1. Product Carbon Footprinting - A Golden Middle Path? 1

2. Global Product Carbon Footprinting - A Global Middle Path?ContentReality of emissions whos emitting?................................................3What is Product Carbon Footprinting?................................................3Benets.......................................................................................................4Whos doing it......................................................................................5Way ahead..........................................................................................5Sources...............................................................................................6EcoLogic Insights 2 3. Global Product Carbon Footprinting - A Global Middle Path?Reality of emissions whos emitting?The whole premise of Kyoto Protocol and Emission Reduction targets is based onthe fact that emissions, wherever they occur, are added to the same atmosphereand are going to cause the same increase in the CO2 concentration in theatmosphere. For Emission Reductions to become a reality, the emissions must bereduced globally and not just relocate from a developed country to a developingcountry, which seems to have been the case of result of outsourcing activity. Nodoubt outsourcing has an economic incentive, but from an emissions accountingpoint of view, it places developing countries in bad light to an extent much morethan they should be.For example - reality of Chinas emissions is that though they are created in China,they are disproportionately consumed in the developed world. So is the case formany developing countries for which exports to developed world are a signicantsource of income. Driven by their consumption pattern shift, many developingcountries may in fact be becoming bigger and bigger net importers of emissions,while claiming to have reduced emissions locally. This creates a situation where thedeveloping countries are asked for reducing their emissions, signicant portion ofwhich may not be consumed or utilized by them (for their own development).The debate on worldwide emission reduction uctuates between developedcountries funding the emission reductions in developing countries and developingcountries managing all the reduction (whatever they can and choose to) bythemselves. Between these extremes exists the possibility of carbon footprint ofproducts becoming universal knowledge and the world consumers graduallymoving towards low-carbon footprint products.What is Product Carbon Footprinting?Product Carbon Footprinting allows the businesses and the consumers to take aunique view of the product in terms of the individual product impact on climatedriven by carbon emissions created by manufacture, distribution, consumption anddisposal of the product. It identies the true drivers of GHG emissions in the entireEcoLogic Insights3 4. Global Product Carbon Footprinting - A Global Middle Path?life cycle and the supply chain of the product. Taking a view of the product life cycleoverlap with GHG emissions can enable more targeted emission reduction and costsaving initiatives. The steps in calculating Product Carbon Footprint are shown in the schematic This approach is known as the Publicly Available Specication (PAS) 2050. It provides a supply-chain oriented approach to carbon accounting by building a robust and consistent method of product level GHG assessment. PAS 2050 is based on process Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), an approach that isProduct Carbon Footprinting - Process commonly used in supply chain analysis to identify opportunities to reduce wasteand increase efciencies across an entire product system. The approach is notrestricted to efciency improvement measures limited to the boundaries of a singlecompany but requires an understanding of the processes involved in theproduction, distribution, use and nal disposal of a given product. Due to this cross-boundary nature of impact, the awareness created across the supply-chain, theefforts taken across the supply chain would have a multiplier effect and realignworldwide supply chains to low-carbon processes and technologies. Wal-mart hasrecently initiated efforts in a similar direction by demanding environmentaltransparency and performance improvement from all its suppliers. The modalitiesmay be slightly different, but the aim remains the same to inuence the entiresupply chain to integrate green thinking into multiple aspects of its business. Thisapproach has greater impact and lasting effects.BenetsComing back to the Product Carbon Footprinting, some companies who have usedthe PAS 2050 method have already reduced product-level GHG emissions byEcoLogic Insights4 5. Global Product Carbon Footprinting - A Global Middle Path?15-20%. Considerable cost savings have also been achieved due to energy andwaste efciency measures across the supply chain. Product carbon footprintingalso helps companies strengthen relationships with suppliers, particularly if it revealscost savings opportunities up the supply chain.Another benet that will accrueslowly over time is due to rising consumer awareness and demand of carboninformation of the products they choose. By communicating the carbon impact ofits products, an organization would also be able to differentiate its products inincreasingly cluttered markets and build an reputation of excellence.Whos doing it20 leading companies in the UK have worked with CarbonTrust (an independent company set up in 2001 with thesupport of the UK Government) to measure and reduce thecarbon footprints of their products. These companiesrepresent diverse industry sectors, from food and drink tobuilding materials and nancial services, diverse classes ofproducts from simple to complex in different channels, bothbusiness-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C). There is alsodiversity in the sizes and scale of operations. The benets have been in revealingtrue sources and drivers of emissions, leading tomore effective carbon reduction strategies. Thecompanies could also identify high-impact cost-saving opportunities across their supply chain. Thecompanies include multi-billion dollar multinationalcorporations such as Cadburys, Coca-Cola, morphyrichards, PepsiCo, TESCO and Kimberley-Clark.Way aheadFor the adoption of Product Carbon Footprinting to become widespread,businesses will need to answer for themselves - Whether low carbon products arenecessarily costlier compared to their high-carbon counterparts? How willEcoLogic Insights5 6. Global Product Carbon Footprinting - A Global Middle Path?companies compete on the Green image when more than a few players enter thisarea? World clearly needs clean products and cleaner information to enableconsumer choices to drive us in the right direction. Low carbon is the future, weneed a quick and efcient path to it.Sources1. Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), 20082. Product carbon footprinting: the new business opportunity, The Carbon Trust.3. The Right Green Metrics And the Wrong Ones, Harvard Business PublishingEcoLogic Insights 6 7. Global Product Carbon Footprinting - A Global Middle Path?EcoLogic Consultancy is a start-up consulting firm in the field of EnvironmentManagement. It provides services in wide spectrum of environmental field to help our clients to identify the opportunities, harness the potential, and solve their environmental challenges.For further details and discussion, you can reach us at enquiry@ecologicconsultancy.in / ecologicconsultancy@gmail.com020-400 96 279 / +91-90287 88430 www.ecologicconsultancy.inEcoLogic Insights7