Some surveys sent out by customers may in addition to questions about your net zero journey, also contain a request for any product carbon footprints (PCFs) you have available for products you sold to that customer.
What is a product carbon footprint?
A product carbon footprint is a broad term used to refer to any document that specifies the amount of CO₂e produced per functional unit for a specific product. The functional unit is defined as part of creating the footprint and might be (for example) per kilogram or item.
Common formats that can contain a product carbon footprint include
- A Lifecycle Assessment (LCA)
- An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)
- A product carbon footprint (PCF)
These documents are usually available in an internal repository maintained by your sustainability team in your company and are sometimes published online.
What type of product carbon footprint are you looking for?
PCFs can be available as cradle-to-grave or cradle-to-gate. In the case of the Engagement Survey, we request the cradle-to-gate footprint as this is what is relevant to the emissions of the customer suggesting the footprint.
What if I don't have any footprints to share?
This is fine. Normative customers use the survey to learn what their suppliers do and do not have available. Specifying that you don't have any and/or whether you plan on creating some in future will still give them the insight they need.
What do I need to share?
If you have footprints available you can share up to 10 of those through the survey. For each one you will be asked to provide:
- The name of the product
- (Optional) Acomment
- (Optional) The emissions and functional unit of the product
- Any report or documentation you have of the footprint
- (Optional) Where it has been published
- Whether the footprint has been audited