CIC energiGUNE participates as an expert in environmental standardisation for the battery industry
The International EPD System, the leading certification body for Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) and the development of Product Category Rules (PCR), has counted on the collaboration of CIC energiGUNE’s sustainability specialist Andrea Casas for the development of the new PCR for electrical and electronic equipment that can be applied in the battery industry.
The approved PCR will provide battery manufacturers with the basic guidelines to carry out the environmental assessment of the life cycle of their products, a field in which CIC energiGUNE is recognised as a reference agent worldwide.
CIC energiGUNE, a leading Basque research centre in electrochemical energy storage, thermal energy storage and conversion and hydrogen technologies, has collaborated with “The International EPD System” in the development of the new PCR (Product Category Rules) for electronic and electrical equipment promoted by this certifying entity, considered one of the most important in the world.
This PCR establishes the basic criteria to be considered by manufacturers of electronic and electrical equipment in order to carry out their Life Cycle Assessment: an increasingly strategic study for market agents that not only allows them to understand the environmental performance of their products, but also provides a guarantee to ensure compliance with the new regulations that are being approved in regions such as Europe.
“The approval of this PCR will allow progress in the development of EPDs for energy storage systems, which are expected to be key in meeting objectives such as those set out in the European ‘battery passport’ and, therefore, will set the guidelines for the EU industry in the near future,” said Andrea Casas, head of sustainability at CIC energiGUNE and Member of the European Battery Association (BEPA). “For several years CIC energiGUNE has been promoting and defending the importance of the use of Life Cycle Assessment as a strategic value for the sustainability of the industry, which is why we are proud to be part of the consulting team for this new PCR”.
The importance of PCRs comes from their link to Environmental Product Declarations (EPD). In this sense, a PCR is a base document that is part of the EPD “recipe book” and contains the basis for creating, from a Life Cycle Assessment perspective, a high quality EPD for the relevant product category (in this case, electronic and electrical equipment such as batteries).
With this, the different manufacturers will have a clear guide that will allow them to opt for the certification promoted by ‘The International EPD System’ itself, which accredits both the commitment of these companies with the measurement of the environmental impact of their products and services and with the transparency when reporting on these impacts.
