The footprinting process
An action menu
Working with the Carbon Trust Footprinting Company will deliver comparable carbon footprint results that build on the PAS 2050 and Footprint Expert™. These results will give your company a real advantage in understanding, reducing and communicating your product carbon footprints. Note that each of the following four processes should bring substantial benefits, and companies can complete as many or as few as they wish.
Measurement
The Carbon Trust Footprinting Company's measurement process consists of four essential steps:
- Building a process map, including setting boundaries, understanding data available and identifying sources/contacts
- Collecting primary data from members of the supply chain and collating secondary data
- Assessing materiality (an iterative process)
- Building the carbon footprint
Footprint Expert™ is a unique and comprehensive toolkit that allows organisations to calculate a reliable, consistent and verifiable carbon footprint – and is designed to save time and money in the process. The toolkit includes a comprehensive Guide to footprinting, pre-built carbon Calculators for common emissions events, a Model Framework providing a template for footprint measurement, and a Reference Database containing country-specific emissions factors for common processes and commodities. For more information see the Footprint Expert Page.
Certification
An independent and impartial company can certify your product carbon footprint for compliance with the PAS 2050, the Code of Good Practice and the certification requirements of Footprint Expert™ to ensure consistency and maximise comparability in certified product carbon footprints.
Read more about Certification »
Reduction
By looking more closely at the main emissions sources that make up the carbon footprint, it is possible to see where the greatest opportunities lie to reduce it. Your company can then:
- Run scenario analyses to design new processes, investigate formulation changes and identify ways to reduce the downstream emissions from use and disposal of the product
- Collaborate with supply chain partners to achieve reductions, and
- Investigate alternative sources of supply.
Communication
The Carbon Trust Footprinting Company will help you to communicate your product carbon footprint in the most suitable ways, and in accordance with the Code of Good Practice, whether this is on-pack, at point of sale, through websites and brochures, or through other channels. Companies can be creative in how they communicate the information to customers, leveraging the authority and credibility of the Carbon Trust and Carbon Reduction Label to the full.
Publicising the business case for product carbon footprinting
Our new publication presents the business case for product carbon footprinting, summarising the experiences of over 20 leading companies. Working with these companies, we have learned important lessons about the potential impact of product carbon footprinting and Labelling on businesses' commercial and environmental goals, and how relevant, applicable and practical our approach can be.
Take the first step
Contact the Carbon Trust Footprinting Company today on 0800 093 9953.