What is the carbon footprint of a product or service?
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A carbon footprint of a product of service is an assessment of
the greenhouse gas emissions that are released as part of the
product's lifecycle. This lifecycle consists of all the activities
associated with that product, and typically includes the following
stages:
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Raw Material inputs
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Manufacturing
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Packaging
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Distribution & Retail
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Use & Disposal
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Why should I calculate the carbon footprint of my products or
services?
There are many reasons why calculating a carbon footprint of
your products and services can be beneficial for your organisation.
It can enable you to:
- Identify cost savings across the supply chain
- Identify opportunities to reduce environmental impact through
reductions in material use, water, waste and energy
- Inform innovation for low carbon and sustainable product
design
- Understand supply chain risks
- Prepare for future legislation
- Enhance your brand and win tenders with business-to-business
customers though better environmental credentials, carbon labelling
and communications.
How can Footprint Expert help me?
Footprint Expert is a tool that enables you to calculate the
greenhouse gas emissions at each lifecycle stage in a simple and
consistent manner, to generate an overall carbon footprint for your
products or services.
The tool leverages the knowledge of the Carbon Trust to reduce
both the time taken and cost of calculating the carbon footprint
and has been designed to comply with the globally-recognised
product carbon footprinting standards, PAS 2050 and the GHG
Protocol Product standard..
You can use Footprint Expert by purchasing a 1-year licence,
which gives you access to all the components of the toolkit,
including:
- A framework that enables primary data to be entered quickly and
easily.
- A large database of secondary data that is compliant with the
PAS2050 and GHG Protocol standards, and which is regularly
updated.
- A set of calculators that are designed to minimise complexity
and ensure consistency. They cover common activities such as
domestic refrigeration, supermarket storage, road transport and
paper manufacturing, and new calculators are added in each
release.
- A guide that provides straightforward, prescriptive and
comprehensive guidance and rules on how footprint assessments
should be conducted.
- A hotspot calculator designed to calculate a top-line footprint
extremely quickly, without the need for a comprehensive
data-gathering process.
Contact us for further information
about a licence for Footprint Expert.
Your 1-year licence will entitle you to free upgrades during
this period, including new data, calculators and guidance
information.
How do I purchase Footprint Expert?
Applying for a Footprint Expert licence is a simple process:
- E-mail us at footprintexpert@carbontrust.co.uk
for an application pack
- Once you have completed the application pack, we will provide
all the files you need to run the software.
A standard single licence provides access for two named users,
although any number of additional users can be appended if
required.
For direct customers, a 1-year licence for access to Footprint
Expert costs £1,500+VAT, with a renewal fee in subsequent years of
£1000 plus VAT.
For consulting company users, a separate fee schedule. Contact us for further information on fees
and reseller options.
Training
Many users of Footprint Expert find that attending one of our
training courses is an invaluable help when starting their first
product carbon footprinting project. These courses are designed to
give a good overview of the fundamentals of carbon footprinting,
and provide practical advice on how to manage a footprinting
project. Delegates learn how to use Footprint Expert to calculate
the carbon footprint of a product or service, and gain practical
experience through a case study.
These training sessions are held in London and include lunch and
refreshments. The course costs £900+VAT per person and the
Footprint Expert licence is a prerequisite to the training course.
The next two-day training course will be held in London on 12-13th
June 2012.
Visit our events page or contact us for further details.
Our track record
The Carbon Trust are leading experts in product carbon
footprinting, having developed the PAS 2050 standard in partnership
with the British Standards Institute (BSI) and the UK government.
This was the first standard to establish a consistent methodology
to assess the greenhouse gas emissions associated with a product or
service throughout its entire lifecycle.
In addition, the Carbon Trust set up the first global carbon
labelling scheme, the Carbon Reduction Label, which has so far been
used by over 90 brands in 19 countries, with a combined annual
sales revenue of over £2 billion.
Footprint Expert incorporates the valuable experience and
learnings from all projects that have passed through the Carbon
Reduction Label scheme since 2008. It has been used by over 200
organisations from 26 countries, including the following: Dyson,
Pepsico, Coca-Cola, Tesco and M&S.