Calculating Your Product Carbon Footprint (PCF)
Every product you buy and every service you use has a carbon footprint. That means that, directly or indirectly, the nice things you own add to the warming of our planet.
So far, the weight of responsibility has rested mostly on us – Regular Joe and Average Jane. There are tons of carbon calculators online for you to estimate your greenhouse gas emissions. For example, here’s one personal carbon footprint calculator from nature.org.
But now that I’m in the process of creating a product, I realize that industry needs to shoulder the blame, too. And it starts by understanding the environmental impact of your product.
The 2030 Calculator
Just like with your personal footprint, there’s also a similar calculator online for products. It’s called the 2030 Calculator. And it works by adding up the average emissions factors for materials, energy consumption and transportation.
This is what’s called a “Cradle to Gate” calculation because it factors in everything that goes into getting your product into store shelves.
The calculations are split into 11 different product categories. ‘2030’ factors in the weight of your product, its materials, the location and distances between suppliers, manufacturing facilities and distribution centers, as well as your method of transportation. It even includes calculations based on whether the energy source is renewable or not.
These are all “direct” emissions. In other words, everything that’s an immediate consequence of production. It doesn’t include the entire lifespan of the product or the impact of its disposal.
Take a look below to see how the 2030 Calculator rated the Visonic Dome once all the info got punched in:
Keep reading to see how my own calculations compare.
The calculation above is for each individual Dome, from the time it’s made to the moment it reaches your door.
As you can see, the bulk of the carbon footprint comes from the production itself. That’s probably because we will make the Visonic Dome in the United States, so shipping doesn’t have as huge of an impact as if it were made in China.
But as it turns out, I already did my own calculations.
Read below to see how the 2030 Calculator compares to my rough guesstimate.
Spoiler alert: the numbers differ.
1.) Materials & Production
Just like the 2030 Calculator, I started by researching the carbon impact of all the materials used to make a Visonic Dome. That’s because what your product is made out of has a big impact on its carbon emissions.
For example, consider the difference in energy used to form recycled aluminum vs carving a block of limestone.
Here are some questions to ask yourself about your product to help calculate its carbon emissions:
- How many different materials make up your final product?
- How much of each material do you need?
- Where is the source of each material?
- How will you transport those materials for final assembly?
For example, Visonic Dome production requires 5 different materials. These include 2 types of plastic, stainless steel for the chamber, a ceramic transducer, and a silicone button.
Most of these are available in the United States. That helps reduce our carbon impact by minimizing shipping (more on that later), since we assemble Visonic Dome in the USA.
Calculation breakdown
Here’s how Visonic Dome materials and production methods add up:
- Stainless steel production has a carbon footprint of 2.9kg CO2e per kg.
- A deep draw hydraulic press uses 0.28 kw per hour.
- By using this online calculator, we can estimate the CO2 equivalent of forming each stainless steel chamber at 0.065 kg
- A deep draw hydraulic press uses 0.28 kw per hour.
- Shipping the stainless steel chamber to the United States for assembly requires a voyage by sea followed by transport by truck to the assembly site.
- Shipping all of the chambers from Asia to the East Coast is a distance of 11025 nautical miles.
- Transit by sea produces 0.025kg of CO2e per km per tonne.
- Shipping those same chambers to the production site is an additional distance of 1500 km
- Transit by truck produces 0.105kg of CO2e per km per tonne.
- Shipping all of the chambers from Asia to the East Coast is a distance of 11025 nautical miles.
- Polycarbonite plastic has a footprint of 6.3 kg CO2e per kg.
- And virgin polypropylene has a carbon footprint of 3.5 kg CO2e per kg.
- Running an injection mold machine creates the equivalent of 5,114 CO2 kg per day.
- We guesstimate the entire production run for the plastics will take no more than 3 days.
- Running an injection mold machine creates the equivalent of 5,114 CO2 kg per day.
*All links go to data sources.
Carbon footprint of materials:
3.6798 kg CO2e per Visonic Dome
2.) Packaging
Packaging material and design choices are another way to avoid excess carbon emissions.
Here are some questions to consider when calculating the footprint of your packaging:
- How big is the packaging?
- Where is your supplier?
- Is the material recycled?
Recently, many companies have moved away from plastic packaging out of environmental concerns. But some studies have found that highly recyclable plastics like Polypropylene actually result in fewer greenhouse gas emissions than paper. And since plastic is lighter, it may also reduce emissions associated with shipping. So maybe it’s worth a second thought.
Nevertheless, for the moment the plan is to make our own packaging out of recycled cardstock, just like my dad’s original. The only difference between then and now is a big one: the size.
When my dad made his ultrasonic contact lens cleaner, the packaging had to stand out on retail shelves. So it had to have a certain height and width.
This time, we’re making the Visonic Dome exclusively for Kickstarter supporters. So we’re not restricted in how big or small the box has to be. For that reason, we can make the packaging at least 30% smaller.
Again, here’s how we’re breaking it down:
- The box will weigh no more than 70g.
- Virgin cardboard production has a footprint of 0.326kg CO2e per kg.
(I was unable to find a figure on recycled paper)
- Virgin cardboard production has a footprint of 0.326kg CO2e per kg.
- Since we’re printing and creating the packaging near the manufacturing site, there’s no need to calculate transport.
Carbon footprint of packaging:
0.02282 kg CO2e per Visonic Dome
3.) Shipping
Finally, you’re going to have to get your product into your customer’s hands. And unless you deliver it by bicycle, that’s going to generate more greenhouse gasses again. Feels like it never ends, doesn’t it?
Let’s consider some variables that will impact the carbon footprint of shipping your product:
- How much does your product weigh in its final box?
- Is it shipped directly to your customers?
- Will it travel by land, sea, or by air?
- How far is it from your manufacturing site to your distribution center?
- How far away is your average customer from your distribution center?
As for the Visonic Dome, we’re planning on picking our distribution point after the Kickstarter campaign concludes. The reason for that is to wait and see where the majority of our backers live. Since 85% of Kickstarter backers live in the United States, I’m expecting a similar number for our own Kickstarter campaign.
The only question is if they live on the East Coast, or the West.
Depending on the final results, the distribution site might be on one of the coasts or somewhere in between. For that reason, most backers will get their Visonic Dome with minimal shipping.
Even so, I decided to calculate the carbon emissions in a “worst case” scenario where the backer lives on the other side of the country of our distribution site.
- In the box, ready to ship, each Visonic Dome weighs about .5 kg
- Shipping by land creates 0.105kg of CO2e per km per tonne.
- Shipping from the production facility to the West Coast is about 3200 km
- Shipping across the entire USA is another 5300 km
Carbon emissions from shipping:
0.44625 kg CO2e per Visonic Dome
4.) Known unknowns
Despite my best Google searches, there are still some components that I couldn’t put a carbon value to.
There’s a study online that looked at Printed Circuit Boards like the one in every Visonic Dome. But I couldn’t access the study. Bummer.
Likewise, I had trouble finding a suitable study on the impact of producing ceramic products, like the the kind we use for the ultrasonic transducer. Same goes for the silicone button. The ‘2030 Calculator’ has data for ceramic and silicone components, but they don’t provide their sources. Another bummer.
Another factor that’s not part of my calculation is the greenhouse gas emissions of making an injection mold. I know that it’s made of aluminum. But the mold itself is hollow and requires water cooling. Honestly, I don’t know how to calculate for something like that.
My shipping estimate also only goes as far as an American user. Obviously, shipping overseas is much more carbon-intense. The Visonic Dome carbon footprint will be higher if you live in Europe.
(Have you considered moving to beautiful Wyoming? No? OK.)
In addition, all of the materials used to make a Visonic Dome are easily recyclable. That means that it’s possible that some of the plastic or steel could actually have a smaller carbon footprint than stated.
For these reasons and more, the final calculation is definitely not the real-world value. But I hope it gives us all a way to reflect on the environmental impact of the products we buy and a goal to work toward reducing.
Final Carbon Footprint Score:
1 Visonic Dome = 4.14887 kg CO2e
This is obviously a huge difference from the 2030 Calculator. In fact, it’s more than 2.5 times their calculation.
The biggest polluter in our production chain by far is running the plastic injection mold machine. This raises some questions. Is my number based on faulty data? Have I calculated it incorrectly? Or is the 2030 Calculator really that far off?
How to reduce your PCF
So, now you hopefully have a better understanding of the greenhouse gas impact of your product and how to calculate your product carbon footprint. The next step is to try to reduce that impact as much as possible.
Here are some changes to consider that can reduce your PCF:
- Consider a change of vendor sources
- Look for alternatives closer to your manufacturing site
- Experiment with switching your existing materials for newer, more efficient choices
- Think about sourcing recycled materials where it makes sense
- A new packaging design might save weight and space to reduce emissions from shipping
- Locate where most of your customers are and set up your distribution site nearby
In my case, (assuming my numbers are halfway right) it seems the best choice is to minimize the impact of the plastic injection mold machine. We could do that by designing a “multiple cavity mold.” That would allow us to make 2 or 3 Domes at once and potentially cut those carbon emissions in half or more. Unfortunately, it’s also many times more expensive and so outside the budget of this limited production run.
Carbon Offset
Another way to reduce the environmental impact of your product is to offset the carbon emissions.
That’s why I’m partnering with Tree Nation. By planting thousands of trees, or a tree for every backer, we can totally offset the carbon emissions of producing the Visonic Dome. A true net-zero product.
A single tree from a Tree Nation project can absorb as much as 20kg of CO2 every year. And with a lifespan of 20 years, we’re looking at a carbon offset in the realm of 400kg or more. In other words, literally 100 times the carbon impact of making a Visonic Dome.
Another benefit of working with Tree Nation is that it’s totally transparent. Every backer gets an email with the species and location of the tree that their support helped to plant.
