11.07.2005
Newsletter 04/05
N E W S L E T T E R - 04/05
Dear reader,
does it sound familiar? You are concerned about the environment, but you find it hard to choose a green product,
for they are too expensive, too bothersome, too difficult, aren’t they? Not true. Our EcoTopTen campaign is
showing that this need not be so. Treading lightly on the planet has just become that much easier. Öko-Institut
launched its Germany-wide information campaign in March 2005. Structured recommendations of products that excel
in every respect are its heartpiece. EcoTopTen products combine high product quality with low environmental
impact and great value for money. And above all: You can see at a glance which laundry drier, which car or which
green electricity product tops the list in terms of both overall cost and environmental performance –
we’ve done the research for you. Read more about it in this newsletter.
There are good choices around when you go shopping next!
Your Katja Kukatz, 11 July 2005
CONTENT
F O C A L T H E M E S
- EcoTopTen: Easy choice, small effort, great environmental benefit
- REACH – the European challenge
- BioRegio is growing
N E W S F L A S H
E V E N T S
N E W S L E T T E R A R C H I V E
C O N T A C T
EcoTopTen: Easy choice, small effort, great environmental benefit
New market survey of green electricity providers now online / Compact fluorescent lamps to follow
The
EcoTopTen campaign has now produced a total of eight market surveys making life easier – and greener
– for consumers. At regular intervals, Öko-Institut’s researchers put out recommendations of products
that combine high product quality with hugely reduced environmental impact and great value for money. The latest
such survey – of EcoTopTen power providers – shows once more that major environmental benefit can be
achieved with small effort.
Whoever takes the decision to switch provider and opt for one of the three country-wide or 81 regionally
available EcoTopTen green power providers makes a real contribution to ensuring that power production in Europe
becomes cleaner – at moderate extra cost. Moreover: “Switching to an EcoTopTen power provider is
quite simple” enthuses Martin Möller, researcher with Öko-Institut’s Sustainable Products &
Material Flows Division, “you just apply to your green power supplier of choice, who will then take all the
further steps needed. You need neither new meters nor new wires, and the lights won’t go off during the
switchover.”
The criteria for EcoTopTen power providers are that they must be at most 20 percent more expensive than the
average price of conventional electricity, and they must be certified with the “ok-power” label or
the “green electricity label in gold” (Grüner Strom Label in Gold). These two labels guarantee that
the construction of new, clean power generation units is promoted additional to the standard state support
provided in Germany, notably that given under the German Renewable Energy Act (EEG). EcoTopTen power is green
electricity generated from renewable sources such as hydro, biomass, wind and solar, or from efficient gas-fired
cogeneration units. Nuclear power and electricity from coal-fired plants have no place in EcoTopTen power.
The EcoTopTen survey lists total annual costs for each electricity product recommended. These comprise the
monthly basic rate and the costs of average annual electricity consumption, each calculated for a single, two-,
three- or four-person household. For a one-person household, procuring clean EcoTopTen power costs about two
Euros more per month. This is about the price of a cup of coffee. In some cases, EcoTopTen products are even
available at a lower price than conventional power from the local supplier. “Notably in a high-price region
such as the southwest of Germany, switching to an EcoTopTen power provider can even be a little cheaper”
notes Möller. And the good feeling of having made an active contribution to protecting the environment and the
global climate is thrown in free of charge. “Compared to the conventional power generation mix, the
production of one kilowatt-hour of green electricity causes, over the long term, less than one-quarter of the
greenhouse gas emissions” explains Möller.
The full market survey, tips and further information relating to power procurement is available in German at
www.ecotopten.de/produktfeld_strom.php. Useful downloads in German are available at www.ecotopten.de/download.php. This
section of the website provides free information flyers, the EcoTopTen criteria and research reports for
download.
EcoTopTen is a major initiative for sustainable consumption and product innovations in mass markets initiated by
Öko-Institut. At regular intervals, the institute’s scientists produce a recommendation of high-quality
“EcoTopTen products” – all of which offer good value for money and top environmental
performance. By way of comparison, typical products failing to meet the EcoTopTen criteria are also presented.
This makes it much easier to take purchasing decisions for products that excel in every respect.
The “Produktempfehlungen” section of the www.ecotopten.de site already contains – in addition to power providers – recommended
cars, car-sharing schemes, gas-fired condensing boilers and wood-pellet-fired heating systems, virtual answering
machines, washing machines and laundry driers. A further 16 market surveys are to follow by the end of 2006, the
next on compact fluorescent lamps.
Both the underlying EcoTopTen research project and the EcoTopTen consumer campaign are being supported by the
German Research Ministry, the German Ministry of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture and the Legacy for the
Future Foundation. Like to stay informed? Subscribe to the German-language EcoTopTen newsletter by sending an
e-mail to anmeldung@ecotopten.de. kk
Contact:
Kathrin Graulich (project
coordinator)
Martin Möller
Öko-Institut e.V., Freiburg Office
Sustainable Products & Material Flows Division
[back to the index]
REACH – the European challenge
New statutory regulations are on the cards for producers and users of chemicals
European
companies who use or manufacture chemicals are facing a new challenge called REACH, which is short for
Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals. The draft REACH regulation was published in October
2003. The new regulation is intended to provide the long overdue information required for the safe management of
chemicals. Öko-Institut e.V. has been contributing to the dialogue on this subject ever since REACH became part
of the political agenda with the publication of the White Paper on Chemicals Policy in 2001. The draft itself
leaves plenty of room for manoeuvre. Öko-Institut is currently assessing options for companies to avoid special
substance registration tests under certain conditions.
Once REACH comes into force, producers and importers will be obliged to register and obtain a licence for certain
chemicals. They are also required to provide information about the toxic or ecotoxic properties of the chemicals
as part of the "registration dossier". If relevant data are not yet available – which is the case
for a large number of substances – they have to be obtained through sometimes complex and expensive tests.
REACH specifies which data have to be provided, depending in the first instance on the quantity of the substance
being produced. The higher the output, the more data are required, because the initial assumption is that higher
output leads to a higher risk for humans and the environment. If the output is more than ten tonnes, animal
experiments involving repeated administration are required to examine the toxicity of the substances. For animal
welfare and cost reasons such tests should only be required if absolutely necessary.
The draft REACH regulation is flexible in this respect. While there are clear basic requirements, there are also
options for waiving certain tests, for example in situations where there is no scientific basis for such tests.
Example: for substances that are completely water-insoluble a test examining toxicity for aquatic animals and
organisms would not be expedient. As part of the current project Öko-Institut is examining a special option
referred to as "exposure-based waiving" that deals with questions such as the following: Can certain
test requirements be waived if the substance demonstrably does not result in significant exposure for humans and
the environment? Under what conditions could tests be waived? The text of the draft regulation is somewhat vague
in this respect. For example, it does not define a "relevant exposure" level. In order to answer these
questions, Öko-Institut’s scientists are currently developing concrete criteria, starting with 10 to 15
substances and associated exposure situations. In a second stage, the project aims to determine under what
circumstances certain tests could be waived. The project will also examine whether such concretized waiving
conditions are implementable in practice.
The aim is to try and make the associated text passages of the current draft regulation more precise, with the
intention of making the registration procedure easier to implement. This concretization aims to provide legal
certainty for those involved in the registration process. For the registrants it means the registration authority
will accept reference to an associated concretized waiving condition. For the registration authority it means
that any reference to an appropriately concretized waiving condition can easily be followed.
The "exposure-based waiving" project is run jointly by the German Environment Ministry and the German
Chemical Industry Association (VCI), with support from Öko-Institut e.V. in co-operation with the Research and
Advisory Institute for Hazardous Substances (FoBIG) and the Institute for Environmental Networks (Institut
Ökologische Netze). Experts from the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), the Federal
Environmental Agency (UBA), the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), the VCI and its member companies are
involved in the project.
Publication of the project results is expected for September 2005. Initial results are expected during July.
db/kk
Contact:
Dr. Dirk Bunke
Öko-Institut e.V., Freiburg Office
Sustainable Products & Material Flows Division
[back to the index]
BioRegio is growing
Testing bioenergy at regional level
BioRegio, a project supported by the German Environment Ministry, has just gained a sixth best-practice
pilot region: Starting in July 2005 “KERN” – the region of Kiel, Eckernförde, Rendsburg and
Neumünster in the state of Schleswig-Holstein – will join in. There are further associated regions that act
as partners exchanging information with the project. The purpose of BioRegio is to trial in a bottom-up approach
the use of bioenergy in selected regions of Germany. Following the groundwork done last year for the national
level, the approach shall now be trialled in practice.
Moreover, BioRegio shall be integrated as a “lighthouse” project within the German government’s
sustainability strategy, and will seek cross-border synergies in 2006 – to the north with Baltic21, to the
east with Poland and to the southwest with France. The priority activity areas and the specific bioenergy
technologies to be implemented in each region have now been defined.
What exactly is BioRegio’s aim?
The outcomes of the national project “Material Flow Analysis of Sustainable Biomass Use for Energy”
(see www.oeko.de/service/bio) shall now be trialled in practice in several pilot regions, thus
kick-starting the implementation of sustainable bioenergy technologies. The project shall run until the end of
2006.
What is going on?
The “Saar-Hunsrück Nature Park” (Region 1) will focus on decentralized wood utilization, biogas as
fuel, and logistics. The “Southern Upper Rhine” (Region 2) will trial the use of small-diameter wood
and silvicultural residues from upland forests, will examine biogas processing and ways to feed it into networks,
will explore synergies between bioenergy use and nature conservation (such as short-rotation tree harvesting in
flood protection zones, and the use of biomass from landscape management), and will test the use of pellet-fired
Stirling engines in small-scale cogeneration units. In “Emscher-Lippe” (Region 3) technologies for
biomass-based hydrogen production (“Blauer Turm”), decentralized gasification and larger-scale biogas
facilities will be tested. The “Northeast Western Pomerania” (Region 4) is interested in woodchips
and pellets, while “Central Saxony” (Region 5) will concentrate especially on ways to use straw
(including co-firing and ethanol production from straw).
Priority activity areas in the new “KERN” (Region 6) are:
- The contribution to nature conservation provided by using biomass from landscape management for energy production, exemplified by hedge management
- Greenhouse gas and cost inventories of existing biogas facilities and issues of stakeholder acceptance; biogas processing and feed-in to natural gas networks
- Biorefineries (multiple biomass use for materials and energy)
- Straw as supplementary fuel for a new power plant in the city of Kiel
In Regions 2 and 6, Öko-Institut is coordinating activities, where it supports two implementing partners:
Regionalverband Südlicher Oberrhein (RVSO) and K.E.R.N. e.V. in Schleswig-Holstein. In Region 2, the energy
agency Regio Solar in Freiburg, the energy agency Ortenaukreis and the forestry department of Freiburg University
are the scientific partners; in Schleswig-Holstein the scientific partners are the biomass consultancy in
Eckernförde and the agriculture department of Kiel University.
Region 2 is examining – as are the other pilot regions – how the findings of national-level work on
sustainable bioenergy use can be implemented in practice with the above focuses. The first question to answer is
how much bioenergy can be harvested sustainably in the region. The next step is to analyse, in cooperation with
regional partners, which technologies are particularly suitable within the regional context for power, heat and
fuels, and where these can be deployed at least cost.
Finally, building on these inputs, regional plans of action will be developed which are adapted to the specific
conditions and take the opportunities and interests of regional actors into account (e.g. financing, acceptance,
operator arrangements). In this phase, the regional project partners are the key “implementers”,
supported on an ongoing basis by Öko-Institut.
Furthermore, a quantitative analysis of regional value added by bioenergy is now under way for the first
time in Regions 2 and 6. This is based on, among other information sources, questioning regional companies and
conducting surveys of data on the regional economic structure. The findings are then combined with data on costs,
employment impacts and environmental life-cycle inventories. The overall findings provide implementing partners
with a robust basis on which to take decisions for future bioenergy utilization strategies.
First outcomes, such as specific appraisals of regional potentials, are anticipated by the end of 2005. The
regional strategies shall be completed in summer 2006 and the technology assessments by the end of that year.
uf
For further information on BioRegio: www.bioregio.info
Our Newsletter 01-2005 also contains information on this theme.
Contact:
Overall project: Uwe R.
Fritsche and Katja
Hünecke
Region 2: Andrea Effinger
Region 6: Julia Repenning,
All of Öko-Institut e.V., Freiburg, Darmstadt, Berlin,
Energy & Climate Protection Division
[back to the index]
Bioenergy – the state of the art
Follow-up study integrates new data
As Öko-Institut proclaimed last year, “Bioenergy could well become the Number 1 renewable energy
source”. This assessment resulted from a comprehensive study carried out by the institute together with a
team of six partner institutes from 2001 to 2004, addressing the issue of how much bioenergy can be produced
sustainably in Germany, and which particular forms of use are sustainable.
Now, with support from the German Environment Ministry, a follow-up study is commencing that shall update and
complement the datasets by early 2007.
As a first step, the institute’s scientists will update the existing scenarios using data from the recently
published EWI-Prognos reference scenario, integrating above all the recent development of energy prices (higher
oil and natural gas prices).
In addition, more recent data on bioenergy technologies shall be integrated into the project’s database.
This will include data on large-scale ethanol facilities, enzymatic ethanol production from whole plants,
bioethanol in Brazil, an update on biomass-to-liquid facilities, and larger cogeneration units using Stirling
engines.
Finally, the data on employment impacts will be extended beyond bioenergy to the entirety of energy technologies
in Germany.
Building upon that basis, and starting in summer 2006, the scientists will generate updated scenarios for future
bioenergy use to the years 2020 and 2030, and will derive recommendations from these for German policy. This work
will be complemented by findings from other ongoing projects, including European data generated by work being
conducted for the European Environment Agency. An updated final report will then be presented in spring 2007.
The www.oeko.de/service/bio site provides further information on the new project and documents ongoing
work. uf
Contact:
Uwe R. Fritsche
Öko-Institut e.V., Darmstadt Office,
Energy & Climate Protection Division Coordinator
[back to the index]
Hot off the press: Öko-Institut’s 2004 Annual Report
Round-up of research activities
Öko-Institut’s latest Annual Report is now available: On 24 pages, the publication provides an overview
of research projects carried out in 2004 and the present activity areas and research fields of this leading
environmental research institute. The report highlights the lighthouse projects of the institute, which include
the major EcoTopTen initiative for sustainable products, scenarios on construction and housing, and the project
on climate protection in international aviation. A section headed “Milestones” puts the spotlight on
key events in the past year. The new Annual Report will soon be available in English, too.
“Energy policy of the future and the nuclear legacy” is a theme running like a red thread through the
report, which has been produced with a new, completely revamped design this year. In their editorial, the
institute’s directors and executive board explain why Germany must continue to pursue a sustainable energy
and climate protection strategy. The institute’s energy experts make brief statements encapsulating their
viewpoints on this theme.
The 2004 Annual Report can be downloaded as a pdf file in German (www.oeko.de/dokumente/04_jb_de.pdf) – or
you can order it directly from us. As an annex to the printed report, an online version of our reference list has
also been published on the Internet (www.oeko.de/dokumente/04_anhang_jb.pdf)
containing all projects, publications and presentations in 2004. The 2004 Annual Report will shortly also be
available in English. To receive a printed copy simply send an e-mail to redaktion@oeko.de or fax us your order at: +49-761-475437.
cr
Contact:
Christiane Rathmann
Öko-Institut e.V., Freiburg Office
Head of the Department of Public Relations & Communication
[back to the index]
Sustainable Tourism for the Mass Market
INVENT: Conclusions will be presented at a Conference in Brussels
The project-team INVENT (Innovative marketing concepts for sustainable tourism proposals in the mass market) has
developed strategies, concepts and examples of innovative business proposals for the tourism mass market in a
three-year project. The conclusions will be presented at a conference on the 28th of September in Brussels.
The results contribute to the subject of how to achieve a more sustainable tourist value chain and a more
sustainable travel market in a unique and innovative fashion
The project team not only wants to present the results to a broad range of international stakeholders from
politics, industry and science, but also wants to use them as an opportunity to launch a lively discussion with
enterprises and policy makers engaged in sustainable tourism on further action.
Alongside the presentation of the project on September 28th, stakeholders will give their views and discuss the
results and their implications. A reception dinner on the evening of the 27th will give participants an
opportunity for opinion-making and individual exchange.
Location:
Club Fondation Universitaire Stichting
Rue d`Egmontstraat 11
1000 Bruxelles-Brussel
Registration:
Öko-Institut e.V.
Ursula Roenius / Sabine Leukert
Novalisstraße 10
D-10115 Berlin, Phone: +49 (0)30 280 486-80
Fax: +49 (0)30 280 486-88
invent@oeko.de
Organizer:
Öko-Institut e.V.
ISOE
University of Lüneburg
AMEROPA-REISEN GmbH
Deutsche Bahn AG
Further information: www.invent-tourismus.de
Contact:
Ulrike Rheinberger
Öko-Institut e.V., Berlin Office
Infrastructure & Enterprises Division
[back to the index]
C O N T A C T
Publisher
Öko-Institut e.V.
Institute for Applied Ecology (Öko-Institut)
Editorial office
Department of Public Relations & Communication
Christiane Rathmann
Katja Kukatz
Would you like to recommend the newsletter to a
friend?
Do you have any
comments?
Would you like to subscribe to the newsletter?
Would you like to unsubscribe to the newsletter?
