Product carbon footprint in industrial companies: where to start

You know you have to calculate the carbon footprint of your products. Maybe a customer is asking you for it, maybe you saw it in a tender, or maybe it has simply been sitting on your to-do list for months without you knowing where to start.

The problem is not a lack of willingness. It is that, the moment you start thinking about how to do it, too many questions appear at once: what data do I actually need? Which methodology do I apply? Do I need to hire someone? Is this going to halt operations?

This article is about getting out of that deadlock. We are not going to explain why the product carbon footprint matters, you already know that. We are going to explain why most industrial companies get stuck when they try, and how to unblock the process.

The starting mistake: believing you need everything before you begin

The most common trap is thinking that to calculate a product's footprint you need perfect data, a closed methodology and an expert validating everything from day one. With that mindset, nothing ever gets started.

One of the reasons industrial companies get stuck is that they wait until all the information is consolidated before beginning. And that moment never comes, because energy consumption data sits in one system, material purchases are recorded in another, and supplier data lives in an Excel file someone updated six months ago.

The key is not to wait until you have perfect data, but to know which data is genuinely necessary for a solid first calculation and which can be estimated or left for a second iteration. The first product footprint calculations are reasonable approximations, based on the data available, with the assumptions well documented. And that is enough to get started, to respond to a customer and to lay the foundations of something that improves over time.

The three most common roadblocks (and how to overcome them)

1. "I don't know which methodology to apply"

The short answer: ISO 14067 for the product carbon footprint, or the GHG Protocol Product Standard, with a cradle-to-gate scope as a starting point. It is the most widely used reference, the one most industrial customers ask for and the one any auditor accepts. Both build on life-cycle assessment. To begin, you need to understand which life-cycle stages it includes and what data each one requires.

2. "I don't have the resources to do it internally"

Calculating a product footprint does not require a dedicated team or months of consultancy. It requires a clear process and the right tools.

The real problem is usually not a lack of people, but a lack of a system: data scattered across different sources, emission factors that have to be looked up manually, calculations in Excel that someone has to reconcile, and a report that has to be rebuilt every time a new request arrives. With that workflow, any company would need resources.

The difference lies in automating what is done by hand today. When data capture, the application of emission factors and report generation are integrated into a single platform, one person can manage several products, several customers and several formats without every request becoming a new project.

3. "Every customer asks me for something different"

This is the most frustrating roadblock and the most real. One customer asks for the figure in an Excel file with their own columns, another sends a form with a different methodology, and a third wants the calculation verified by an external party. If you treat every request as a new project, the effort multiplies indefinitely. The solution is not to adapt to each format: it is to have a well-built baseline calculation from which you can extract whatever each customer needs.

If you identify with any of these roadblocks, at Manglai we have prepared a guide for suppliers who need to respond as quickly as possible to their customers' product footprint requests. In it you will find how to interpret exactly what your customer is asking for, which data you need and how to structure that first calculation so you do not have to redo it every time.

Download the free guide

What you do need to get started

Instead of a list of impossible requirements, this is the real minimum to get going:

• Knowing which product or product family you will calculate first (start with the one you are asked for most or the one most representative of your production).
• Having access to the energy consumption of your production process, even if only approximately.
• Knowing the main materials that go into that product and their quantities per unit.
• Deciding which scope you will cover in this first phase (cradle to gate is enough to begin).

With that you can build a reasonable first calculation. Not perfect, but defensible, traceable and sufficient to answer most requests. Most of the impact usually sits in Scope 3 (raw materials and purchases), so that is where it is worth refining in the next iterations.

From the one-off response to a system

The goal is not to calculate a product's footprint once and forget about it. It is to reach a point where the next request does not cause you the same stress as the first.

That means being able to respond for more references, for different customers, in different formats, without it being like starting from scratch each time. It is not an unattainable goal, but it does not happen on its own either: it requires building the process well from the start. If your products go into sectors such as automotive, packaging or construction, the demands will arrive sooner and in more detail.

Automating that journey is exactly what Manglai's product footprint solution does: a baseline calculation in line with ISO 14067 from which to extract the answer each customer needs, without redoing it every time.

Download the free guide