The determination of the carbon footprint of a product (CFP-carbon footprint of product) for carbon neutralisation designed on the OurOffset platform can be done using several approaches.
The CFP calculation uses a “cradle-to-gate” approach to examine the following life cycle stages:
- production of raw materials and packaging materials,
- transport of materials,
- product manufacturing.
Delivery of the product and waste management after use of the product are not part of the study.
The service includes professional support consisting of the following main steps:
1. Kickoff: Coordination of the calculation steps, review of the production process.
2. Data collection: data for the calculation are collected from the product manufacturing company and from the ecoinvent 3.9.1 database (e.g. production of raw materials and packaging materials, transport processes, waste management processes, etc.)
3. calculation of results: building the product life cycle model based on the collected data in the openLCA software and calculating the carbon footprint using the IPCC 2021 methodology.
4. documentation: preparation of a document summarising the results of the calculation in one language (Hungarian or English).
For the successful implementation of the project, the product company must provide the following data and information:
- the weight and composition of the product and packaging materials,
- distance of suppliers and mode of transport,
- energy consumption in the production of the product, the amount and treatment of waste, the consumption of any other auxiliary materials and other emissions (all these data are calculated on an annual basis per product).
The CFP calculation takes into account the methodological guidelines of ISO 14067, but uses a “screening” approach, i.e. it considers the most relevant data in terms of carbon footprint and makes neglections and estimates for less relevant factors. The documentation may be shorter and summarised compared to the requirements of the standard.
The related calculations and the application of standards, reviews and audits will be carried out by an independent expert with 25 years of experience in life cycle thinking methods and tools.