Possibilities for Volvo Trucks to Provide Carbon Footprint Information Derived from Environmental Product Declarations

Abstract

Along with the increasing awareness on global warming and the greenhouse gases emissions from governments, organizations and individuals, carbon footprint is becoming a new popular concept during the past two years. The concept appears to be rooted in “Ecological Footprint” and now defined as the overall amount of greenhouse gas emissions in terms of CO2 equivalent emitted associated with human’s activities. It could be used to measure individuals’ life, products’ life cycle, organization and carbon reduction projects. For the product based carbon footprint, there is no universally accepted and commonly understood methodology at present. Several different initiatives are currently working on defining methods and guidelines on how to estimate the carbon footprint. However, many issues are under discussion. This study is conducted together by Division of Environmental System Analysis in Chalmers and Volvo Technology Corporation. The goal is to investigate on how the carbon footprint could be adapted on the Volvo Trucks’ existing Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) system and to find the possibilities on providing the carbon footprint information based on Volvo Trucks EPD. The study clarifies what carbon footprint is, in terms of its origin, development and the current situation of carbon footprint methodology developments. A comparison between different methodologies together with review and estimation on Volvo Trucks EPD identify that the current methodologies for carbon footprint accounting are not completely suitable for Volvo Trucks. As the conclusion, a public available GHG emission profile based on Volvo Trucks’ existing EPD is suggested in a short term to fulfil customers’ demand. It would be better for Volvo Trucks to wait for some well-accepted methodologies on carbon footprint. To move further, developing a new PCR for trucks could be considered.