A verified Product Carbon Footprint as a marketing factor
Customers worldwide are showing increasing interest in environmentally friendly products and services: the ‘climate footprint’ now plays a key role in purchasing decisions.
Act in the interests of your customers and determine the product carbon footprint (PCF) of your product throughout its entire life cycle: with a verified GHG balance for your products and services, you can increase confidence in your performance. Who is PCF verification relevant for? Environmental protection is the responsibility of all industries. The focus is on manufacturers of products that go to end consumers (B2C), for example in the food or automotive industries.
Who is PCF verification relevant for?
Responsibility for environmental protection affects all industries. The focus is on manufacturers of products that go to end consumers (B2C), such as in the food or automotive industries, or the public sector.
However, the increasing requirements imposed by legislation and customers are being passed on to companies in the B2B sector along the supply chain: here, too, GHG accounting and greenhouse gas neutrality are becoming unavoidable issues.
In both areas, the product carbon footprint is playing an increasingly important role in the awarding of contracts. It can influence public image, sales figures and thus market share.
Benefits of certification
Security
External verification ensures that your Carbon Footprint is accurately calculated – your data is reliable at all times.
Credibility
Your verified Greenhouse Gas Statement demonstrates that you value transparent communication and take climate protection seriously.
Potential for Improvement
A detailed review of the completeness and methodology of data collection provides you with a sound basis for reducing your emissions in the long term.
Competitive Advantage
Your verified Carbon Footprint is a competitive advantage for contracts that require emissions to be disclosed.
Product life cycles in the Product Carbon Footprint
The PCF is used to record GHG emissions. Depending on the standard, different balance boundaries can be applied to the product life cycle. The following should be taken into account:
Raw materials and prefabrication
Transport routes
Production
Distribution and sales
Use phase
Recycling, recovery and disposal.
For whom is a Product Carbon Footprint relevant?
Responsibility for environmental protection affects all industries. The focus is on manufacturers of products that go to end consumers (B2C), such as in the food or automotive industries, or the public sector.
However, the increasing requirements imposed by legislation and customers are being passed on to companies in the B2B sector along the supply chain: here, too, the issues of GHG accounting and greenhouse gas neutrality can no longer be ignored.
In both areas, the product carbon footprint is playing an increasingly important role in the awarding of contracts. It can influence public image, sales figures and thus market share.
Facts and information
The Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) encompasses the greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted along the entire value chain of a functional unit – this could be a milk carton, a chocolate bar or a car, for example.
The value chain of a product begins with the extraction of raw materials, followed by production and distribution, through to use and subsequent disposal or recycling. All direct and indirect greenhouse gases (3 scopes) from the individual process steps are relevant – including upstream processes such as fuel refining or milk transport.
The Carbon Footprint serves as a management tool for implementing GHG and cost reduction plans. In addition, a clear climate strategy for mitigating global warming can be developed based on the Product Carbon Footprint.
A detailed review of the completeness and methodology used to determine the data provides you with a reliable basis for identifying the actual GHG sources of your product.
Systems that already collect environmental and energy data (e.g. ISO 14001 or ISO 50001, Emissions Trading or GRI standard) can help when creating a PCF. This means that the necessary structures for collecting climate-related data are often already in place.
A Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) in accordance with ISO 14040/14044 is very similar to a GHG footprint, but encompasses more than just the environmental impact of greenhouse gas potential.
A life cycle assessment considers other impact categories such as resource consumption, ozone depletion, water scarcity and acidification along the entire value chain of a functional unit. In addition to mere environmental accounting, life cycle assessments also focus on impact assessment and evaluation.
GUTcert will be happy to verify your life cycle assessment!
In addition to specific greenhouse gas inventories, accounting tools and methodologies can also be tested and certified against the above standards.
Any software solution that centralises and automates the collection and categorisation of greenhouse gas-related information and the calculation and accounting of greenhouse gases for reference values is a carbon footprint tool. This includes, for example, Excel-based tools, browser-based applications or other individual software solutions.
In addition to the validation of specific PCFs, GUTcert also offers the validation of central calculation tools from many PCFs for your entire or partial product portfolio.
An independent body compares the calculation methods and (emission) data sources with the requirements of the relevant standard. For organisation-independent tools, the verification can be carried out entirely in remote sessions and a desk audit.
For organisation-specific tools, verification usually also involves a site inspection. Once any identified deficiencies have been demonstrably rectified, you will receive a confirmation of conformity for your tool.
Nachhaltigkeitsmanagement und -bericht in der Praxis mehr Infos
Klimamanagementbeauftragter (gn) im Unternehmen: Vom Corporate Carbon Footprint bis zur Klimaneutralität – Modul 1 mehr Infos
Klimamanagementbeauftragter (gn) im Unternehmen: Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) – Modul 2 mehr Infos
Wesentlichkeitsanalyse im CSRD-Nachhaltigkeitsbericht: GAP zu GRI & DNK mehr Infos
Klimaanpassung und Risikomanagement: CSRD-Anforderungen erfolgreich umsetzen mehr Infos
THG-Bilanzierung gemäß Erneuerbare-Energien-Richtlinie (RED III) mehr Infos
Further services
Carbon Footprint
We verify your carbon footprint – for your product or your company.
