Danone and Coors among seven to sign on to carbon footprint scheme

The others are Continental Clothing Company, Morphy Richards, Mey Selections, and fruit supplier Colors.

Danone will measure the footprint of its Evian and Volvic mineral water brands, while Coors will assess Carling lager.

PAS 2050 has been developed by the Carbon Trust in partnership with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and British Standards (BSI).

It is being tested by 20 companies, including Boots, Walkers, Coca-Cola and Innocent, across an estimated 75 product ranges.

The carbon footprint of a standard packet of Walkers Cheese & Onion Crisps was calculated by looking at the energy consumed directly in each of the key stages in the supply chain, converting this into the resulting amount of carbon emissions, and adding up the carbon emissions from each stage.

Packaging accounted for 15% of the total emissions, compared with 44% for raw materials, 30% for manufacturing, 9% for distribution and 2% for disposal of empty packs.

Information collated from the pilots will help to develop the standard and ensure it can be applied across a wide range of sectors.

Carbon Trust chief executive Tom Delay said there was a need to establish a "credible, comparable and universal methodology, which can be applied across different business sectors and product categories".

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