How do we calculate the carbon footprint?

There is nothing technically groundbreaking about this in itself, but the real reason for developing the calculator is a whole new way of thinking in the consumer products market. We want to use the calculator to determine the potential climate impact of new products that are still in the design phase, and the results will help us make choices to achieve the lowest possible carbon footprint for the final product. Of course, the emissions generated will be offset, but we believe that offsetting is just repairing the damage done, so our priority is to learn how to find solutions to reduce the emissions from our products.

Comparison of carbon footprints

To help you understand what the carbon footprints on our product pages are composed of, we have presented the emissions in diagrams. When comparing the carbon footprints of products from different brands, it's also good to know that different scopes can be used to calculate emissions, which will affect the final result of the calculation.
The most common scopes are:
1. Cradle to factory gate - all emissions from the manufacturing and packaging of the product
2. Cradle-to-customer - all emissions from manufacturing and transporting the finished product to the customer
3. Cradle-to-grave - all emissions associated with the manufacture, transport, use and eventual disposal of the product

Due to these different scopes, the carbon footprints reported by different companies may differ and may be difficult to compare without a deeper understanding of each company's carbon footprint calculation methodology. On our product pages, we show the cradle-to-grave emissions of a product.

Calculating the carbon footprint of our products in practice

The carbon footprint of our products has been calculated using emission factors available from Ecoinvent 3.8, OneClick LCA and CO2 databases, and in some cases emission factors from material and energy producers. The emission factor indicates how much greenhouse gas is emitted from, for example, the production of 1 kWh of electricity or the processing of 1 kg of wood used.

The country in which the electricity used was produced also affects the emission factor used. Greenhouse gases include not only carbon dioxide (CO2), but also other gases such as methane (CH4) that contribute to global warming. The scientifically determined emission factors therefore take all these into account and are expressed in terms of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e), i.e. all greenhouse gases are expressed in relation to carbon dioxide to make it easier to understand the total emissions. 1 kg of carbon dioxide is therefore equivalent to 1 kg of CO2e and, for comparison, 1 kg of methane is equivalent to 25 kg of CO2e.

In our calculator, those emission factors are used so that the mass (kg) of each material and its wastage factor have been determined for each product. These values are used to calculate the consumption of the material, which is then multiplied by the emission factor to give the carbon footprint of the manufacturing of each component material. Emissions from energy used in manufacturing are calculated by dividing the manufacturer's electricity and heat consumption for one year by the total number of products manufactured, resulting in an average of the energy used to manufacture each product. This energy consumed is multiplied by the emission factor of the energy form in question, resulting in the carbon footprint for the manufacturing of the product. Emissions from transporting raw materials, storing products and transporting finished products are added to the carbon footprint of materials and energy. In addition, emissions from the disposal of the product at the end of its life are included. This results in a product-specific carbon footprint.

While carbon footprints and climate impact have been discussed for some time, it is important to remember that not all emission factors and other data that affect the calculation are perfect and will be updated with new, more accurate and better data. This is another reason why we wanted to use a calculator. We don't just want to do it 'to get it off the agenda', we want to update our own data as science gives us more accurate and better information. It is still not mandatory, but we think it is the right thing to do.