More Acronyms

Image Source: Patagonia

In a May 2022 blog post about 33 acronyms related to carbon management, one of the charts showed the upper right quadrant as reflecting voluntary activity indicative of corporate ambition to do things differently. For product manufacturing companies, doing things differently means designing for sustainability. The challenge is product sustainability is like solving a 3D puzzle involving doers, data, and diligence.

The doers necessary to create significant change often belong to various internal teams, each with its own strong views on operations. These doers collaborate with trusted peers across functions, work within their budgets to quickly validate ideas, and are supported by executive sponsors who navigate beyond competing agendas.

Image: 5 key doers roles in a product manufacturing company

A major hurdle is that these essential doers are scattered across product, governance, corporate reporting, sourcing, and IT teams. Their distribution makes it challenging to build a critical mass, as a unified base of knowledge and tools is essential. To address this, a single harmonized data source should be developed from multiple inputs. This unified data can then support product disclosures, eco-design, and corporate reporting. Implementing a common tool to facilitate continuous diligence is crucial. 

The acronyms that impact the various doers keep evolving and updating. Here are some of the latest acronyms related to product sustainability in some rough categories:

Regulations

• ESPR: Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation

• EPREL: European Product Registry for Energy Labelling

• NZIA: Net Zero Industry Act for EU energy resilience

• EPA MATS: Mercury and Air Toxic Standards (MATS) for power plant emissions including water pollution

• REACH: Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals

• RoHS: Restriction of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment

Incentives

• IRA: Inflation Reduction Act funding guidebook and tax credits 

• IRC Section 45X: Internal Revenue Code as part of the IRA fo Renewable Energy Tax Credit sections and calculation

• BIL and IIJA: Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Infrastructure Investment and Job Act by the Department of Transportation

Standards and Methodologies

• LCA: Life Cycle Assessment to measure the impact of products from initial material sourcing to disposal

• PCR: Product Category Rule set of guidelines that determine what data should be gathered and how it should evaluated when conducting a life cycle assessment; EPA example

• PPAP: Production Part Approval Process is an industry standard that outlines the process to demonstrate engineering design and product specifications are met by the supplier’s manufacturing process

Product Disclosures

• FMD: Full Material Declarations to assess compliance with environmental regulations and standards (e.g. REACH, RoHS), an example is the IPC and its standard IPC-1752A for electronics

• EPD: Environmental Product Declaration with ISO 14025; EPD Program Operators collect and verify EPDs:  EPD International, EPD North America, UL Solutions, and SmartEPD

• DPP: Digital Product Passports WBCSD

• PCF: Product Carbon Footprint; Amazon PCF partners

• PEF: Product Environmental Footprint to quantify the environmental impacts of products, goods or services related to organizations; European Commission proposed the PEF as a way of measuring environmental performance EU Commission Recommendation 2021/2279,  EU PEF Course.

• GWP: Global Warming Potential measures the heat absorbed by any greenhouse gas in the atmosphere and used to compare the effects of different gasses on warming the Earth over a specific period, typically 100 years

Corporate Disclosures

• MRV: Measurement Reporting Verification is a framework for reporting, as it relates to carbon credits more recently

• IFRS: International Financial Reporting Standards is a set of accounting standards for financial statements

• CBAM: Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism is a pricing and tax mechanism for carbon intensive goods entering the EU

• CSRD: Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive according to ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standards)

• CSDDD: Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive

• CA SB253: California Senate BIll 253 for corporate disclosures in particular Scope 123

• MACC: Marginal Abatement Cost Curves are graphical representations showing the cost and potential of various carbon emissions reduction measures to prioritize actions based on their cost-effectiveness. Used by various carbon accounting software including SINAI, Watershed, and Persefoni.