Product carbon footprint measures the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with a product's life cycle. This includes emissions from every stage of its journey – from raw material extraction and production to transportation, use and eventual disposal (depending on the scope; more on this below). By calculating a product’s carbon footprint, businesses can gain valuable insight into the environmental impact of their offerings and, importantly, communicate this impact to their customers.

Unlike corporate carbon footprint (CCF), which focuses on the company's total emissions, PCF focuses on a single product. This granular approach allows companies to:

– Identify Emission hotspots within the product life cycle,

– Determine opportunities to reduce the carbon footprint of specific products,

– Communicate environmental performance to stakeholders, from consumers to investors.

Understanding and managing PCF is becoming increasingly important, especially in the food and beverage sector, where Scope 3 emissions account for the majority of the overall impact. As one example, food logistics alone (the transportation, storage and distribution of food and beverages) is responsible for around 6 % of global emissions. How is a product's carbon footprint calculated?

Calculating the product's carbon footprint It involves quantifying the greenhouse gas emissions produced at each stage of a product's life cycle. This life cycle approach ensures that emissions are considered comprehensively.

1. Defining the scope of the analysis – This step determines which life cycle stages are included. There are two different approaches to calculating the impact of a product:

– From the cradle to the grave – Covers the entire life cycle of a product, from raw material extraction (“cradle”) to the end of the product’s life (“grave”).

– Cradle to gate – Includes emissions from the extraction of raw materials up to the point where the product reaches retail shelves (before it is distributed to consumers).

2. Defining life cycle phases and collecting data – Once you have defined the scope of your analysis, you will need to define the different stages of the product life cycle and collect data for each stage. Companies typically collect:

– Activity data – quantities of materials, energy consumption, transport distances and waste produced,

– Emission factors – standardized values that indicate greenhouse gas emissions per unit of activity (e.g. kg CO₂ per kWh of energy).

3. Selection of calculation methodology – You will use a calculation methodology appropriate to your business model (physical unit, expense-based, or hybrid as described above).

4. Analysis and reporting of results – After quantifying emissions, the results can be:

– Divided by life cycle stage – highlighting hotspots such as transport or manufacturing,

– Presented as total greenhouse gas emissions – usually measured in kilograms of CO₂ equivalent (kg CO₂e) per unit of product,

– Comparison between products – enables decisions about product design, sourcing and sustainability goals. Spring