Smart PCF allows companies to use the myclimate platform to determine the greenhouse gas footprint of their product ranges – it’s quick, straightforward and reliable. An AI system helps determine the emissions from as many different products as necessary. This analysis can be used to devise measures for further improvement.
Do you run an online shop or brick-and-mortar store with a wide product range, or are you a producer or merchant yourself? And would you like to determine the carbon footprint of yourcompany’s range of products? What is the environmental impact of your products throughout the entire value chain? How do you define clear, measurable targets for reducing emissions? And can you retain a competitive edge in a market that is increasingly driven by environmentally-conscious consumers? We can assist you with all your questions regarding the climate and environmental impact of your products with our new AI-based Smart PCF – a simple, automated way of determining the greenhouse gas emissions of a wide range of products.
You provide the data, we take care of the rest
The myclimate Smart PCF is directed at retail companies, both online and brick-and-mortar, and manufacturing companies with broad product ranges. Drink bottles, trainers, bicycle helmets, kitchen utensils – our AI system can determine the carbon footprint of individual products by using data from existing product life cycle assessments.
Once you have entered product-specific features such as category, price, weight and materials on the myclimate platform, an algorithm identifies patterns and similarities with familiar products to determine a realistic estimate. This provides you with a reliable result for as many items as you want, without major effort.
In light of the comprehensive and dynamic character of product catalogues in online shops, you can regularly load new products into the database, updating and refining the calculation principle as you go. The automated approach of the myclimate Smart PCF saves you time and vital resources.
Your benefits at a glance
Why?
Known product information such as price, weight, product category and material is compared with products in a validated database based on their characteristics. The greenhouse gas emissions per product are calculated according to the best match. The more similar the customer product is to a database product, the lower the uncertainty of the model.
The procedure for calculating the greenhouse gas footprint on the basis of validated database products complies with the ISO 14044 et seq. standard. Up-to-date and widely used background databases are used to calculate footprints. The translation of the results to your customer product is based on a clearly defined and investigated, constantly evolving algorithm, which was created and adapted for effective everyday use in collaboration with scientists from an ETH spin-off. The innovative process is currently being tested by TÜV Rheinland and is expected to be certified by spring 2024.
Yes, the calculation can be used as the basis for climate financing at the same volume which fulfils the requirements for the award of myclimate’s “Engaged for Impact” label. The products’ system bounderies are fully covered, and all relevant greenhouse gas emissions are calculated.
With a classic PCF, you receive information on partial emissions and a report that interprets these values and puts them into context. This is not the case with Smart PCF. You will only receive an emission value and information on accuracy. If you want to go into a detailed analysis in order to optimise your products, Smart PCF cannot provide you with complete information.
More about: Product Carbon Footprint
Smart PCF will always be a great option if you’re confronted with a large number of products where manual calculation would be far too time-consuming. Smart PCF allows you to quickly obtain a meaningful basis to make better decisions.
The method works best for all packaged goods, i.e. those that are sold by the piece and for which the product information on price, weight and product categorie is known. Raw materials and semi-finished products that are delivered in different volumes and for which, for example, only a price per kilogram is available, are not suitable. This means that most retail products are ideally suited.
The data uploaded to the platform is only visible to you and us. No information is passed on to other customers. Your data is stored on a server in Germany. For each customer, we manually calculate the greenhouse gas emissions for a number of selected products. The information on price, weight, product category and material is entered into our model for this purpose. These sample calculations can be used as a quality control for your product portfolio. If the quality is sufficient, the emission values are added to your data, and you can transfer them to your online shop/ERP.
After the data is transferred, you’ll receive feedback as to whether the data quality is sufficient for a calculation. Checks will then be carried out, for example, to see whether there are enough similar products in our database or whether they still need to be added. Depending on this, the result may be available to you as early as within a few days.
You can use the results to quickly identify the “climate killers” in your product portfolio. The information can help you to adapt your product range in terms of greenhouse gas emissions or to improve through eco-design (environmentally conscious product design). You can make the information on greenhouse gases available to your customers in your online shop. Show your customers how much CO2e their purchase produces in the shopping basket.
