Harmonized PCF Data: Addressing the Complexity of Scope-3 Accounting

TAGS:  Sustainability / Natural Adhesives    

Most transition pathways, including that for the chemical industry, aim to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

Organizations looking to reduce their carbon footprint must not only focus on reducing direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but also indirect emissions, which are more challenging to account for.

Case in point, the scope 3 emissions, which are particularly complex to track and trace as the reporting company needs to internalize many of the indirect processes along its value chain.¹

These include upstream and downstream sources, which are essential for assessing a company’s carbon impact at both, the organizational level and product level. Product-level accounting is an integral part of assessing the corporate-level carbon impact and Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) is one of the most established methods available today.

Let’s analyze how harmonizing PCF data along the entire supply chain would enable you to easily track the scope 3 emissions and reduce GHG emissions so that your adhesives can meet the net-zero targets.

Enabling Compliance with Upcoming EU Regulations

Achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 is one of the key objectives of the European Green Deal. During the transition, supporting environmental claims with hard data will be a necessity to comply with upcoming EU regulations.

An interesting example is that of the EU Battery Regulation. To quote the official page European Platform on LCA², the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission “is currently working on the definition of carbon footprint rules for rechargeable Industrial Batteries except those with exclusively external storage (CFB-IND)”

The EU Commission, with the goal of establishing a common methodology for measuring environmental performance, proposed the following methods:

• Product Environmental Footprint (PEF)
• Organization Environmental Footprint (OEF)

While both, PCF and PEF focus on GHG emissions, the latter goes beyond to include more environmental impact categories (such as resource use, ecological- and social-factors), adding further complexity. Though PEF reporting is currently voluntary, it is expected to be legally required as part of the Digital Product Passports (DPPs) in the upcoming Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR).³

	Carbon Footprint GHG emissions	Environmental Footprint GHG emissions + Other Impact Categories
Product-level	PCF Product Carbon Footprint	PEF Product Environmental Footprint
Organizational-level	CCF Corporate Carbon Footprint	OEF Organizational Environmental Footprint

Product- and Organizational-level Accounting of Carbon Footprint and Environmental Footprint
The less extensive scope of PCF, in comparison to PEF, makes it a good starting approach to assess product-level impact.

The need of the hour is the availability of harmonized PCF data across the supply chain. This will enable companies and their B2B customers to track their scope 3 emissions and reduce GHG emissions.

Harmonizing PCF Data: Industry Standards and Initiatives

In the case of chemical companies, products developed by them are inputs to a large number of downstream sectors. This places the chemical and materials industry in a unique position where it can play an instrumental role in managing GHG emissions along the supply chain.

The different product-level carbon accounting standards, which provide information on how to conduct PCF measurements, include:

• ISO 14067⁴
• PAS 2050⁵
• GHG Protocol Product Standard⁶

Based on these standards, various collaborative industry initiatives have developed guidance for PCF calculations. Prominent examples include:

➤ Partnership for Carbon Transparency (PACT) — The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) launched this initiative to provide guidance for the accounting and exchange of product-level primary emissions data across the value chain. To further harmonize existing standards and provide a network for exchanging data, PACT⁷ has developed the Pathfinder Framework.

➤ Together for Sustainability (TfS) PCF Guidelines — With this goal of making chemical supply chains more sustainable, TfS – an industry-led initiative⁸ driven by chemical procurement specialists – has designed upstream scope 3 guidance for PCF calculation, reporting, and auditing.

European Adhesive Tape Industry Contributing to PCF Data Harmonization

Tape is the unseen green partner, enabling sustainable solutions in other industries and ensuring the continuity of entire industry value chains.

As enablers of material efficiency, durability, repairability, upgradability, recycling, and CO₂ reduction, the products of the adhesive tapes industry make an important contribution to achieving the goals of the European Green Deal and at the same time must show themselves to be CO₂-neutral by 2050 at the latest.

To achieve this, European adhesive tape manufacturers need a uniform, recognized standard for measuring the sustainability of adhesive tapes for product designers, engineers, and everyone else in the adhesive tape value chain, as well as regulatory bodies. Against this background, PCF is becoming increasingly important within the tape industry as well.

The Web-based Afera PCF Calculation Tool

Responding to this need, Afera, the European Adhesive Tape Association, as part of the Flagship Sustainability Project, partnered with the German Adhesives Association, IVK. Together, they have collaborated with Sphera – a specialized provider of sustainability consulting services – to develop a web-based, sector-wide tool for PCF calculation of both adhesives and adhesive tapes using a harmonized, straightforward, and affordable method.

A series of four workshops were conducted in 2023 in order to scope and build industry-specific PCF tools. For the tape tool, Afera recently shared the important agreements⁹ that were reached.

Calculation Methodology	To be based on ‘ISO standard 14067:2018: Greenhouse Gases – Carbon Footprint of Products’ through an expansion of the Together for Sustainability (TfS) PCF Guideline
Scope	Cradle-to-gate  For reporting within B2B for the time being
Functional Unit Unit	CO2 eq. per sq. m of tape, with a conversion factor (surface area to mass)
Parameters	‘Open parameters’ [raw material, waste (including treatment), energy use, warehousing, packaging] ‘Fixed parameters’ [transportation, auxiliary materials]
Data	Primary data from suppliers possible to be incorporated Secondary data sets to be compiled by Sphera with input from Afera
Timeline	Raw materials clusters and model processes – Q4 2023 Data collection – H1 2024 Draft tool delivery (MVP) – Q3 2024

Afera PCF Calculation Tool for Tape Industry: Key Features and Next Steps
The PCF tool, being designed for adhesive tape manufacturers with the entire tape value chain in scope, is currently in the development pipeline. The tool will not require a high level of expertise for use and will be accessible to non-LCA experts to produce PCF values confidently.

Both the input and results will be certified, allowing businesses to meet future legal requirements as well as the demands of the supply chain. It will be updated and expanded and, in the future, more sustainability aspects, such as PEF and Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), may be incorporated into the tool.

For more information regarding the development and accessibility of the tool, visit Afera’s PCF Calculation Tool.

To access more information, get in contact with Afera.