Carbon Footprint

Carbon Footprint

The Carbon Footprint section records how much CO₂ your product causes, and how you worked that figure out. Customers increasingly ask for this, and larger buyers are starting to require it before they will place an order.

This section is optional. If nobody has asked you for a CO₂ figure, you can skip it entirely.

Whatever you enter here is inherited by every unit of this product.

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Before you start

You need a figure that somebody actually calculated. This section records a carbon footprint, it does not work one out for you. The numbers normally come from an LCA study, a consultant, an industry tool, or your own calculation following a recognised standard.

If you do not have a figure yet, there is nothing useful to put here.

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What this section covers, and what it does not

At the top of the section there is a note headed General footprints only. It is worth reading once, then you can close it with the ×.

Each entry here is one general product carbon footprint: a CO₂eq value, the standard it was calculated under, and the life cycle phases it covers. That is what most customers ask for and it is what this app supports.

Sector-specific footprints are not included in this version. Those follow an industry rulebook such as Catena-X in automotive, or PACT, and each carries that industry's own data model with its own extra fields. If a customer has asked you specifically for a Catena-X or PACT footprint, this section will not produce it. You can still record the underlying number here, but it will not be in that industry's format.

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Where to find it

Open the product and look at the tiles on its overview. Carbon footprint only appears once the product has one, so on a new product you add it first:

1. Click the Add information tile.
2. Tick Carbon footprint.
3. Confirm.

The tile now appears. Click it to open the section.

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The section

The heading reads Product Carbon Footprint. If there is nothing yet you see a short empty message. Add Carbon Footprint opens the form.

Each entry you save appears as a row showing:

• The value, for example 12.40 kg CO₂eq
• Underneath it, the calculation methods, the reference quantity, the publication date and the life cycle phases
• A paperclip if you attached a supporting PDF, showing its file name when you hover
• A chip reading valid to with the expiry date, if you set one. It turns orange once that date has passed
• Buttons to edit and delete

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A worked example

Take a made up pump maker who has just had an LCA done. The report says:

Producing one PUMP3000 causes 12.4 kg of CO₂ equivalent, covering raw materials, transport to the factory and manufacturing. Calculated under ISO 14067. Published March 2026, valid for three years.

That is one entry. Here is how the report turns into the form:

Form field	What they enter	Why
CO₂eq Value	12.4	The number from the report.
Quantity	1	The report is per pump.
Reference Unit	piece	They sell pumps by the item, not by weight.
Calculation Methods	ISO 14067	The standard named in the report.
Life Cycle Phases	A1-A3	Raw materials, transport in and production. That is exactly cradle to gate.
Publication Date	2026-03-01	When the report was issued.
Expiration Date	2029-03-01	Three years later.
Explanatory Statement	the LCA report PDF	So a customer can see where the number came from.
Goods Handover Address	already filled in	Their factory address, which the app copied from their manufacturer details. Cradle to gate ends at the factory gate, so it is correct as it stands.

Total time: a couple of minutes, and nearly all of it is copying from the report.

A year later the same customer asks what the pump costs to run. The maker has the use phase calculated too, at 340 kg CO₂eq over ten years. That does not replace the first entry. They add a second one, identical except the value is 340, the phase is B1-B7, and the publication date is the new one. Both rows then sit in the section, and a customer can see production and use separately.

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One entry, or several?

Add a separate entry for each life cycle phase or calculation method.

A single entry covering production only, calculated to ISO 14067, is a perfectly good start. Most SMEs begin there and never need more.

You would add a second entry when:

• You want to publish production and the use phase as separate figures, as in the example above
• You calculated the same product two ways for two different customers
• You issued a new calculation and want to keep the old one visible until it expires

Do not add up separate phases into one entry unless the calculation was actually done that way. The phases you tick have to match what the figure really covers.

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The form

Footprint value

Field		What to enter
CO₂eq Value	*	The figure itself, in kilograms of CO₂ equivalent. For example 12.4.
Quantity	*	How much product that figure covers. Usually 1.
Reference Unit	*	What that quantity is measured in.

Read the three together as one sentence. The form shows the example underneath: 12.4 kg CO₂eq per 1 piece.

If your report gives the figure in tonnes, convert it to kilograms. The field is always kilograms.

The unit list uses the coded values the standard expects, so the picker spells them out for you:

Code	Meaning
piece	one item. This is the usual choice for a manufactured product.
g, kg, t	gram, kilogram, tonne
ml, l	millilitre, litre
cbm	cubic metre
qm	square metre
kWh	kilowatt hour

Pick piece unless you sell your product by weight, volume, area or energy. A cable maker who quotes per metre of cable would use a length based reference instead, and a coating supplier would use qm.

Calculation methods

Required, and you can pick more than one. This is the standard your figure was worked out under. It matters because a CO₂ number means nothing without knowing the rules behind it. Two honest calculations of the same product under different standards can differ by a lot.

The five most widely used are listed first:

Method	What it is
ISO 14067	The main international standard for the carbon footprint of a single product. It applies the ISO 14040 and 14044 life cycle method to one impact, climate change. The usual answer for a manufactured product.
GHG Protocol	The GHG Protocol Product Standard. A widely used framework for the life cycle emissions of a product, usable in any sector.
EN 15804	The European standard for Environmental Product Declarations of construction products. Use it if your product is a building material.
ISO 14040, ISO 14044	The general life cycle assessment standards the others build on. Broader than carbon alone.
IEC TS 63058	An IEC standard for the environmental aspects of low-voltage switchgear and controlgear. Narrow, so use it only if that is your product.

Below those sit sector-specific ones. Use them only if you already know your industry expects them:

• PEP Ecopassport — electrical, electronic and HVAC products
• Catena-X (v1 to v3) — the automotive data ecosystem
• PACT (v1.0.1 to v3.0.0) — a cross-sector framework for exchanging supply-chain (Scope 3) footprints
• TFS (v2, v3) — the chemical industry
• BS PAS 2050, IEC 63366, IEC 63372 — other sector or regional standards

Picking one of these names records which rulebook was followed. It does not turn the entry into a sector-specific footprint, which this version does not produce.

If you do not know which method was used, ask whoever produced the figure. Guessing here makes the whole entry misleading.

Your selections appear as chips underneath so you can see them at a glance.

Life cycle phases

Required, and you can pick more than one. This says which parts of the product's life your figure covers. Without it a reader cannot tell whether 12.4 kg means just manufacturing or the whole life of the product.

The naming follows EN 15804. The letters group as follows: A is production and delivery, B is use, C is end of life, D is reuse.

The most useful choices are the aggregates, which the picker explains:

Phase	Covers
A1-A3	cradle to gate: raw materials, transport to your factory, and production
A4-A5	delivery and installation
B1-B7	the full use phase
C1-C4	the full end of life
C2-C4	transport, treatment and disposal

If you only calculated your own manufacturing, A1-A3 is almost certainly the right answer.

The individual phases are there too when you need them: A1 raw material supply, A2 transport to factory, A3 production, A4 transport to destination, A5 installation, B1 usage, B2 maintenance, B3 repair, B4 replacement, B5 update or refurbishing, B6 usage energy, B7 usage water, C1 reassembly, C2 transport to recycler, C3 recycling and waste treatment, C4 landfill, and D reuse.

Use an individual phase when your figure genuinely covers only that one. If your report says "energy used in operation", that is B6, not the whole of B1-B7.

Validity

Field		What to enter
Publication Date	*	When this calculation was published. It defaults to today.
Expiration Date		When it stops being valid. Optional, and it must be after the publication date.

Use the date on the report, not the date you happen to be typing it in. A customer reading the file wants to know how old the calculation is.

Set an expiry if your calculation is only good for a stated period, which is common when it was certified. Once that date passes, the row turns orange, so it is a useful reminder to recalculate.

Explanatory statement

Optional, but strongly worth doing. A supporting PDF for this entry, such as the LCA report or the certificate behind the number.

• PDF only, up to 100 MB.
• Upload PDF attaches one. Once attached the button reads Replace PDF, and an × removes it.
• The file is stored with this carbon footprint entry. It does not appear in your Handover Documentation, so it will not turn up among the manuals and datasheets a customer gets.

Goods handover address

All four fields are required. This is the point at which your carbon footprint statement is valid. For a cradle to gate figure, that is your factory gate.

Field	What to enter
Street	Street and house number.
ZIP / Postal Code	Postal code.
City	City.
Country / National Code	Country.

The app fills these in from your manufacturer address when you add a new entry, so normally you leave them alone. Change them only if the goods actually change hands somewhere else, such as a separate warehouse or a distribution centre.

Each of these accepts more than one language if you need it, but one is enough.

Saving

Add Entry saves a new entry, and Save Changes saves an edit. Cancel leaves without saving.

If the button is greyed out, look at the bottom left of the dialog. It lists exactly what is still needed, for example "Still needed: Calculation Methods, City". The form is long, so the blocking field is often below the fold and this line saves you hunting for it.

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Editing and deleting

The pencil icon on a row reopens the form with everything filled in. The bin icon deletes the entry.

One thing to know when editing: an attached PDF stays attached unless you actually change it. You do not need to upload it again just because you are correcting a number.

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Removing the whole section

The × on the Carbon footprint tile removes it from the overview. If the section is empty, the tile just disappears. If it holds entries, the app asks you to confirm and then deletes them. It is not just hiding the tile.

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Tips

• Start with one entry: A1-A3, ISO 14067, per 1 piece. That covers what most customers are actually asking for.
• Copy straight from the report. Nearly every field on the form is already stated in an LCA report. If you find yourself deciding rather than copying, check the report again.
• Attach the report. A number with a source behind it is far more convincing than a number on its own, and it is the first thing a serious buyer will ask for.
• Set an expiry date if your figure was certified for a period. The row turns orange when it lapses, which is easier than remembering.
• Do not invent a figure. A wrong carbon footprint published in a standard format is worse than none at all, because it travels and gets reused.

For technical users

Entries populate the Carbon Footprint submodel (IDTA 02023 v1.0), general ProductCarbonFootprint branch. Each entry becomes one ProductCarbonFootprint SubmodelElementCollection.

The ProductOrSectorSpecificPCF branch is deliberately not implemented, which is what the on screen scope note refers to. The external PCF API is not implemented either. The transport carbon footprint branch was removed from the standard, so it is absent by design rather than by omission.

The calculation method, reference unit and life cycle phase pickers store the standard's coded values verbatim. The picker only adds a plain English gloss for display, so A1-A3 is stored as A1-A3 and cbm as cbm.

GoodsHandoverAddress is mandatory in the specification, which is why all four address fields are required even though the app prefills them from the company record.

The explanatory statement is held on the carbon footprint entry itself rather than as a ProductDocument, so it does not leak into the HandoverDocumentation submodel (IDTA 02004-2-0).