Act early to master the new French Environmental Cost scoring and take independent control of your brand’s impact narrative.
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Automated scores: Trust Vaayu with your products’ Environmental Cost score, keeping parameter inputs, assumptions, and version control for easy auditability.
Scopes and timelines that suit you: Assess what clothing is in scope for your company, generate scores, declare results, and publish labels through a phased approach.
Effortless maintenance: Refresh scores when materials, suppliers, or processes change, enabling improved scores over time.
Baptiste Carrière-Pradal
Co-Founder & Director of 2B Policy, and Chair of the Technical
Secretariat for the PEF for Apparel & Footwear
France’s apparel impact label is moving from pilot to prime. The new Environmental Cost labels will put a clear, easy-to-read score next to the price on packaging, product pages and in-store signage. This will help shoppers see a garment’s footprint at a glance and compare it with other products in real time.
While calculating and displaying the score is voluntary, third parties can calculate scores without a brand’s consent using worst-case assumptions. Brands that act now are poised to control their own stories.
The bottom line is that transparency is becoming table stakes. Brands should start mapping product data to mandatory and optional Environmental Cost parameters, perform test calculations, and build a rollout plan ahead of third-party disclosure risk starting next year.
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Our team offers expert support every step of the way, promising a smooth transition and ensuring minimal disruption on your side so you can continue business as usual, but with compliance-ready scoring at scale and product-level insights for your customers.
Begin your journey with a quick and easy sign-up process tailored to your needs
Connect with our experienced team to discuss your goals and how Vaayu can support your supply chain transformation
Our experts will guide you step-by-step through the setup process, ensuring your account is optimized for success
With your account ready, begin importing data, calculating scores, and preparing for official disclosure
Anyone will be permitted to calculate the environmental cost of a company’s covered apparel products and publicly communicate those scores, based on minimum data and worst-case assumptions for optional parameters. This gives companies an incentive to calculate their products' scores themselves. A self-calculated score has a preemptive effect over third-party versions when it comes to public display, and reduces the use of worst-case assumptions.
Companies that separately choose to display a score relating to one or more environmental impacts must also display a French Environmental Cost score if they wish to continue displaying their alternate score. Only in this case is the score classed as “mandatory”.
Transparency across your supply chain is key to generating your Environmental Cost scores, with mandatory geographic origin data for multiple supply chain tiers. Vaayu’s separate supply chain solution enables you to build end-to-end visibility needed for Environmental Cost scoring and beyond.
• Based fundamentally on the PEF Category Rules for Apparel and Footwear
• Inclusion of additional considerations for microplastic impacts and end-of-life treatment for exports outside of Europe, removal, and modification of other factors
• Sustainability factors that punish companies with large range widths, cheap prices, and a lack of certified repair services
• Uniform secondary database applicable to calculations for all Environmental Cost users
Vaayu’s Environmental Cost platform directly embeds France’s own operationalization of the Environmental Cost methodology through an integration with its Ecobalyse service, ensuring compliant measurement every time and over time as the French method is adjusted going forward.
Our in-house Legislation Desk continuously tracks evolving sustainability legislation across France and the EU to keep our calculation tools aligned with required methods.. Vaayu actively participates in key policymaking initiatives, enabling us to forecast upcoming regulatory shifts and translate them into actionable guidance for brands.
Yes, the Product Impact Solution provides granular results even with minimal primary data. While more primary data improves accuracy, our system ensures quality results regardless of data availability. All of Vaayu’s all-in-one LCA tools integrate seamlessly for the smooth transition of data.
The minimum requirement is product type, but additional data like material composition, percentages, weights, and supplier energy usage can enhance the accuracy of calculations.
Our proprietary impact modeling engine and database, Kria, combines industry-standard sources, research papers and scientific studies, curated by our expert in-house LCA team to fill data gaps effectively.
Yes, the platform provides full transparency into assumptions and data sources for each calculation, as well as Accuracy Scores, so you always have a clear understanding of your footprint.
Absolutely. Vaayu’s platform allows you to apply your own emission factors to ensure calculations align with your specific requirements.
Yes, our database includes detailed information on new and innovative materials and processes for accurate and up-to-date calculations.
Once we receive the necessary data, the calculation process typically takes 2-4 weeks, depending on the complexity of your needs and requirements for your personalized dashboard.
While the Product Environmental Footprint method (PEF) is still evolving, our methodology and databases are already adaptable, accounting for all 16 of PEF’s required impact categories, ensuring compliance with the current PEF version and readiness for future updates.