The carbon footprint represents the emission of greenhouse gases attributable to a product or service.
The carbon footprint of products or services can consider the overall GHG emissions of all life stages of the product/service 'from cradle to grave' or ‘from cradle to gate’ depending on the CFP-PCR (carbon footprint product category rules) or PCR (Product Category Rules) applicable (if any).
The CFP systematic approach is a series of activities developed by an organization through a set of procedures, in order to facilitate the development of CFPs for more products within the same organization. This is applicable when the same set of data and allocation procedures are applicable for all its products.
Emissions reporting allows you to:
- emphasise your attention to the climate change
- market low-impact products
- create value from a transparent relationship with customers through the reporting of emissions
- identify improvements, thanks to the constant monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions, as well as criticalities of your product or service.
Regulatory Focus
The reference standards are:
- PAS 2050:2011- Specification for the assessment of the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services
- GHG PROTOCOL - Product life cycle accounting and reporting standard
- ISO 14067:2018- Greenhouse gases — Carbon footprint of products — Requirements and guidelines for quantification.
Verification Procedure
- compilation and submission of the questionnaire for the formulation of the offer
- documentary verification: strategic analysis, risk analysis, evaluation of the emissions inventory, data collection methods, calculation methodologies, communication
- process verification: on-site verification of data acquisition and modelling of calculations performed within the software used for the analysis
- reporting: writing of verification report and preparation of draft verification opinion/ verification certificate (in case of CFP Systematic Approach certification)
- independent file review and decision (following the completion of the verification review, a decision is made whether or not to confirm the organisation's study).
Why RINA?
RINA has gained long-running experience with LCA - Life Cycle Assessment, which is the basis of the Carbon Footprint scheme and Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for which RINA is accredited since 2004.
