Carbon Footprint (ISO 14067)

Every tonne of embedded carbon in products entering the EU now carries a financial cost. The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) imposes tariffs on imports based on their lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions, while the Digital Product Passport regulation requires carbon footprint data as a mandatory field for priority product categories from 2027. ISO 14067 provides the internationally recognised methodology for product carbon footprinting — defining system boundaries, functional units, and allocation rules that regulators and auditors accept as credible evidence.

Calculating a product carbon footprint is not simply tallying energy bills. ISO 14067 demands a lifecycle perspective: raw material extraction, processing, manufacturing, transport, use-phase energy, and end-of-life treatment. Each stage requires activity data from your supply chain, matched to appropriate emission factors. For manufacturers sourcing components from dozens of suppliers across the EU, China, and the US, gathering this data consistently is the bottleneck — not the calculation itself.

Sustalium solves the data collection problem by giving each supplier a structured input form for their portion of your product's lifecycle. Responses flow into a unified assessment where emission factors are applied automatically to produce a cradle-to-gate or cradle-to-grave footprint. The resulting calculation is traceable — every number links back to its source document — so when a buyer or CBAM verification body asks how you derived your footprint figure, you can demonstrate the full evidence chain rather than presenting an unsupported number.