Standing up for sustainability
Climate change is a serious threat to Europe and the rest of the world. Moving towards a more sustainable future, the European Green Deal includes very ambitious goals. In the long term – zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, with a reference point in 2030 (EU 2030 goals), when emissions must be reduced by 55% compared to 1990 emissions.
All of us will be affected by these actions, but there are industries that will be more impacted by the changes, and some may have already experienced them today.
One of them is the transport sector. The European Commission places a lot of emphasis on the new car fleet to achieve the goal of zero greenhouse gas emissions directly from new cars by 2035. As for other vehicles, by 2030 cars must reduce their emissions by 55%, and vans by 50%. In addition, from 2026, all road transport will be subject to emission quota trading, setting a price for pollution, stimulating the use of cleaner fuel.
The use of more sustainable fuels will also apply in the aviation industry. Airplanes will not be able to leave EU airports unless they are refueled with sustainable fuel. ISCC CORSIA and ISCC CORSIA PLUS are one of the certification schemes recognized in the European Union, and also in the world, for the certification of sustainable aviation fuel, while for car biofuel, the certification is in accordance with the requirements of ISCC EU or ISCC Plus (depending on the scope of business). ISCC certification schemes are globally recognized and provide traceability throughout the supply chain from the farm to the final product. ISCC certification meets the requirements of RED II (Renewable energy directive).
Another sector that will receive special attention is the construction industry. Starting from increasing the energy efficiency of older buildings by warming houses, up to in-depth calculations on the evaluation of the impact of new buildings, building materials and services on the environment. As the prices of energy resources increase every year, more and more companies see the advantages of implementing the ISO 50001 system, it is a measurement-based certification scheme that allows for long-term savings and continuously evaluates opportunities to further optimize the consumption of energy resources. Environmental product declaration, or EPD is already required in the aforementioned environmental impact assessment, which is a calculation-based tool for providing sustainability compliance information. In order to prepare the EPD, a product life cycle assessment, also called LCA, must be performed, which is a systematic analysis of the impact of products or services on the environment during the entire product life cycle, starting with resource extraction and ending with waste management. From 2022, BM Certification offers its customers both product life cycle assessment (LCA) and Product EPD development and consulting.
In preparing the article, the following was used: https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal/delivering-european-green-deal_en