Consumption footprint – single weighted score

The consumption footprint is a set of 16 life cycle assessment (LCA)-based indicators to assess the environmental impacts of the EU and its Member States consumption by combining data on consumption intensity and environmental impacts of representative products. It is based on the combination of: (a) the emissions to air, soil and water as well as the resources used along the life cycle of around 165 representative products, belonging to 5 areas of consumption (food, mobility, housing, household goods, and appliances), (b) the consumption intensities of those products, which are calculated based on consumption statistics, and (c) the Environmental Footprint (EF) impact assessment method, which translates emissions and resource consumption into 16 potential environmental impacts that can be aggregated into a single score. The EF impact indicators can be compared with a set of thresholds that are based on the Planetary Boundaries framework. Thus the single weighted score measures the number of times that the planetary boundary is transgressed.