How coordinated sectoral responses to environmental policy increase the availability of product life cycle data
Open accessAbstract
Purpose: Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and Product Carbon Footprints (PCFs) have a significant potential for contributing to consumption-based approaches to climate change. This paper provides an important building block towards a theoretical model of the factors accounting for variations in the availability of life cycle data across countries. It does so by positing a mechanism linking industry associations’ institutional role within environmental policy processes to the availability of product life data and by empirically validating it. Methods: Interviews, qualitative document analysis, web scraping, quantitative text analysis, set-theoretical causal reasoning, and process tracing. Results and discussion: Environmental policies that stipulate industry-government deliberations and assign a coordinating or mediating role to industry peak associations can stimulate the exchange of environmental information among industrial sectors. The policy instruments of determination of ‘best available techniques’ (BAT) towards standard setting, negotiated collective agreements and carbon pricing all contribute towards the institutionalisation of organised information exchange within industry. This lowers transaction costs for the monitoring, reporting and verification of sectoral environmental data and can thus be conducive to the creation of sectoral life cycle assessment data, with positive knock-on effects on the availability of firm- and product-specific LCA labels. Conclusions: Industry associations’ institutional role within environmental policy processes can partially explain cross-national variations in the availability of product life cycle inventories.
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EPDs have been adopted in particular by the basic materials sectors such as steel and cement, and are therefore very relevant in construction, including city/public procurement and some manufacturing.
“By contrast, EPDs have been adopted in particular by the basic materials sectors (63, 64) such as steel and cement, and are therefore very relevant, e.g., in construction, including city/public procurement and some manufacturing (e.g., vehicles).”
From Carbon Leakage, Consumption, and Trade (2022) · cites this paper as [64]
In Europe, a range of policies have created incentives for industry associations to engage in the collection and sharing of data on environmental performance.
“In terms of informational push, in Europe a range of policies have created incentives for industry associations to engage in the collection and sharing of data on environmental performance (64).”
From Carbon Leakage, Consumption, and Trade (2022) · cites this paper as [64]
The increasing adoption of Scope 3 emissions reporting leads to a stronger alignment between firm- and product-level reporting, as both draw on the same set of databases for default values.
“Nevertheless, the increasing adoption of Scope 3 emissions reporting leads to a stronger alignment between firm- and product-level reporting, as both draw on the same set of databases for default values (64).”
From Carbon Leakage, Consumption, and Trade (2022) · cites this paper as [64]
Business associations and individual companies have already developed information systems on product and corporate footprints before government policies required them.
“which details how business associations and individual companies have already developed information systems on product and corporate footprints, before any government policies have required those (60, 64).”
From Carbon Leakage, Consumption, and Trade (2022) · cites this paper as [64]
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References 39 · Cited by 11
- Authors
- Jordan, N. D.
- Affiliations
- University College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Jordan, Nino David
- ORCID
- Jordan, Nino David
- Venue
- The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
- Published
- 2021-02-09
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 692-706
- ISSN
- 0948-3349 (ISSN-L)
- 1614-7502
- OpenAlex
- W3127476686
- Cited by
- 11
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 0.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Environmental Sustainability in Business
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Climate Change Policy and Economics
- Keywords
- environmental product declarations, product carbon footprint, trade associations, environmental policy coordination, best available techniques, carbon pricing, collective agreements, environmental information exchange, cross-national variation, transaction costs
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