In this article, we will share with you the importance of global warming and the value of carbon footprints and life cycle assessments. You will find examples from the cleaning & hygiene industry, applicable in your cleaning operations.
In talks about global warming and our efforts to do something about it, most people refer to the carbon footprint of their activities, the things they do, and the products they use. But what does carbon footprint mean? What is included?
In this article, we will share with you the importance of global warming and the value of carbon footprints and life cycle assessments. You will find examples from the cleaning & hygiene industry, applicable in your cleaning operations.
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) are gases that are able to absorb long wave radiation (heat) that is reflected off the Earth's surface. They then reflect this radiation back down to Earth. If there were no GHGs in our atmosphere, the Earth would be too cold for life as we know it to exist. However, as more fossil fuels are burnt and other GHGs are released, the atmosphere can absorb more radiation and so is warming up. This is known as the greenhouse effect (the same mechanism as in greenhouses) and is occurring on a global scale.
In 2014, a report on climate change was published based on long-term scientific evidence. This stated that the increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations (and that is not only carbon dioxide (CO2) but also some other gases such as methane, nitrous oxide, and some more) over the past 100 years has predominantly been caused by human activities.
Think of “carbon” as a shortcut for all greenhouse gases (GHG) that cause global warming—not just CO₂, but also methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O), and others. A “footprint” is a way to describe the total impact something has. So, a carbon footprint is our best estimate of the climate impact of an activity, product, lifestyle, company, or even a whole country.
Emissions come from many sources—making electricity, farming, manufacturing—and they’re not all the same. To compare them, we use a common unit called CO₂ equivalent (CO₂-eq). This converts different greenhouse gases into the amount of CO₂ that would have the same warming effect. For example, methane is much more powerful than CO₂, so one kilogram of methane equals many kilograms of CO₂-eq.
In short:
Much confusion around footprints comes down to the distinction between direct and indirect emissions. To give an example: the true carbon footprint of driving a car includes not only the emissions that come out of the exhaust pipe, but also all the emissions that take place when oil is extracted, shipped, refined into fuel, and transported to the petrol station, not to mention the substantial emissions caused by producing and maintaining the car.
We distinguish different types and scopes of emissions:
Companies like us face the challenge of dealing with complex situations, such as the production of a wide portfolio of products in the same factory or factories, that then are all shipped to different places around the globe. What part of total emissions are attributed to what product? The only practical way to handle this is by proportional attribution, and probably best by volume.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) provides a framework for measuring the impact of, for example, a product. LCA assesses various aspects of environmental impact, depending on the LCA method applied.
If you want to assess the life cycle of a product, you need to define what that life cycle actually consists of. The system boundary defines which processes will be included in, or excluded from the system:
Life Cycle Assessment is a data-intensive, time-consuming activity with the compiling and evaluation of all inputs and outputs and the potential environmental impacts of a product system during a product's lifetime.
Software tools like Ecoinvent, GaBi, or SimaPro combine Life Cycle Assessment modeling and reporting software, and content databases with intuitive data collection and reporting tools to help in comparing impact scenarios. More than a thousand substances are classified and characterized according to the extent to which they contribute to a list of environmental impact categories. It still requires specific technical expertise and experience to complete a full LCA study.
Solenis' Product Carbon Footprint methodology is officially certified by TÜV Rheinland, aligning with ISO standards (ISO 14067:2018), signifying our commitment to transparency, quality, and sustainability.
The Product Carbon Footprint metrics for our products:
Please contact us to request Product Carbon Footprints of our products.
https://www.cdp.net/en
https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en
https://co2living.com/what-is-a-carbon-footprint-updated-2021/