The Hague, The Netherlands, Q4 2024: The Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) refers to the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by a product in its various life cycle phases. Either an entire life cycle (“cradle-to-grave”) or a defined life cycle phase (e.g. “cradle-to-gate”) can be considered.
Afera supports the European Green Deal’s (EGD) goal of reducing net emissions of GHG in the E.U. to zero by 2050 and becoming the first continent to become climate-neutral. Products of the adhesive tapes industry make a significant contribution to this goal. In this context, PCF value is becoming increasingly prominent as a key indicator for driving the transformation towards a sustainable, circular economy through innovation. It is an important index of the sustainability of a product, that, together with other indicators such as material and energy efficiency, durability and recyclability, make up a life cycle analysis (LCA). Availability of PCF is also a prerequisite for downstream users of a product to be able to calculate their GHG emissions (Scope 3 upstream). Users of adhesive tapes need specific information from their suppliers to be able to calculate the PCF of their own products accurately.
Established general standards such as ISO 14067 are used as a basis for the calculation of PCF, but specific assumptions are required for a particular sector or product. Values for raw materials, logistics and energy use contributing to a PCF can be obtained from industry averages or database values (i.e. secondary data), but data quality can be variable. Real-world data from a company’s own processes, as well as accurate (primary) data from third parties such as suppliers, service providers, end users and other players in the value chain, should be used whenever possible for calculating PCF. The availability of an aligned methodology and a curated tool for general use in a sector would facilitate the calculation of more accurate PCF values of a company’s own products and increase transparency along the value chain. An industry standard for the chemical industry, for example, was established in 2022 through the “Together for Sustainability” (TfS) initiative.
