Establishing universal standards for carbon footprinting

The need to examine the entire supply chain

The Carbon Trust's 2006 report "The carbon emissions generated in all that we consume" established the view that the emissions embodied in any consumer product or service originate from every link of the supply chain.

Carbon footprinting: a competitive advantage

The report showed that by examining their supply chains, companies could identify those areas with the greatest potential for saving both carbon and costs. Furthermore, as climate change and carbon emissions become a bigger consumer issue, taking steps now to reduce total supply chain emissions would also deliver a competitive advantage for the future.

Towards a footprinting methodology

Through its work on supply chain analysis, the Carbon Trust developed a methodology to measure a product's carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions across every stage of its lifecycle – including production of raw materials, processing, transportation, storage, preparation, use and disposal.

Five essential steps:

• Analysing internal product data
• Building a supply chain process map
• Defining boundary conditions and data requirements
• Collecting primary and secondary data
• Calculating carbon emissions at each step of the supply chain

Pilot partners

The Carbon Trust's methodology was originally piloted with Walkers (crisps), Boots (shampoo) and Innocent Drinks (fruit smoothies), with many more companies joining the pilot programme prior to the PAS launch. Read our product directory here.

The development of a Publicly Available Specification (PAS)

The methodology developed by the Carbon Trust went on to form the base document for the Publicly Available Specification that has been developed by BSI British Standards and other stakeholders worldwide. Launched in October 2008, this is now freely available for public use. Read more about the PAS 2050.

The Code of Good Practice on GHG communication

Developed by the Carbon Trust and other partners, the Code helps businesses to communicate the lifecycle GHG emissions of products clearly and credibly, with sufficient supporting information, and to support emissions-reduction claims. Read more about the Code.

The Carbon Trust Footprinting Certification Company – certifying carbon footprints to enable communication and comparison

While the precise interpretation of the PAS 2050, and what it is used to measure, is subject to the particular practitioner, the Carbon Trust Footprinting Certification Company applies a set of proprietary data and comparability rules to requirements within Footprint Expert TM when certifying compliance with the PAS 2050. Certification to this standard by the CLC ensures that consumers can compare similar products and services against one another, to the standard required for the Carbon Reduction Label.