The PAS 2050

The PAS 2050 is a publicly available specification for assessing product lifecycle GHG emissions.

Development

The PAS 2050 has been developed by BSI British Standards and co-sponsored by the Carbon Trust and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). PAS 2050 is an independent standard, developed with significant input from international stakeholders and experts across academia, business, government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) through two formal consultations and multiple technical working groups.

Testing

The assessment method has been tested with companies across a diverse set of product types, covering a wide range of sectors including:

• Goods and services
• Manufacturers, retailers and traders
• Business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C)
• UK and international supply chains.

How will the PAS 2050 help organisations?

• Supports understanding of key sources of emissions within a product lifecycle and highlights which organisations or actors are responsible for the largest share.
• Helps to identify emissions reduction opportunities and their relative importance in a product's lifecycle.
• Facilitates the evaluation of alternative product configurations, operational and sourcing options on the basis of their impact on product GHG emissions.
• Provides a benchmark for measuring and communicating emission reductions.
• Provides improved consistency for the measurement of products' GHG emissions, using a common, recognised and standardised approach.
• Supports corporate responsibility reporting.
• Helps researchers determine the degree of uncertainty of their footprint measurement.

How will the PAS 2050 help consumers?

• Provides confidence that the lifecycle GHG emissions being reported are based on a standardised, robust method.
• Provides greater understanding of how their purchasing decisions impact GHG emissions.

Download the BSI PAS 2050 »