprehensive action plan, helping the dairy sector address the environmental footprint for the consumption and production of liquid milk. Commitments include:
- Milk producers - reducing the greenhouse gas balance from dairy farms by 20-30% between 1990 and 2020
- Primary production sector - boosting the number of dairy farmers taking part in environmental stewardship schemes to 65%, nutrient planning to 90% and animal health plans to 95%
- Milk processors - meeting or beating the energy and carbon dioxide reductions of the sector Climate Change Agreement
- Processors and packaging manufacturers - half of all milk packaging will come from recycled material by 2020
Further information on the Milk Roadmap and work of the Dairy Supply Chain Forum
Latest news
Action to improve products, services and materials
Government is taking action to identify, understand and address the environmental impacts arising from products, services, and materials consumed and used in the UK. Defra, alongside BERR, is at the forefront of this work, which falls within its strategic priority of Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP), and is taking it forward through several work strands, including:
- setting up a Sustainable Products and Materials Division
- developing product and service roadmaps
- other related activity
Sustainable Products and Materials Division
Defra has recently set up a Sustainable Products and Materials Division to co-ordinate and drive forward work to reduce the environmental impacts generated throughout the life cycle of priority products and materials. The Division is serving as a centre of expertise on products and materials and is building links with a wide range of stakeholders to develop evidence on product life cycles, the range of environmental impacts, and successful interventions.
- Defra plans to publish a progress report on sustainable products in July 2008
Priority products and services
There are several international, EU and UK sources providing evidence on the environmental impacts of products and an increasing consensus that specific product areas and services, including food and drink, buildings, transport, energy-using products, tourism, and clothing, generate most of the overall impact on the environment at both a domestic and international level. Defra is undertaking a 'road mapping' process, targeting ten prority products to identify their environmental impacts and develop interventions to address them.
- The environmental impact of products - May 2006 (PDF 3 MB)
- Priority products environmental impacts - road mapping
Priority materials
The Waste Strategy for England sets out seven priority waste materials where action should be targeted to increase resource efficiency. These are: textiles, plastics, paper/card, glass, wood, aluminium, and food and garden waste. The priority waste materials have been identified on the basis of evidence on potential reductions of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from diversion from landfill and increased recycling and recovery.
Related sustainable consumption and production activity
SCP Evidence Base Programme
The SCP Evidence Base Programme underpins Defra’s products, services and materials work and generates sound science to inform the roadmaps. The roadmaps are directly linked to a range of exiting delivery programmes and broader EU and international SCP activities.
Measuring the embodied greenhouse gas emissions in products and services
Defra and the Carbon Trust are co-sponsoring the British Standards Institute (BSI) to develop a Publicly Available Specification (PAS) for the measurement of embodied greenhouse gases (GHGs) in products and services. This work will:
- provide an agreed method that can be applied across a wide range of products and services and their supply chains
- enable companies to measure the GHG-related impacts and reduce them
- describe a consistent and comparable approach to supply chain measurement of GHGs across markets
- assist in defining an internationally agreed standard
- Progress to date:
Further information
- Advisory Committee on Consumer Products and the Environment: final report and recommendations
- Further information: Food Chain Programm
See also
- Directgov - Greener shopping
- Sustainable Development Unit
- Sustainable Development Commission
- Food Standards Agency
- Energy Saving Trust
- Carbon Trust
Contact
For further information about any aspect of product policy or the roadmaps - contact us
Page last modified: 29 May 2008