Product footprints

Calculating a product carbon footprint (PCF) isn’t just a way for your company to understand the climate impact of its products; there are compelling business benefits too. Sam McGarrick explains

As climate change shoots up the agenda, a growing number of consumers are demanding to know more about the carbon footprint of products they buy. That’s why calculating a product carbon footprint (PCF) provides an excellent tool for engaging with customers keen to minimise their personal environmental impact.

Blue Marble product director, Sam McGarrick, recently helped launch its PCF service and believes there are tonnes of benefits to getting PCFs, including meeting customer demand, improving employee satisfaction and maintaining brand authenticity.

‘If your company already brands itself as ethical and sustainable, a PCF helps you demonstrate to customers and employees that you care enough to really investigate the impact you have on the environment,’ he says.

Industry standards

In some industries, calculating PCFs is an essential requirement demanded by the supply chain and investors.

‘Many companies need a PCF to become compliant with industry and regulatory requirements,’ says Sam. ‘Some of Blue Marble’s clients have large tenders where their end user requires them to supply a carbon-neutral product or, as a minimum, a figure for the carbon intensity of the product. For them, calculating a PCF is a must.’

Cost savings

Another benefit of going through the PCF process is that it has potential to create savings because the company is likely to identify areas where resources are being used inefficiently.

‘Often the areas that contribute most to an organisation’s greenhouse gas emissions are also economic drains,’ says Sam. ‘Reducing energy consumption at a time when energy costs are increasing not only reduces greenhouse gas emissions but also reduces costs.’

Stand out

Calculating a PCF for a product also offers marketing benefits, as communicating its greenhouse gas emissions can make it more appealing to retailers and help differentiate from close competitors.

‘Retailers are finding a growing number of customers are asking for climate information, so being able to state the product’s carbon emissions per kilogram of product is going to be more interesting to them than a product with no climate information,’ asserts Sam.

Accreditation

It is possible to go down the route of doing selfverified PCFs but the reputational value of gaining independent verification is significant. Clients completing the Blue Marble PCF, for instance, carry its endorsement stamp on their product and are listed on its database.

Demonstrating credibility isn’t the sole reason companies opt for independent verification. Calculating a PCF – which is a subset of a life cycle assessment (LCA) – can be an extremely complex exercise.

‘A consultancy makes a PCF accessible,’ says Sam, ‘because, in reality, the process is sufficiently complex as to make it unviable for SMEs to attempt to conduct an LCA themselves.

‘Larger organisations with established sustainability teams may wish to bring the functionality in-house but, without that resource, outsourcing the calculation of PCF to a consultancy makes the most commercial sense.’

Strike while the iron’s hot Gaining PCFs helps businesses prepare for an era of environmental legislation and carbon taxes, as well as for a world in which consumers will want to calculate their own carbon footprint.

‘Potential legislation includes the Extended Producers Responsibility for Packaging which will mandate some labelling for packaging,’ says Sam. ‘DEFRA is also indicating that it’s looking into mandatory labelling for foodstuffs, although that may be some way off.’

How Blue Marble calculates a PCF

As communities across the globe face multiple layers of resource depletion – climate change and the pollution of air, water and soils – it’s rewarding for companies to work towards reducing these impacts by making products that are sustainable. Blue Marble’s PCF process helps clients understand and reduce their impact on climate change.

The consultancy guides clients through the process of choosing a specific life-cycle scope for goods or services, which could include raw material extraction, transport, manufacture, distribution, retail, use, recycling and waste management.

At the end of the process (which can be completed in a matter of days – although it may take six weeks to allow sufficient time to retrieve relevant data) the client gains Blue Marble certification.

1Define business aims

Blue Marble discusses with the client why they are measuring the footprint of their product and what their drivers are. Will the PCF be used to comply with supply chain requirements or will it be publicly disclosed and used as a marketing tool?

2

Define scope or boundary

Clients are asked to choose a product and define a functional unit (FU). The FU is what is to be measured and could be anything from one jumper to 1kg of yoghurt. A simple processmapping exercise is then carried out to understand the inputs and outputs of each stage of the product’s life cycle.

3 Gather data

To calculate a PCF, Blue Marble uses modelling software which pulls from large databases carrying thousands of datasets created from academic and industry research. This is combined with the client’s primary data to create an equation with multiple data points which will calculate the product’s PCF.

4 Identify hotspots

Blue Marble works with clients to look at ways to reduce carbon hotspots and the product’s impact on the environment. Hotspots highlight areas for carbon reduction improvements and help concentrate reduction efforts in areas likely to see the greatest benefits.

5 Communicate the message

Blue Marble shares its findings in a report and can work with the client to advise on how to label the product with the PCF that’s been calculated. It can also help identify the best ways to communicate the PCF to customers, suppliers and investors.

Methodologies

To calculate a PCF, the consultancy follows the methodologies of PAS 2060 (the international standard for carbon neutrality), ISO 14067 (guidelines for the quantification and reporting of the carbon footprint of a product) and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Product Standard.