2. Global Product Carbon Footprinting - A Global Middle Path?
Content
Reality of emissions – whoʼs emitting?
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What is Product Carbon Footprinting?
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Benefits
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Whoʼs doing it
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Way ahead
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Sources
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3. Global Product Carbon Footprinting - A Global Middle Path?
Reality of emissions – who’s emitting?
The whole premise of Kyoto Protocol and Emission Reduction targets is based on
the fact that emissions, wherever they occur, are added to the same atmosphere
and are going to cause the same increase in the CO2 concentration in the
atmosphere. For Emission Reductions to become a reality, the emissions must be
reduced globally and not just relocate from a developed country to a developing
country, which seems to have been the case of result of outsourcing activity. No
doubt outsourcing has an economic incentive, but from an emissions accounting
point of view, it places developing countries in bad light to an extent much more
than they should be.
For example - reality of China’s emissions is that though they are created in China,
they are disproportionately consumed in the developed world. So is the case for
many developing countries for which exports to developed world are a significant
source of income. Driven by their consumption pattern shift, many developing
countries may in fact be becoming bigger and bigger net importers of emissions,
while claiming to have reduced emissions locally. This creates a situation where the
developing countries are asked for reducing their emissions, significant portion of
which may not be consumed or utilized by them (for their own development).
The debate on worldwide emission reduction fluctuates between developed
countries funding the emission reductions in developing countries and developing
countries managing all the reduction (whatever they can and choose to) by
themselves. Between these extremes exists the possibility of carbon footprint of
products becoming universal knowledge and the world consumers gradually
moving towards low-carbon footprint products.
What is Product Carbon Footprinting?
Product Carbon Footprinting allows the businesses and the consumers to take a
unique view of the product in terms of the individual product impact on climate
driven by carbon emissions created by manufacture, distribution, consumption and
disposal of the product. It identifies the true drivers of GHG emissions in the entire
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4. Global Product Carbon Footprinting - A Global Middle Path?
life cycle and the supply chain of the product. Taking a view of the product life cycle
overlap with GHG emissions can enable more targeted emission reduction and cost
saving initiatives.
The steps in calculating Product
Carbon Footprint are shown in the
schematic
This approach is known as the Publicly
Available Specification (PAS) 2050. It
provides a supply-chain oriented
approach to carbon accounting by
building a robust and consistent method
of product level GHG assessment. PAS
2050 is based on process Life Cycle
Assessment (LCA), an approach that is
Product Carbon Footprinting - Process
commonly used in supply chain analysis
to identify opportunities to reduce waste
and increase efficiencies across an entire product system. The approach is not
restricted to efficiency improvement measures limited to the boundaries of a single
company but requires an understanding of the processes involved in the
production, distribution, use and final disposal of a given product. Due to this cross-
boundary nature of impact, the awareness created across the supply-chain, the
efforts taken across the supply chain would have a multiplier effect and realign
worldwide supply chains to low-carbon processes and technologies. Wal-mart has
recently initiated efforts in a similar direction by demanding environmental
transparency and performance improvement from all its suppliers. The modalities
may be slightly different, but the aim remains the same – to influence the entire
supply chain to integrate “green” thinking into multiple aspects of its business. This
approach has greater impact and lasting effects.
Benefits
Coming back to the Product Carbon Footprinting, some companies who have used
the PAS 2050 method have already reduced product-level GHG emissions by
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5. Global Product Carbon Footprinting - A Global Middle Path?
15-20%. Considerable cost savings have also been achieved due to energy and
waste efficiency measures across the supply chain. Product carbon footprinting
also helps companies strengthen relationships with suppliers, particularly if it reveals
cost savings opportunities up the supply chain. Another benefit that will accrue
slowly over time is due to rising consumer awareness and demand of carbon
information of the products they choose. By communicating the carbon impact of
its products, an organization would also be able to differentiate it’s products in
increasingly cluttered markets and build an reputation of excellence.
Who’s doing it
20 leading companies in the UK have worked with Carbon
Trust (an independent company set up in 2001 with the
support of the UK Government) to measure and reduce the
carbon footprints of their products. These companies
represent diverse industry sectors, from food and drink to
building materials and financial services, diverse classes of
products from simple to complex in different channels, both
business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C). There is also
diversity in the sizes and scale of operations. The benefits have been in revealing
true sources and drivers of emissions, leading to
more effective carbon reduction strategies. The
companies could also identify high-impact cost-
saving opportunities across their supply chain. The
companies include multi-billion dollar multinational
corporations such as Cadbury’s, Coca-Cola, morphy
richards, PepsiCo, TESCO and Kimberley-Clark.
Way ahead
For the adoption of Product Carbon Footprinting to become widespread,
businesses will need to answer for themselves - Whether low carbon products are
necessarily costlier compared to their high-carbon counterparts? How will
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6. Global Product Carbon Footprinting - A Global Middle Path?
companies compete on the “Green” image when more than a few players enter this
area? World clearly needs clean products and cleaner information to enable
consumer choices to drive us in the right direction. Low carbon is the future, we
need a quick and efficient path to it.
Sources
1. Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), 2008
2. Product carbon footprinting: the new business opportunity, The Carbon Trust.
3. The Right Green Metrics – And the Wrong Ones, Harvard Business Publishing
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7. Global Product Carbon Footprinting - A Global Middle Path?
EcoLogic Consultancy is a start-up consulting firm in the field of Environment
Management. It provides services in wide spectrum of environmental field to help our
clients to identify the opportunities, harness the potential, and solve their environmental
challenges.
For further details and discussion, you can reach us at
enquiry@ecologicconsultancy.in / ecologicconsultancy@gmail.com
020-400 96 279 / +91-90287 88430
www.ecologicconsultancy.in
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