Purpose: Current patterns of household goods consumption generate relevant environmental pressures and impacts. Environmental impacts are not only limited to the European territory but also to third countries from where products are imported. Assessing the entire life cycle of products enables considering trade-related transboundary effects along supply chains. The goal of this paper is to illustrate the assessment of the environmental impacts of household goods consumption in Europe, modelled through the consumption footprint indicator. Methods: The consumption footprint indicator was designed to assess the environmental impact of household consumption by covering five areas of consumption (food, mobility, housing, household goods and appliances), each of them modelled as a basket of products (BoP) representing the most consumed products by EU citizens. This paper focuses on the BoP household goods, entailing a large variety of products from clothes to personal care products. Consumption intensity was obtained from consumption statistical data for years 2010 and 2015. Life cycle inventory data for 30 representative products were obtained from EU Ecolabel background reports, screening reports of the Product Environmental Footprint pilots and literature. The 16 impact categories of the Environmental Footprint 3.0 method were employed for the impact assessment.

CASTELLANI Valentina;  SANYE MENGUAL Esther;  SALA Serenella; 

2021-11-11

SPRINGER HEIDELBERG

JRC123691

0948-3349 (online),   

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11367-021-01987-x,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC123691,   

10.1007/s11367-021-01987-x (online),