Accurate Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) assessment depends on high-quality, comprehensive data covering all stages of a product’s lifecycle. To calculate a precise PCF, companies must gather information from upstream suppliers, internal operations, and downstream processes. Key data types include:

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1. Raw material and component data

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Information on material types, quantities, extraction methods, recycled content, and production routes. These inputs strongly influence embedded emissions and are often the largest driver of Scope 3 impacts.

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2. Manufacturing and processing data

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Energy consumption, fuel use, process emissions, machine activity, and production yields from owned or controlled operations (Scope 1 and Scope 2). High-quality data in this area helps companies understand operational hotspots and identify reduction opportunities.

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3. Transportation and logistics data

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Transport distances, modes (e.g., truck, rail, sea, air), fuel types, and load factors — all of which significantly affect upstream and downstream emissions.

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4. Use-phase and end-of-life data

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Emissions resulting from product use, maintenance, disposal, recycling, or recovery. These stages can be critical for accurate lifecycle modeling depending on the product category.

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Primary vs. Secondary Data

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• Primary data from suppliers, manufacturing sites, and logistics providers is ideal because it reflects real operational conditions.
• Secondary data, such as industry averages or emissions factors from databases, fills information gaps when primary data is unavailable or incomplete.
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However, ensuring consistency, comparability, and completeness across these datasets is essential for achieving a reliable PCF aligned with ISO 14067 and the GHG Protocol.

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Sustamize as a data foundation for accurate PCF calculation

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Sustamize provides access to high-resolution, verified CO₂e datasets for materials, components, manufacturing processes, logistics, and more. These datasets enable companies to:

• fill supplier data gaps with reliable lifecycle-based values,
• standardize data across regions and suppliers,
• improve accuracy and audit readiness,
• reduce the effort required to calculate compliant and transparent PCFs.

By combining structured lifecycle methodologies with high-quality emissions data, sustamize ensures that businesses can conduct precise PCF assessments with minimal manual effort.

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Would you like to improve the accuracy of your PCF assessments?

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Get in touch with our team or request access to sustamize’s emissions databases to streamline and strengthen your product footprint calculations.