As component of the “Together for Sustainability” (TfS) project, 37 chemical firms, notably BASF, have decided on a worldwide framework for assessing product carbon footprints (PCFs). Item carbon footprints are essential for directing pollution across the value chain.
The revised TfS Standard for Product Carbon Footprint includes specific assessment procedures for toxic pollutants from “cradle to gate.” It unifies industrial PCF calculation methodologies and is appropriate to the large proportion of chemical goods.
This will allow enterprises in numerous industries that use chemicals, as well as the general market, to directly evaluate and analyse the climate effect of goods in the future.
“We at BASF are proud to contribute to this guideline through our pioneering work in PCF calculation and methodology over the past years,” said Dr. Christoph Jäkel, Vice President of Corporate Sustainability at BASF. “This industry-wide agreement among leading global chemical and process industry manufacturers as members of TfS brings us a big step closer to achieving unrestricted comparability of product carbon footprints and, therefore, a level playing field within the chemical industry.”
BASF has been freely disclosing its PCF calculation technique with manufacturers, consumers, and partners in order to promote uniformity. This technique adheres to the essential ISO norms (ISO 14040, ISO 14044, and ISO 14067) as well as the Green House gases Agreement Product Standard, but is more stringent and tailored to the chemical sector.
Furthermore, in order to allow the sector to execute carbon reporting at scale and enhance PCF data availability, BASF has been licencing its technology solutions for product carbon footprint computation to software development companies.
“Such groundwork has brought things to the next level. We now have an even more wide-reaching and comprehensive guideline to assess the PCFs of chemical materials in a consistent fashion that has been jointly developed and officially endorsed by many global leaders in the chemical industry,” said Prof. Dr. Peter Saling, Director of Sustainability Methods at BASF and Chair for the guideline development at TfS.
BASF plans to help ensure the success of the TfS project by completely aligning its existing PCF calculation technique with the stated TfS sectoral standard as a part of its approach to methodological standardisation. Simultaneously, BASF’s breakthrough software application for computerized PCF calculation, which was presented to the market through a partnership ecosystem, will support the TfS calculation requirements.
Together for Sustainability (TfS) is an international, acquisition programme founded by chemical corporations to examine, evaluate, and improve the sustainability standards of their worldwide supply chains. The programme has expanded into a global organisation with local participation in North and South America, and Asia and is founded on the UN Global Compact and Responsible Care ideals.
