Beer Product Category Rule Earthsure 50202201:2012 20 December 2012

A Program of Institute for Environmental Research and Education PO Box 2449, Vashon WA 98070 iere.org/earthsure.aspx

Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

Table of Contents 1.

Identification of Product ....................................................................................................................... 1

2.

Administrative Details ........................................................................................................................... 1

3.

Background ........................................................................................................................................... 3

4.

Definitions ............................................................................................................................................. 3

5.

Acronyms .............................................................................................................................................. 4

6.

Standards Incorporated by Reference .................................................................................................. 4

7.

Inventory Analysis ................................................................................................................................. 5

8.

Life Cycle Impact Assessment ............................................................................................................. 11

9.

Sensitivity analyses ............................................................................................................................. 13

10.

Additional Information to be Disclosed .......................................................................................... 14

Appendix A Mockup of EPD ........................................................................................................................ 15 Website version ...................................................................................................................................... 15 Print version (top fold) ............................................................................................................................ 16 Appendix B: List of invited interested parties ............................................................................................. 16 Appendix C: Example data gathering spreadsheets ................................................................................... 19 Appendix E: Report of the PCR review committee and responses ............................................................. 25 References .................................................................................................................................................. 31

Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

1

Beer Product Category Rule 1. Identification of Product 1.1. UNSPSC Codes: 50202201 Beer 1.2. CPC Codes: 2431: Beer made from Malt 1.3. PCR Number Earthsure 50202201:2012 1.4. This PCR was developed in English 1.5. Date of Publication: 20 December 2012 1.6. Expiration Date: 19 December 2015 1.7. Date of review: 2.5 years from date of publication, or sooner if circumstances suggest earlier. 1.8. System Function: provision of craft brewed beer to the customer 1.9. Functional Unit: 12 ounces of beer consumed by the customeri 1.10. The scope of the PCR is Cradle to Grave. 1.11. The purpose of the PCR is to provide a detailed method for developing a business-tobusiness and business-to-consumer environmental product declaration to support comparable, informed, and objective sustainable purchasing. The PCR committee recognizes and appreciates the reviewers for their contribution towards making this document stronger and clearer in both technical and editorial senses.

2. Administrative Details 2.1. Program operator: Institute for Environmental Research and Education (IERE), Earthsure program. [email protected]; 206-463-7430; PO Box 2449, Vashon, WA 98070 USA 2.2. Names and affiliations of the PCR Review Committee Tom Gloria, Industrial Ecology Consultants, LCACP Salil Arora, independent, LCACP Tim Strecker, HP 2.3. Open Consultation period: September – December 2012 2.4. This product category rule (PCR) is based upon the International EPD system PCR for Beer made from malt (2012). It differs from that PCR in the following ways:  Its focus is primarily on craft beer, not large manufacturers.  Its geography is North America  It uses a US-based model for photochemical smog  It also discloses land occupation and ecotoxicity  Human waste from beer consumption is included in the system boundary Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

2 

It uses a cutoff rule for allocating spent brewer’s grains. This follows the Earthsure program guidelines. The sale of spent grain in North America is a very rare occurrence: instead spent grain is given away and thus it is not a co-product, but covered by a cutoff rule. This approach agrees with the EPD system “polluter pays” approach.  Because the vast majority of craft brewers are not able to identify the source of their ingredients (i.e. they buy components from distributors, not from the original source) the requirement for knowing 90% of the source of materials is dropped. Instead, the brewers provide their sources, most likely a distributor for their purchases. Secondary or tertiary data is required for upstream unit processes such as barley and hops production, malt production, and the like. This does not eliminate the requirement for the brewers to provide all relevant information about the processes they control.  It does not disclose percentage of renewable/non-renewable resources, relying on LCIA methods to report environmental distinctions. It does report the ingredients in the beer. 2.4 Data Quality Requirements 2.4.1 Age: No more than 10 years old, unless it can be verified by an industry expert to be unchanged. 2.4.2 Representativeness: Primary/secondary/tertiary data as color coded in the beer life cycle flow chart herein. Electric Grids must be based on the most local basis possible on a life cycle (portfolio) basis, i.e. local > regional > National and in no case may a greater than national average electric grid may be employed in the analysis. 2.4.3 Geography: Data is preferred to be geographically relevant. Where local data is not available, alternative source data can be used, modified to use the local energy mix. OECD sourced data so modified is acceptable for processes in other OECD countries. 2.4.4 Precision: No more than two significant figures may be reported on any output. 2.4.5 Units: SI units must be used for reporting results. 2.4.6 Cutoff Rules: at least 95% of all mass and energy inputs must be included in the analysis. No flow represented more than 1% of the mass or energy of inputs may be excluded. All known toxic materials must be included in the inventory. 2.4.7 Completeness: The entire life cycle must be included from raw material extraction through consumption and human waste disposal. 2.4.8 Data sources: besides primary data for the brewing operations, appropriate data sources include the federal LCA data commons, USDA National Agriculture Statistics Service, the U.S. Life Cycle Inventory Database and the Ecoinvent database. 2.4.9 Uncertainty: must be evaluated through sensitivity analysis as notes elsewhere in this document. Validity of any EPDs will be until the expiration date of the PCR, but any EPD must be updated in the case of substantial reformulation of the product. Substantial reformulation means any change affecting 10% of the mass of the product formulation or causing a 10% change in any impact category result. They may be based on individual batches, and thus the issue of currency of the EPD should not arise.

Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

3 Beer production has been studied by several organizations, and this PCR draws on the many of them. For example, Kloverpris et al (2009)ii, Saxe (2010)iii and the Climate Conservancy (2008)iv. We were not able to find studies that employed primary data on hops growing. Instead all studies utilized proxy data for hops.

3. Background 3.1. This PCR is developed in conformity with ISO 14040:2006v, 14044:2006vi, 14025:2006vii and IERE’s Earthsure Programviii. It is also in conformity with the international EPD system, except where noted. 3.2. The PCR Development was funded by a group of Craft Beer producers, including American Brewing Co., Fort George Brewery, Harmon Brewing Company, Hop Works Brewery, The RAM, Vashon Brewery, and by the City of Tacoma Sustainability Program. 3.3. Outreach was by phone and email, list of individuals contacted seen in Appendix A Members of the PCR committee included: Cliff Goodman Bill Smith Bruce Kehe Carole Holder Jack Harris Jeff Iverson Pat Nagle Paul Firth Loretta Tam Rita Schenck

Vashon Brewery City of Tacoma Hopworks Brewery Harmon Brewery Fort George Brewery The RAM The Harmon Brewery UL Environment UL Environment IERE (chair)

4. Definitions 4.1. AP 42: Air Pollution 42: a program of the U.S EPA for estimating air pollution emissions from industrial processes 4.2. CAS Number numerical identifier of chemicals provided by the Chemical Abstracts Service. 4.3. Competent Authority: an individual with a higher degree on the topic or at least five years experience in the relevant industry. 4.4. Consumptive Water Use: water removed from available supplies without return to a water resources system, e.g. water used in manufacturing, agriculture, and food preparation. 4.5. Ecosphere flows: raw materials taken from nature or returned to nature. 4.6. Foreground Data: data in processes under the direct control of the EPD owner. 4.7. Primary Data: raw data collected by the individuals in question, e.g., electricity invoices, stack test results, monthly monitoring data, etc.

Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

4 4.8. Secondary Data: aggregated or modified data from a reputable source, e.g. descriptions of the local electric grid derived from the local utility, published peer reviewed articles, etc. 4.9. Semivolatiles: organic compounds typically having boiling points above 150 degrees Centigrade, and vapor pressures below 0.01 mm mercury. 4.10. Technosphere flows: all modified products and services. Technosphere flows are always accompanied by a financial exchange. 4.11. Tertiary data: data aggregated from many sources, e.g. in commercial LCI databases. 4.12. Unit Process: the lowest level at which life cycle inventory data is available. 4.13. First Tier Supplier: company selling product to the company seeking the EPD. 4.14. Foreground Data: data from processes under operational control of the EPD owner. 4.15. EPD Owner: the organization developing the EPD, usually the manufacturer 4.16. Background Data: data from processes not under operational control of the EPD Owner.

5. Acronyms 5.1. 5.2. 5.3. 5.4.

ASTM: American Society for Testing and Materials BOD: Biological Oxygen Demand COD: Chemical Oxygen Demand CTUe: Ecotoxicity score, the potentially affected fraction of species integrated over time and volume per unit mass of a chemical emitted 5.5. EPA: Environmental Protection Agency 5.6. EPD: Environmental Product Declaration 5.7. ISO: international Association for Standardization 5.8. LCACP: Life Cycle Assessment Certified Professional 5.9. LCA: Life Cycle Assessment 5.10. LCI: Life Cycle Inventory 5.11. LCIA: Life Cycle Impact Assessment 5.12. PM: Particulate matter (air) 5.13. PCR: Product Category Rule 5.14. TSS: Total suspended solids (water) 5.15. USGS: United States Geological Service 5.16. VOCs: Volatile Organic Compounds

6. Standards Incorporated by Reference 6.1. ISO 14040: Environmental management — Life cycle assessment — Principles and framework 6.2. ISO 14044: Environmental management — Life cycle assessment — Requirements and guidelines 6.3. ISO 14025: Environmental labels and declarations —Type III environmental declarations — Principles and procedures

Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

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7. Inventory Analysis The life cycle inventory is the input and output data collected at the unit process level. Combining the unit process data provides the entire life cycle inventory of the product system. The data is used to calculate the Life Cycle Impact Assessment and ultimately the Environmental Product Declaration. 7.1. This life cycle inventory covers all the stages of the life cycle from raw material extraction through the use phase. In the Earthsure system, waste treatment is modeled as an additional unit process rather than a life cycle stage. 7.2. The system boundary of the LCA study is illustrated in Figure 1. It excludes the production and disposal of capital equipment, but includes the operation of the equipment, with the exception that farm equipment (tractor) manufacture is included in the assessment. The personnel impacts (travel to/from work; lunchroom operations and sanitary water treatment) are excluded. The office operations are excluded. Where it is impossible to exclude office and personnel impacts (due to lack of sub-metering or measurement), these operations may be included, but this inclusion must be noted in the study. In accordance with the strict attributional approach, materials sent to recycling are excluded, but any recycled materials used must be burdened by the impacts of the recycling. Figure 1 Beer Flow Chart

Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

6

ystem oun ary Employee Commuting

pstream Pro uction Extraction of Natural Resources

Pro uction rewhouse perations

se Phase

Barware Manufacture

Transport

Capital Goods Manufacture

Grain Crushing

Storage

Materials Recycled

Mash & Sparge

Dispensing

Boil

Waste Beer

Yeast Production

Chill/Filter

Packaging Disposal

Packaging Manufacture

Ferment

Packaging Reuse

Delivery to Brewery

Package

Natural Gas

Storage

Farming Chemical Production Malting

Electricity

Water

Cleaning

Brewhouse & Human Wastewater Treatment Spent Grains

ey Primary Data Secondary Data Tertiary Data

7.3. The unit processes in the model include: 7.3.1.Extraction of Natural Resources: This unit process includes raw material extraction, beneficiation, and intermediate transportation to manufacturing locations for fertilizers and other farm chemicals. It ends at the gate of the distributor. 7.3.2.Farming: This unit process includes growing barley and hops and any other ingredient in the beer. It includes transportation of chemicals and seed to the farm and application of fertilizers and pesticides, and any emissions on the farm (e.g. N2O emissions from nitrogen fertilizer) and ends at the farm gate. Pesticides are modeled as releases to the soil. The production of seed is calculated by reducing the yield by the amount of seed planted. Irrigation equipment is excluded from analysis as being part of the farm capital equipment. As an exception, the impact of the production of tractors is included in the analysis. Hops trellises are included as an input to the on-farm processes and their impacts are allocated based on a straight-line annualized depreciation method (i.e., if the trellis lasts three years, one-third of the impact is allocated to each of three years of hops production).

Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

7 Packaging of farm inputs are expected to be much less than one percent of the mass of the farm product (outputs) and are not included in this analysis. The solar energy input into the process (for photosynthesis) is included in the analysis based on the land occupation reporting. Hopsix and barleyx growing areas of North America are in a fairly narrow latitude range near the 48th parallel, and thus the insolation varies little. http://www.nass.usda.gov/Charts_and_Maps/Crops_County/images/BR-PR11RGBChor.gif Craft beers often have additional materials, e.g. pumpkin ales, or chocolate or coffee in stouts. These tend to be a small portion of the total dry weight of the beer production. Where data on the particular crops are available, they must be used. Where they are not available, an average or substitute crop unit process shall be used for the production of the ingredient. A sensitivity analysis must be performed on the substitution, using a doubling and halving of the substitute processes. 7.3.3.Chemical Production. This unit process includes the manufacture and distribution of fertilizers and pesticides, the manufacture and distribution of cleaning chemicals and other ancillary materials needed for beer production. 7.3.4.Packaging Manufacture: this unit process includes the raw material extraction and beneficiation, production of packaging materials, forming of the packaging and intermediate transport, ending at the gate of the container manufacturer. Bottles, cans, barrels and kegs are all potential packaging options for beer. Secondary packaging such as six-pack containers, corrugated boxes for cases, and pallets, and ancillary packaging for materials used in the brewery are included. 7.3.5.Malting: this unit process includes all the inputs: barley, energy and water used to sprout, roast and package the malt. It includes the extraction of the malt (if this occurs separately from the brewing process). The output is the packaged malt or malt extract. Waste management due to the malting process is included. 7.3.6.Natural Gas: This unit process begins at the extraction of natural gas ends at delivery at the gate of the downstream unit process. 7.3.7.Electricity: This unit process includes all the fuel extraction and transport, manufacturing of renewable energy equipment, maintenance of power systems and transmission and distribution impacts. It ends at the delivery to the consumer. Where available, the actual portfolio of energy sources is used. If not available, the lowest geographic level electric grid information available must be used, and in no case should a higher than national level grid be used. 7.3.8.Water: This unit process includes the extraction, treatment and delivery of water to the point of use. All energy and chemical use and air water and soil emissions are included. The manufacture and installation of capital such as pipes and pumps is not included. Irrigation water that is distributed by gravity with no treatment is assumed to have no input inventory except water (i.e. no chemical or energy inputs).

Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

8 7.3.9.Delivery to brewery. This unit process includes the transport to the brewery from the distributor. Where a product is procured directly from the producer, this unit process must be adjusted to not double-count the transport impact. 7.3.10. Production & Brewhouse Operations: These unit processes are the core unit processes per the International EPD system. They may be modeled as a single unit process (the entire facility energy and water and materials use and waste and beer production) or may be modeled at each unit process, e.g. the storage, cleaning, packaging and each process step, if the information about the energy and materials use and waste production are known or can be estimated at each step. When energy and water use are metered at a single process step, that data must be used in the calculation of the Life cycle inventory. When only the rating of the individual pieces of equipment are known, the brewer must estimate the time of use of the equipment, and that number is multiplied by the rating of the equipment. This unit process includes the production of the beer, the storage of beer and ingredients, cleaning of equipment, and the packaging of the beer. All information about the brewing use of energy and materials must be based on primary information from the actual brewing location. Where natural gas is used, it is modeled as being combusted in an industrial boiler. Spent brewers grains are either considered as a waste product (when sent to landfill) or as a recycled product (when either given away or sold). No distinction is made whether the spent grain is sold or given away because even when sold the financial benefit is very small (less than 1% of beer value). 7.3.11. Use Phase: These unit processes includes all mediums of transport and all storage from the brewery to the point of sale, and storage at the consumer’s location, either at home or at a public location, and includes washing of glasses, hands and human waste treatment. 7.3.12. Transportation includes transport and distribution of the beer to the consumer. It does not include the transport from the home to the purchase location, because this transportation is not well understood and presents special allocation issues since one rarely purchases beer without purchasing other products. The transportation model will ideally be based on actual information on fuel consumption and mode of transport. Where the transport is via common carrier, the following assumptions will be made: 7.3.12.1. All rail is assumed to have no empty haul-back. It is diesel powered. 7.3.12.2. Road transport is via diesel powered 20-ton tractor-trailers, with empty haulback 50% of the time. 7.3.12.3. Ocean transport has no empty haul-back. It is diesel powered using bunker oil. 7.3.13. Storage includes refrigerated storage at the distributor and at the pub and refrigeration at the home. All energy and refrigerant uses and emissions are included.

Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

9 7.3.14. Spent grains are those that are not recycled, e.g. as animal feed. They are either incinerated or landfilled. 7.4. With the exception of energy producing processes, where unit operations have more than one product, the impact of the operations, including waste disposal is allocated according to the mass of the product. Where the mass of the product is not known, another unit may be used, but it must be converted to mass, and a sensitivity analysis performed on the potential range of the conversion. In the case of energy producing operations, the impacts are allocated according to energy production, on a useful energy equivalent basis. 7.5. Any wastes that are recycled (including those used for energy recovery) leave the system boundary, and are analyzed no further because they now belong to the next product life cycle. When recycled materials are included in the product, they are considered raw materials, and the impact of their recycling is calculated from the point of discard, either at the discarding facility or at the waste management center. This approach represents s strict sustainability approach, where the environmental costs belong to the company receiving economic benefits (the use of the material) and where no impact is double counted nor ignored 7.6. Where waste disposal methods are known, they must be modeled for waste disposal. Where they are not known, the most recent waste inventory data from the U.S. EPA Office of Solid Waste or equivalent for the host country must be used. 7.7. No credit for bio-based greenhouse gases within the beer life cycle may be employed. No carbon offset or storage credits from outside the beer life cycle may be included in the calculation However, sequestration of carbon into bio-based materials may be accounted for during raw material unit processes, which must include all the emissions created during growing, harvesting and transporting the biomass. Carbon removal from the atmosphere must be calculated as CO2 uptake into the useful portion of the plant, not as net primary productivity. The same carbon is assumed to be released in the downstream unit processes, e.g. brewing, water treatment unit process of the use phase and treatment/use of spent grains. 7.8. At least 95% of all mass and energy used in the system must be accounted for. No single flow that represents more than 1% of the total mass or energy flow may be excluded. All known toxic materials must be accounted for. At a minimum, all U.S. EPA Toxics Release Inventory Chemicals, or the equivalent for the host country must be evaluated. 7.9. At a minimum, the following ecosphere flows must be evaluated in the inventory, divided into releases to or removals from air, water and soil. If there is no flow, zeros should be noted. All Ecosphere inputs must be in units of in-nature amounts, e.g. nickel (in ground). 7.9.1.All greenhouse gases identified in the most recent IPCC technical report; 7.9.2.All fixed nitrogen; all phosphorus; 7.9.3.Categorical groups such as PM, TSS, VOCs, BOD and COD; 7.9.4.All substances on the US EPA Toxics Release Inventory or country equivalent; 7.9.5.All endocrine disrupters identified in the EU Annex 9 listxi; 7.9.6.All water withdrawal and release; 7.9.7.All minerals tracked by the U.S. Geological service in the Minerals Yearbook; 7.9.8.All removals of atmospheric components (O2, N2. etc.); 7.9.9.All fossil fuels extracted; Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

10 7.10. Land occupation (in units of area-years) 7.11. The entire inventory must be made available to the reviewer. 7.12. All foreground technosphere data must be primary data, collected either for a single batch or over 12 months of operation. The month and year the data was gathered must be disclosed in the EPD. 7.13. The electric grid for foreground operations should represent the local electric grid (as supplied by the local electric utility). Where unit operations are background data, or where the local utility will not provide the data, they should represent the most appropriate regional or national electric grid data as published by the U.S. LCI Database, the Federal LCA Data Commons, the EU Database (ELCD) or other relevant national database. Where EU datasets are used, they must be modified for the relevant US electric grid. 7.14. Where the unit process is powered by renewable resources, e.g. wind or solar power, and no electricity leaves the facility (i.e. the system is not grid-linked), renewable electricity produced from wind or solar may be accounted for in the system. This approach avoids double counting of renewable energy (i.e. by the portfolio of the grid and by the power generator). 7.15. All data must be reported in SI (metric) units. Mass inventory must be reported in kilograms and energy data in either kilowatt hour (kWh) or megajoules (MJ). 7.16. The life cycle inventory must include information about the age of the data. All foreground data must be no more than two years old. All technosphere flows must be accompanied by the appropriate UNSPSC code. All Ecosphere flows must be accompanied by a CAS Number. 7.17. Where tertiary data is used, the most relevant data shall be used, in the following order of preference, from most to least desired: same locality> global> other locality. Where properly reviewed U.S. LCI database sets or Federal LCA Digital Commons or EU ILCD or other national or regional datasets are available, they should be used for national data. 7.18. No data more than 10 years old may be used, unless it is affirmed by a competent authority that the processes they describe have not substantively changed. 7.19. Wherever possible, primary data should be calculated providing the mean, standard deviation and statistical distribution of the data. This data will support analysis of reproducibility and uncertainty of the data. Where these analyses are not possible, it will be assumed that the data are log-normally distributed with a relative standard deviation of 100%. 7.20. A flow chart showing the system boundaries and noting which data is primary, secondary or tertiary data must be included in the LCA study. 7.21. The unit process based Life cycle inventory must describe each of the unit processes as described above and as called out in ISO 14040 and 14044. 7.22. The inventory must disclose the percent of technosphere flow inventory that that are primary data, based on the number of technosphere flows. 7.23. All emissions factors used must be identified as primary (developed for the local unit process, or based on biological, chemical or physical constants such as stoichiometric equivalents), secondary (derived from studies of equivalent processes) or tertiary (derived from the aggregation of multiple similar processes).

Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

11

8. Life Cycle Impact Assessment The impact assessment for methodology is based on expected impacts from the production, distribution and use of beer. 8.1. Climate change is the result of the anthropogenic addition of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. These gases trap heat in the atmosphere, leading to a wide diversity of effects, including sea level rise and acidification, extreme weather events such as hurricanes and tornadoes and droughts and floods, Greenhouse gases are released through combustion and through and ultimately effects such as crop failure and increased incidence of disease leading to human mortality and losses of species and ecosystems. The majority of greenhouse gases are derived from combustion, and all products include combustion in their value chains, even if only for the purpose of transportation. The midpoint indicator of climate change is the CO2 equivalents is a measure of infrared radiative forcing, using the most common and important (in terms of fraction of the greenhouse effect) gas, CO2. The lifetime of CO2 in the atmosphere is very variable, but a weighted average is near 100 years, and thus the 100 year time horizon is used for the analysis. The characterization factors are erive from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s most recent 100-year horizon global warming potentialsxii. In addition to CO2, N2O, and CH4 are major drivers of climate change. Minor drivers of climate change include many refrigerants and some industrial chemicals. All of them must be accounted for in estimating the climate change impact. 8.2. Stratospheric Ozone Depletion is the reduction of ozone in the upper atmosphere, caused by the release of anthropogenic substances such as freons and other halogenated substances. Reducing upper atmosphere ozone (causing ozone holes at the poles) allows ultraviolet radiation to reach the surface of the planet, and this causes many human health and environmental effects such as genetic mutations, skin cancer and cataracts. Freons are used in refrigeration systems and are essential for the cooling and storage of beer. This impact is measured in units of mass of CFC-11 equivalents, using the most recent factors provided by the Montreal Protocol. 8.3. Acidification causes the destruction of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems through the wet and dry deposition of strong acids and ammonia. The acidification of soils mobilizes the aluminum in the soils and this has direct toxic effects on fish and other species, as well as an indirect effect through inhibition of uptake of potassium by plants, leading to loss of forest ecosystems. Acidification also affects the built environment, causing the slow dissolution of buildings. We have chosen the stoichiometric gram equivalents of hydrogen ion for emissions of oxides of sulfur and nitrogen, ammonia, HCL, HF, H2SO4, H3PO4 as measured in the TRACIxiii method.

Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

12 8.4. Eutrophication is the overgrowth of biomass caused by the anthropogenic release of nutrients, particularly fixed nitrogen and phosphorus. Eutrophied water bodies show early effects in terms of species distribution and toxic algal blooms, and ultimately as algae decompose eutrophication causes oxygen depletion leading to fish kills. Large portions of the worl ’s water bodies are subject to eutrophication seasonally. Most causes of excess nutrient releases are agriculture, human and animal wastes, and combustion processes. Beer and all food products contribute to eutrophication. In the 1930’s A.C. Re fiel iscovere that the ratio of carbon to nitrogen to phosphorus uptake into marine ecosytems was constant (C:N:P = 106:16:1, on an atom basis) and subsequently this ratio was confirmed to be the same in freshwater systems. The Redfield ratio is the basis of all life cycle impact models. Report the phosphorus mass equivalents of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus compounds released, using the Redfield Ratio. We will measure the Eutrophication potential using in mass of nitrogen equivalents using the US EPA TRACI modelxiv. 8.5. Ecotoxicity represent direct effects of releases of toxic materials organisms. It is anticipated that toxic materials will be emitted during the production and application of pesticides and fertilizers and during the transportation of ingredients, packaging and beer in packaging. These shall be evaluated using the Usetoxxv , latest version, as expressed in the TRACI model. 8.6. Photochemical smog is produced when oxides of nitrogen and volatile organic substances are present in the atmosphere in the presence of sunlight. Ozone is formed, and this form of oxygen causes many direct effects, reducing crop yields, asthma and other respiratory effects in humans and animals. The production of ozone has been shown to be more related to the existence of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) than to the release of volatile organic substances. All combustion processes in the beer life cycle chain are potential sources of photochemical smog. Measurement of smog shall use the most recent U.S. EPA TRACI method, expressed in mass of ozone equivalents. 8.7. Water is an important component of beer and water is used in agriculture and in cleaning processes. There is currently no consensus on how to measure water resource depletion, so at this time, consumptive freshwater use shall be the indicator. Consumptive water use includes all the use of freshwater resources where the water is not replaced into the same watershed. For example, irrigation water is transpired as water vapor and leaves the watershed.. 8.8. Land use is an important impact of all food products. Land that is not used for producing food or fiber or wood can presumably be used for wildlife and native ecosystems. There are no good models available for life cycle impacts of land use in North America, so as a default IERE simply reports the impact in units of land occupation- m2-years. Only the land use for crop and wood/fiber production will be reported, because the other sources of land use (transport, manufacture, storage and use) are anticipated not to be significant sources of land use. Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

13 According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) about 40% of the land surface of the globe is used for food production, about 30% is in actively harvested forests. The remainder of the land surface is either paved (1 to 3 percent) or represents permanent ice or desert.

Figure 2 Life Cycle Impact Assessment Models

Impact Category Climate Change

Category Indicator Mass of CO2 Equivalents

Stratospheric Ozone Depletion Acidification Eutrophication Ecological toxicity Photochemical Smog Water Use

Mass of CFC-11 equivalents Mass H+ Equivalents Mass N equivalents CTUe Mass O3 equivalents Volume of fresh water consumed Land occupied in m2yr

Land Use

Model Source (in TRACI) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changexvi, most recent publication Montreal Protocolxvii Stoichiometric equivalents Redfield Ratioxviii,xix Use-tox TRACI Inventory Inventory

8.9. Impact categories not considered Human respiratory effects are caused by particulate matter, mostly derived from combustion processes. We consider that combustion processes are addressed through the measurement of photochemical smog and climate change impacts. Fossil fuel depletion is not measured here because the climate change impact category is largely driven by fossil fuel consumption. Human toxicity is not addressed because toxicity is covered by ecotoxicity and because the existing models were considered to be too poor quality to provide reliable results. Mineral resource depletion is not considered because there is relatively little mineral resource used in the production of beer. This is especially the case here where the manufacture of equipment is specifically excluded from analysis—this is where the majority of mineral resources might be used in the life cycle. Soil loss is not included because data is not available for the commodities used to make beer. We recognize that this is an important environmental impact of beer production and aspire to include it in future versions of this PCR, based on development of data to cover this impact.

9. Sensitivity analyses Sensitivity analyses must be performed on the following assumptions: Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

14 9.1. Any allocation that could not be performed directly using mass or energy data. 9.2. Use of average crop data where data on specific ingredients are not available.

10.

Additional Information to be Disclosed

10.1. The components of the beer that represent at least 95% of the dry weight, listed in declining mass order;

11.

Format of the EPD

An example of the format is shown in Appendix A, and the EPDs should be substantively similar to the example. 11.1. The format of the EPD shall be as follows: 11.1.1. The name of the product, with any numerical or date identifier 11.1.2. A photograph of the product either in the container (for single serving product) or use (in the glass) for bulk shipments (e.g. kegs). 11.1.3. The name of the producer of the product 11.1.4. The name of the PCR and the Program Operator 11.1.5. The date of expiry of the EPD (unless the label is for certain dates of production) 11.1.6. The table of the impact indicator results 11.1.7. List of contents for at least 95% of dry weight 11.1.8. Validation by third party LCACP that the EPD conforms with this PCR. 11.1.9. Contact information for the validator.

Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

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Appendix A Mockup of EPD Website version

Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

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Print version (top fold)

Appendix B: List of invited interested parties Alaskan Brewing, Juneau, AK

Amcor

Aloha Brewers Guild

American rewer’s Guil

Aluminum Association

American Iron and Steel Institute

American Malting Barley Association Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

17 American Society for Brewing Chemists

Glass Packaging Institute

Anchor Glass Container

Graham Packaging Company

Arizona Brewers Guild

Great Lakes Brewing Co, Cleveland, OH

Arizona Craft Brewers Guild

Great Western Malting Co.

Arkansas Brewers Association Ball Corporation

Bayern Brewing, Missoula, MT Beer Institute BeerServesAmerica.org Borderlands Brewing, Tucson, AZ Boulevard Brewing Co, Kansas City, MO Brewers Association of Maryland Brewers Guild of Alaska Brewers of Indiana Guild (BIG) California Small Brewers Association Can Manufacturers Institute

Hop Union Hops Direct

Hopworks, Portland, OR Illinois Craft Brewers Guild Institute of Barley and Malt Sciences International Stainless Steel Forum

Iowa Brewers Guild Kansas City Brewers Guild Maine Brewers Guild Massachusetts Brewers Guild Master Brewers Association of the Americas Maui Brewing Co, Lahaina, Maui, HI Michigan Brewers Guild

Carl Nolen Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild Colorado Brewers Guild Montana State Brewers Association Craft Brewers Association of Texas Crown Holdings, Inc.

National Association for PET Container Resources

Diamond Bear Brewing Co

National Barley Growers Association

DuPont

National Beer Wholesalers Association

Florida Brewers Guild

Nebraska Craft Brewers Association

G.S. Long Co., Inc.

New Belgium Brewing Co, Fort Collins, CO

Garden State Craft Brewers Guild

New Hampshire Craft Brewers Association

Georgia Brewers Guild

New Mexico Association of Small Brewers

Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

18 New York State Craft Brewers Guild

Spokane Industries

North Dakota Barley Council

Super Monte Group

Northern California Brewers Guild

Sustainable Packaging Institute

Oregon Brewers Guild Paperboard Packaging Council

Pennsylvania Microbrewers Guild Plastic Kegs of America

The Brewers Association TigerPress U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Taxes Bureau

U.S. Hop Growers Association

Plastipak Holdings Inc.

USA Associations

Praxair

Vermont Brewers Association

Recycled Paperboard Alliance

Virginia Brewers Guild

Rexam

Walker Engineered Products

San Diego Brewers Guild

Washington Brewers Guild

San Diego Brewers Guild

Washington Grain Alliance

San Francisco Brewers Guild

Washington Hop Commission

San Francisco Brewers Guild

Washington State University

Schaefer Kegs

Wisconsin Brewers Guild

South Carolina Brewers Association

Yakima Chief

Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

19

Appendix C: Example data gathering spreadsheets SITE INFORMATION Completed By Date Brewery Name Location Zipcode Electricity Provider Natural Gas Provider Water Provider Beer Product Name

INGREDIENTS

Product Name

Type/Specification s

Malt (1) Malt (2) Hops (1) Hops (2) Yeast Other - (1) e.g. spices, fruits, vegetables Other - (2) Other - (3) Other - (4) Other - (5)

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Organic (Y/N)

Quantit y

Unit s

Company Name

Locatio n

Road Transportation Distance Truck Travelled Capacity

Actual Load

Empty Return

20

AUXILIARY MATERIALS Road Transportation

Produ ct Name

Type/Spe cifications

CO2 Other - (1) e.g. filters, salts, etc. Other - (2) Other - (3) Other - (4) Other - (5)

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Orga nic (Y/N)

Quan tity

Units

C o m p a n y N a m e

Locat ion

Distance Travelled

Truck Capac ity

Actual Load

Empty Return

21 PACKAGING MATERIALS Road Transportation

Product Name

Type/ Specification s

Quantity

Units

Lifetim e/Num ber Times Used

Kegs Growlers Bottles

NA

Cans

NA

Paper

NA

Cardboard

NA

Paperboard

NA

Plastic

NA

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Compa ny Name

Locati on

Distance Travelled

Truck Capaci ty

Actua l Load

Empty Return

22

OTHER MATERIALS Road Transportation C o m p a n y

Product Name

Cleaning Materials (1) Cleaning Materials (2) Cleaning Materials (3) Cleaning Materials (4) Cleaning Materials (5)

Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

Type/Specifications

Quantit y

Units

N a m Loca e tion

Distanc e Travelle d

Truck Capac ity

Actu al Load

Empt y Retur n

23

OPERATIONS

Unit Process

Grinding Mashing Sparging Boiling Chilling Ferment Kegging Carbonation Chilled Storage Cleaning

Material Inputs

Material Outputs

malt ground malt, water

ground malt

free wort, water sweet wort, water, hops boiled wort, water chilled wort, yeast, fermented beer, keg

sweet wort

kegged beer, CO2 carbonated kegged beer cleaning materials,water

Electric ity

Natu ral Gas

Voltage

K i l o w a t t Qua s ntity

Amperage

boiled wort chilled wort, heated wastewater fermented beer, trube

NA

kegged beer

NA

carbonated kegged beer

NA

cold carbonated kegged beer

NA

wastewater

Electricity

End Reading Difference

Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

Quant ity

free wort, spent grains

BILL/METER READINGS

Start Reading

Units

NA

Z

Quantity

Interval

Water Used

Units

Natural Gas Quantit y Units

Unit s

24

Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

25

Appendix E: Report of the PCR review committee and responses

1

Section 2.4

GE

2

Section 10

GE

3

Section 3

4

Section 1

5

Section 2.4

GE

SL

Page 2, Para1

SL

Section 1.9 Section 1.10 Section 7

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Requirements of ISO 14025, Section 6.7.1 Developing the contents of a PCR document 14025 §6.7.1 General Requirements Identification of effort undertaken to achieve harmonization with existing PCR documents, the outcome, and explanations for not using readily available PCR, if applicable;

Requirement met.

Reference to relevant life cycle assessment(s) and other studies identifying additional environmental information to be included;

Provide references to LCA studies or other studies identifying additional information to be included.

PCR document developed using a consultative process including the involvement of interested parties;

Requirement met.

ISO 14025 §6.7.1 Specific Level Requirements Product category definition and description (e.g. function, technical performance and use); Goal and scope definition for the LCA of the product have been defined according to the ISO 14040 series, including: functional unit, system boundary, description of data, criteria for the inclusion of inputs and outputs, data quality requirements including

For example, a carbon footprint study from one of the interested parties: http://www.newbelgium.com/Files/the-carbon-footprint-of-fat-tire-amber-ale2008-public-dist-rfs.pdf

References to several Beer LCA studies have been added

Requirement met.

Brewer’s grain is considered a waste product, even though some companies may be able to sell them in the marketplace (as stated in PCR, it is a rare occurrence). Therefore, authors should include an option to treat brewer grains as a co-product. Provide data quality requirements.

See Section 7.3 Spent brewers grains are either considered as a waste product (when sent to landfill) or as a recycled product (when either given away or sold). No distinction is made whether the spent grain is sold or given

26 away because even when sold the financial benefit is very small (less than 1% of beer value).

coverage, precision, completeness, representativeness, consistency, reproducibility, sources and uncertainty, and units;

6

Section 7.5, 7.7, 7.8, 7.10.5, 7.10.7

Page 7 & 8

SL

Inventory analysis of the product has been defined, including: data collection, calculation procedures, and allocation of material and energy flows and releases;

Data Quality Requirements are provided in the Earthsure Program Instructions. They have also been added to the PCR.

Page 7, Section 7.5: Clarify the statement that recycled materials are excluded from system boundary, in order to avoid double counting of credits if those materials are used in craft beer production. However, if the recycled materials are used elsewhere (other than beer production), then the decision to exclude such materials seems incorrect. Page 7, Section 7.7 & 7.8: In section 7.7 clarify that credit should not be included, so as to avoid double counting. Section 7.7 & 7.8 are identical. Suggest deleting one of these sections. Page 8, Section 7.10.5 & 7.10.7: Additional information for “EU Annex 9” and “Minerals Yearbook” is provided as a URL, which cannot be accessed without an electronic copy of this PCR. Therefore, list this information in the Reference section.

See modified language, especially “This approach represents s strict sustainability approach, where the environmental costs belong to the company receiving economic benefits (the use of the material) and where no impact is double counte nor ignore ” 7.7-7.8 Two sections merged. EU Annex 9 and Minerals Yearbook added as references.

7

Section 8.4

8

Sections 9 & 11

Page 10, Para 4

SL

Impact category selection and calculation rules, if applied;

List the Usetox URL in References. Expand the ecotoxicity indicator CTUe and list it in Section 5: Acronyms

SL

Predetermined parameters for reporting of LCA data (inventory data categories and impact category indicators);

Requirement met.

Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

Done

27

SL

Requirements for provision of additional environmental information, including any methodological requirements (e.g. specifications for hazard and risk assessment); see 7.2.3 of ISO 14025 for information;

PCR requires companies to report renewable energy use; however, it should provide details/direction about whether companies should include renewable energy use (i.e. solar energy) during farming phase of LCA. This information can be provided in Section 7.3.2 of Inventory Analysis

Section10

SL

Materials and substances to be declared (e.g. information about product content, including specification of materials and substances that can adversely affect human health and/or the environment, in all stages of the life cycle);

Requirement met.

11

Sections 7,8,9,10 & 11

SL

Instructions for producing the data required to develop the declaration (LCA, LCI, information modules and additional environmental information);

Requirement met.

12

Section 11

SL

Instructions on the content and format of the Type III environmental declaration;

Requirement met.

9

Section 10.2

10

Page 12 Para 2

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In reviewing the quality of data for these calculations it became apparent that the quality of data was not available to support this calculation with any reliability and so these measurements were removed from the requirements for the EPD.

28

13

14

Section 1.6

SL

Information on which stages are not considered, if the declaration is not based on an LCA covering all life cycle stages.

Not applicable. LCA is required.

SL

Period of validity is defined.

Requirement met

PCR development in accordance with ISO 14040 Series (Life Cycle Assessment) 15

Section 7.3.2

Line 190

LCA

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If a pesticide is applied by spraying, then emissions to air will also exist, not just emissions to soil.

Include emissions to air or show through sensitivity analysis that it is insignificant.

THE USE-tox model includes modeling of transfers between compartments, including volatilization of chemicals. Most organic compounds have a significantly higher half-life in the soil than in the air, due to hydroxyl radical “cleaning” reactions. Choosing to model the emissions to the soil is a conservative approach to modeling pesticides, and we prefer to keep this approach in the model.

29

16

Section 7.3.13

Line 259

LCA

17

Section 7.14

Line 308

LCA

18

LCA

If refrigeration at home is considered, how is it allocated since other food items are refrigerated along with the beer, so only a portion of refrigeration is used for cooling beer. Using the EU Database, ELCD, would require adjusting it for U.S. based electric grid. Refer to comment #5 regarding Brewers grain and comment #6 regarding exclusion of recycling materials from system boundary

Specify home refrigeration allocated for beer or is Section 7.4 referring to home refrigeration too?

Home refrigeration is included: language changed to clarify this point. See section 7.3.13

This needs to be explicitly stated if a EU database is used for U.S. electric grid data.

Clarified. See 7.13

Provide revisions as necessary.

Clarification provided in section 7.3.10 and 7.5

The USDA recommended serving size is 12 fl oz. for beer. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/SR18/nutrlist/sr18a208.pdf

Functional Unit changed to 12 oz.

Suggest authors to include justification for not including these impacts in “Impacts categories not considered” section

Stratospheric ozone depletion included. Soil loss not included and justified see section 8.9

PCR fulfills the IERE General Program Instructions 19

Section 1.9

Line 54

IERE

20

Section 8

Figure 2 & Impacts categories not considered section

IERE

Functional unit of 100 liters does not follow IERE instructions for food items based on a serving size per USDA. Earthsure program includes “Stratospheric Ozone depletion” and “soil depletion” impacts by default

Significant environmental aspects of the product are described by LCAbased data and additional environmental information 21

Sections 8,

SE

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Significant environmental

Requirement met.

30 9 10, & 11

aspects of the product are described

Other general comments on this PCR not captured in other sections: 22

Appendix C

OGE

In the Operations spreadsheet showing where Voltage and Amperage data are to be captured will there be instructions on how this data will be measured, e.g. acquire data for X amount of minutes or during an entire process such as the boiling process?

From this reviewer’s experience, unless there is a standard protocol for measuring process power consumption, results will not be comparable from brewer to brewer because each one will acquire data differently.

Instructions clarified. See 7.3.10

Separate “is” from CO2

Done

Editorial Comments 23

Section 8.1

Line 350

24

Section 10

25

References

26

Appendix A

Page 13, Website version figure

27

Appendix B

Page 14

28

Appendix C

Page 18, 19, 20

Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

“is” has been included in the “CO2” term. Retitle section 10 to “Additional Information to be Disclosed” Provide reference to TRACI 2.1 Users Manual

Revise “Toxicity” to “Ecotoxicity”

Revise the list to exclude duplicate entries of interested parties Part of the table on pages 18, 19, 20 is cutoff. Please revise.

Done

EPA Website only has the 2003 reference, not TRACI 2.1 Done

Done

Done

31

References

i

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/SR18/nutrlist/sr18a208.pdf

ii

Jesper Hedal Kløverpris, Niels Elvig, Per Henning Nielsen, Anne Merete Nielsen, Oliver Ratzel and Akos Karl. (2009) Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Malt-based Beer and 100% Barley Beer. iii

Henrik Saxe. 2010. LCA-based comparison of the climate footprint of beer vs.wine & spirits. Copenhagen.

iv

THe Climate Conservancy. 2008. The Carbon Footprint of Fat Tire® Amber Ale.

v

ISO 14040: Environmental management — Life cycle assessment — Principles and framework

vi

ISO 14044. Environmental management — Life cycle assessment — Requirements and guidelines

vii

ISO 14025: Environmental labels and declarations —Type III environmental declarations —Principles and procedures viii

Earth sure® Environmental Product Declarations General Program http://iere.org/Data/Sites/1/SharedFiles/earthsure/Earthsure%20General%20Program.pdf ix

USDA.2011 National Hop Report. ISSN 2158-7825. http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Washington/Publications/Hops/hopsan11.pdf x

NASS http://www.nass.usda.gov/Charts_and_Maps/Crops_County/images/BR-PR11-RGBChor.gif. Downloaded 18 December 2012. xi

Annex 9 Working list of 564 chemicals and literature source

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/docum/pdf/bkh_annex_09.pdf xii Solomon, S., D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M. Tignor and H.L. Miller (eds Contribution

of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA xiii

UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ORD/NRMRL/Sustainable Technology Division Systems Analysis Branch STD Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) SOP No. S-10637-OP-1-0 (2012)Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and other Environmental Impacts (TRACI) Software Name and Version Number: TRACI version 2.1 ER’ MAN AL xiv

Bare, Jane C (2011) TRACI 2.0: the tool for the reduction and assessment of chemical and other environmental impacts 2.0. Clean Techn. Envion. Policy 13:687-696 xv

http://www.usetox.org/

xvi

Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007 Solomon, S., D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M. Tignor and H.L. Miller (eds.) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. (Note: updates anticipated in 2012)

Beer Product Category Rule © IERE 2012 All Rights Reserved

32

xvii

United Nations Montreal Protocol. http://ozone.unep.org/new_site/en/montreal_protocol.php

xviii

Redfield, A.C. 1934. On the proportions of organic derivatives in seawater and their relation to the composition of plankton. In Daniel, R.J [Ed] James Johnstone Memorial Volume. University Press of Liverpool pp.177-192. xix

Redfield, A.C. 1958. The biological control of chemical factors in the environment. Am. Sci. 46:205-21.

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