PEF (Product Environmental Footprint) is the result of a study of all quantifiable environmental impacts over the full life cycle of a product, based on the general method to estimate and point out the potential environmental impact of a product along its entire life cycle. From the philosophical point of view of inspiration, it is an indicator that is really close to EDP and FDES.
PEF is defined by the European Commission according to the recommendation of the commission dated April 9, 2013, is respect to the use of shared methods to measure and state the environmental performance of products and of organizations of the entire life cycle (2013/179/UE).
It is founded on an analytical study, based on data collection deriving from indicators supplied by the producer, at the end of which it is possible to declare the real environmental performance of a product. The data supplied must be in compliance with the standards set by the European Commission: such data must take into consideration all inputs necessary for the analysis of the entire life cycle.
Once all the data has been gathered, a profile of use of the resources and emission is set, that is to say an inventory of all incoming and outgoing fluxes confined to the environmental footprint. It is then therefore possible to proceed with the estimate of the environmental impact: the environmental performance of the product is calculated based on the categories of impact and of the selected Environmental Footprint models.