Carbon footprint/footprinting standards

One of the key methodological issues product carbon footprint standards have to deal with is whether capital goods should be included in the calculations. In some... 

Fantozzi et al. [73] presents the study of the carbon footprint of a typical food product in Central Italy truffle sauce. This is a mixture of vegetable oil and truffle in proportions of 33% and 67% respectively and minor components and spices (garlic, salt, pepper, etc.). Both truffles and olives are cultivated and harvested in a farm in Umbria (Italy). Olives are crushed in a mill that is situated few kilometers from the farm. Once it has been produced, the extra virgin oil, together with the truffle, is transported to another facility to produce bottled truffle sauce. The carbon footprint calculation is based on ISO 14076 technical standard. Product Category Rules (PCR) have been developed (see Table 7). 

ISO. ISO/TS 14067 Greenhouse Gases e Carbon Footprint of Products e Requirements and Guidelines for Quantification and Communication. International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, Switzerland, 2013. 

Table 1.1 Key Standard and technical guides in international use for carbon footprinting...

ISO, 2013. ISO/TS 14067 2013 Greenhouse Gases — Carbon Footprint of Products — Requirements and Guidelines for Quantibcation and Communication. International Standardization Organization, http //www.iso.oig/iso/home/store/catalogue tc/catalogue detail. htm csnumber=59521 (accessed October 2014). 

Environmental aspects of product design and development Environmental aspects in product standards Terms and definitions GHG management and related activities Measuring the carbon footprint of products. 

Replacing petro / fossil carbon with bio-based carbon by using plant biomass feedstock in place of fossil feedstock for the manufacture of plastic materials offers a strong value proposition for a zero material carbon footprint. It may also reduce the process carbon and environmental footprint. A methodology for quantification of bio-based carbon content has been developed and codified into the ASTM Standard D6866. Using bio-based carbon content calculations, one can calculate the intrinsic CO2 reductions achieved by incorporating bio-based carbon content into a plastic product - the material carbon footprint. 

A criticism often cited of the RlCs is that their usage stifles innovation [30]. As the standard limits the amount of filler that can be used in a container marked with anything other than a 7, biosourced fillers that have the potential to lower the carbon footprint of a part, find labeling causes a significant barrier for new products to be accepted. Similarly, multilayered bottles with outstanding barrier properties are also finding it more difficult to enter or stay in [31] the marketplace. 

Earlier in our group, au Excel VBA-based software tool—LCSoft—was developed according to the standard for the environmental impact and carbon footprint analysis (Piyarak, 2012). The tool contains three main parts (i) LCI knowledge managanent, (ii) calculation factor estimation, and (iii) LCA calculation. It is noted that US ERA and IPCC emission factors are used to calculate the enviromnental impact for a given process. Figure 1.4 and Table 1.2 present the framewoik and a short description of each step of LCSofL... 

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