What is the GHG Protocol Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard?
The 2011 Product Standard measures emissions and removals for one good or service from raw materials through production, transport, storage, use and end of life. A company inventory instead totals emissions across an organization and reporting period.
Why does the GHG Protocol Product Standard matter to you?
A customer may ask for a product carbon footprint rather than your company total. They may check the unit, life-cycle boundary, period, data, emission factors, allocation, exclusions and result by stage. A company total does not answer this.
How does the GHG Protocol Product Standard work?
Chapter 6 requires a reported unit and reference flow, the product amount behind that unit. Chapter 7 requires all product-related processes inside the boundary, a process map and justified exclusions. For owned or controlled processes, Chapter 8 requires primary data and a data-quality assessment. Chapter 9 says to avoid splitting shared-process emissions. Chapter 11 requires total CO2e per unit and the percentage by life-cycle stage.
What mistakes should you avoid?
- Sending a corporate Scope 1, 2 and 3 inventory when the customer asked for one product.
- Giving a result without the unit of analysis, reference flow or boundary.
- Deducting offsets or avoided emissions from the inventory result.
- Hiding shared-process allocation, proxies or excluded processes.
Can GHG Protocol Product Standard results compare two products?
No. Comparable claims need consistent product rules, units, boundaries, data and allocation. GHG Protocol says the standard alone finds life-cycle emission hotspots; it does not prove one product is better.
What should you send when a customer asks for a Product Standard footprint?
Send the result with the product description, unit, reference flow, process map, boundary, period, data and factor sources, allocation, exclusions, uncertainty and stage results. State whether it is cradle-to-gate or cradle-to-grave.