Today, ANEC publishes a detailed critique of Life Cycle  Assessment (LCA) as a measure of environmental impacts: "Environmental assessment goes astray. A critique of environmental footprint methodology and its ingredients", and  calls on  the  European  Commission to re-think its approach to environmental assessment.

Consumers need a clear and unambiguous indication of a product with superior environmental performance. Present life-cycle indicators are difficult to assess even for experts, let alone the consumer. Moreover, such indicators are not related to consumer needs and hence are of little relevance. “Flooding consumers with such information may be a form of advertising, as in the case of questionable carbon footprint labels, but it has little to do with the provision of sound environmental advice that can assist consumers in their purchases”, said ANEC Secretary-General, Stephen Russell.

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