Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) Made Easy
Calculate the CO₂ impact of your products and materials throughout the entire product lifecycle. Designed for companies in industry and manufacturing.
Step 1: Define the Question
What do you want to achieve with this PCF?
Every Product Carbon Footprint starts with a clear question. The goal defines how detailed the calculation needs to be and how the result will be used.
Typical questions include:
- What is my product's carbon footprint?
- How does my product compare to alternatives?
- Where are the biggest emission hotspots?
- Does my product meet customer or regulatory thresholds?
This step prevents greenwashing by defining the purpose before the numbers.
Step 2: Set the System Boundary
Which part of the lifecycle is included?
Here you define how far the footprint extends:
Cradle-to-gate
Raw material extraction → Manufacturing → Factory gate
Used for intermediate products (e.g., steel, chemicals, components)
Cradle-to-grave
Raw materials → Manufacturing → Use → End-of-life
Used for end products (e.g., electronics, vehicles, fuels)
This step also defines the unit of analysis (e.g., 1 cabinet, 1 kg, 1 pallet) and the reference flow, so all results remain comparable.
Step 3: Create Bill of Materials & Collect Activity Data
What goes into the product in physical form?
You will now create the data basis:
- Create the Bill of Materials (BoM): all materials and components with quantities
- Collect activity data for: materials, energy, transport, production volume
Data types:
- • Primary data: site-specific or supplier-specific measurements
- • Secondary data: industry averages and databases when primary data is unavailable
This step defines what physically creates emissions.
Step 4: Calculate Emissions
Convert physical activity into CO₂e
For every process:
Activity Data × Emission Factor = CO₂e
You:
- Apply verified emission factors
- Convert all gases into CO₂e using 100-year GWP
- Use proxy or estimated data only where gaps exist
The result is a traceable emissions inventory per product.
| Product | SKU | Per unit (kg CO₂e) |
|---|---|---|
| Hiking/Mountain Boot | BOOT-HMB | 36.6 kg |
| Multipurpose Field Boot | BOOT-MPFB | 41.5 kg |
| Outdoor Work/Safety Boot (S3) | 209 kg | |
| ProTac Rescue Boot | BOOT-PRB | 0.6 kg |
| Proc | pcs | 22,000 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Ready to calculate your Product Carbon Footprints?
Book a demo to see how ESG-X simplifies PCF calculation for your products.
