British Sugar joins Carbon Trust PAS 2050 standard initiative

London - The Carbon Trust has named British Sugar among a new group of companies to trial a draft standard for assessing the lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of goods and services. The Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 2050 - a standard for assessing the lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of goods and services, currently being developed in partnership with Defra and BSI British Standards.

British Sugar's white sugar operation is among a thrid wave of partners to trial the draft PAS 2050 standard, said Peter Watson, head of growth at the company. "We are delighted to be involved in this initiative with the Carbon Trust. Our focus on reducing our energy usage has delivered significant results and we are keen to support the development of a common standard for carbon footprinting," he said. 

The Carbon Trust is now trialling the PAS 2050 with approximately 75 product ranges and 20 companies including existing partners Aggregate Industries, Boots, The Co-operative Group,  Cadbury Schweppes, Coca-Cola, Halifax, innocent, Kimberly-Clark, Scottish & Newcastle, Tesco and Walkers.

Included in this new wave of partners will be two SME pilots and three business-to-business pilots as well as a range that will further test the scalability of the PAS 2050. The information from the trials will be fed into the development of the standard to ensure that it is both scientifically rigorous and applicable for businesses across a wide range of industry sectors.

The other  third wave partners and products to trial the draft PAS 2050 standard are:

• Colors – South African fruit supplied to UK retailers
• Continental Clothing Company Ltd – EarthPositiveTM apparel
• Coors Brewers Ltd – Carling Lager
• Danone Waters UK Limited – Evian and Volvic Mineral Water
• Mey Selections – Mey Selections Luxury All Butter Shortbread, Mey Selections Heather Honey and Mey Selections Blossom Honey
• Morphy Richards – Covering a total of 12 Comfigrip, Turbo Steam and Precise Steam irons

Of these companies, Colors, Continental Clothing, Mey Selections and Morphy Richards will pilot the Carbon Trust’s carbon reduction label. New partner Continental Clothing is already testing the carbon reduction label to communicate the carbon footprints of its EarthPositiveTM apparel within its brochure, with the carbon footprint of a white men’s T-shirt, size large being 617g CO2. Halifax, has labelled its online Web Saver account with a carbon footprint of 204g CO2. These two companies join innocent, Boots and Walkers that have been trialling the label since early 2007.