Freshfel Environmental Footprint Initiative

Projects

FreshProducePEFCR: 2nd public consultation (13 January – 10 February 2025)

The Technical Secretariat (TS) of the FreshProducePEFCR, which is developing technical rules for calculating the environmental footprint of fruits and vegetables as part of Freshfel´s Environmental Footprint Initiative, invites all sector representatives to provide their feedback on the second draft of the PEFCR document.

In light of EU environmental footprint accountability requirements as well as increasing transparency demands from the supply chain and consumers, there is a growing need for a standardized environmental footprint methodology for the fresh produce sector. Freshfel Europe and its members have embarked on the Environmental Footprint Initiative to develop together a fresh fruit and vegetable environmental footprint methodology (FreshProducePEFCR), database, and digital tool that are broadly accepted by the industry, stakeholders, and consumers. The objective of the Initiative, which is aligned with the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) methodology as recommended by the EU, is to enhance the sector’s sustainability and maintain its competitiveness.

The 1^st Public Consultation was open for 4 weeks in April 2024 and generated great interest among stakeholders, with 129 total comments (between general, editorial, and technical feedback) from 90 unique responses. The March 26 open webinar to promote the Consultation also gathered more than 130 registered participants. The increased visibility of the project to encourage the submission of responses secured a variety of feedback from the sector. The TS has carefully reviewed the input received and evaluated how the draft FreshProducePEFCR can improve from it, addressing the submissions of each respondent.

After processing the feedback from the 1^st Public Consultation, as well as having completed 2 case studies to test the implementation of the FreshProducePEFCR in practice, the TS would like to once again invite the sector to provide its feedback on the updated technical rules for calculating the environmental footprint of fruits and vegetables.

The developers of the PEFCR will open the 2^nd Public Consultation on 13 January 2025 for 4 weeks. With this Public Consultation, we ensure different perspectives are considered in the development process. We especially encourage sector experts and LCA experts with sound expertise in the fruit and vegetable sector to submit their feedback. To invite the submission of responses to the Consultation, we are organizing an open webinar on the same day.

Webinar: 13 January 2025 | 15:00-16:00 (CET)| FreshProducePEFCR: calculating the environmental footprint of fresh fruits and vegetables

Please register for this webinar at https://form.jotform.com/243312333740345. A link to the Zoom meeting will be sent ahead of the event.

The Technical Secretariat will provide to all interested stakeholders the links to download the documents and the Excel form to provide their feedback on the FreshProducePEFCR during the consultation period, which will be open from 13 January to 10 February 2025.