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Manutan's Product Environmental Impact Score
Manutan introduces an environmental impact score for informed purchases, analysing products' life cycles and engaging suppliers in eco-design.
What is our Environmental Impact Score?
Manutan has launched its own Product Environmental Impact Score to help you make an informed choice when making your purchases, thanks to a rating ranging from A to E. Our PEIS allows you to compare products within their categories based on their environmental impact. Making it easier for you to select the right product to meet your environmental needs.
The environmental impact score is based on the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) methodology developed by the European Commission, which is based on an analysis of the product's entire life cycle, from the extraction of raw materials through to its end-of-life, considering 16 environmental indicators including carbon footprint, resource use, water pollution, human toxicity, etc.
Through this approach, Manutan also wishes to engage its suppliers in an eco-design process.
Product Life Cycle
How Manutan measures a product's environmental impact?
Recognised categorical guidelines based on the entire product life cycle
Data provided by the supplier
Product weight, raw materials & associated weights, manufacturing origin
Default values
Manufacturing processing, packaging, energy consumption
Calculation of the product's environmental footprint including all impact indicators (From 12 to 16)
Impact factors from international databases
ABCDE grade
- Impact measurement is carried out in accordance with the PEF methodology adopted by the EU and adapted to each product category, as well as the associated international databases.
- This method is based on the principles of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), a rigorous scientific method for measuring environmental impacts, as defined by ISO 14040-44.
- A product's environmental footprint is measured by collecting two types of data: mandatory product data collected from suppliers (such as the product's material composition, weight, and manufacturing origin), and default data as defined in the standards for missing data.
Several consistency checks, as well as audits by an external firm on a sample of products, are carried out to ensure the reliability of the data transmitted by our suppliers and of the results.
The 16 environmental impacts of the PEF methodology
Climate change
Water scarcity
Land use
Acidification
Ozone depletion
Toxic to humans/non-carcinogenic health risk
Marine eutrophication
Freshwater ecotoxicity
Terrestrial eutrophication
Inorganic fine inorganic
Use of mineral resources
Use of energy resources
Eutrophication of fresh water
Human toxicity/
carcinogenicity
Ionizing radiation
Photochemical ozone formation
This approach makes it possible to calculate impacts on 16 environmental indicators, such as climate change (kgCO2e), resource depletion, fine particle emissions and impact on human health.
The data used to calculate the environmental impact of products are as follows:
- The primary data, collected from suppliers, are the raw materials and their associated weights (product composition) and the origin of manufacture.
- The default data are the processes used, the type of packaging, the energy consumption of the manufacturing process, transport, etc. These data are considered by the methodological guidelines to be those which contribute least to the environmental footprint of the products, or those which are least accessible to suppliers. These data are considered by the methodological repositories as those which contribute least to the environmental footprint of products, or those which are least accessible by suppliers. Default data can be modified by suppliers who wish to do so. From an environmental point of view, they are always weighted in such a way as not to give an advantage to a product for which data collection is less precise.
How does Manutan classify its products?
To classify the products, Manutan compares the PEF aggregate impact score according to the weighting defined by the PEF method (the aggregation of the 16 environmental indicators) of the product evaluated with all the aggregate impact scores of the products in its category*. Manutan then distributes the products according to the following breakdown, using a scale from A to E.
Breakdown of all products by category
The A classification represents products with the lowest environmental impact in the category, and the E classification represents products with the highest. A product's aggregate PEF score and ABCDE rating may change over time due to changes in its composition or design, or as a result of updates to methodological guidelines or international databases. In addition, the product's rating, established by comparison with other products in its category, may also change as the category evolves.
*The classification is made within a category of Manutan products meeting the same need, defined by the functional unit (for example, the functional unit of a chair is "to have a seat of at least 50 cm for 1 year").
As part of the project's deployment, our partner Glimpact assessed the environmental footprint of each product using the PEF methodology adopted by the European Commission and emission factors extracted from international databases:
For personal protective equipment: the Consortium's "Glimpact Xtex" standard, which complies with the European PEFCR Apparel & Footwear v1.3 standard and the associated CE database, "PEF LCDN EF2.0".
For office furniture: the "Product Category Rules (PCR) - Furnitures -Glimpact - V1" and the European (LCDN = Life Cycle Data Network) and EcoInvent databases.
Going further in our approach
The Product Environmental Impact Score (PEIS), based on the recognized PEF methodology that considers the entire product life cycle and environmental impacts, has been deployed for the first time on the office furniture category (cabinets, desks, chairs, and seats) as well as on a sample of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) products.
Manutan intends to gradually roll out this score to all its categories and is committed to continuous improvement in order to support its customers' and suppliers' Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Manutan follows and will comply with changes in regulations and the enrichment of databases and intends to base ABCDE ratings on market references as soon as they become available.
