Carbon Footprinting

Carbon is the new currency. Manufacturers and suppliers are being asked to undertake carbon footprint assessments of their operations. This can be due to retailers requiring suppliers to provide a footprint of their products, targets within the company’s environmental management systems, or commitments made under the Business in the Community’s May Day agreements. With businesses rushing to carbon footprint their operations it is easy to forget that the vast majority of a company’s carbon footprint is down to embedded impact or the use phase of the products and packaging that they produce. This impact is determined by the design of the product and packaging. It can account for over 95% of a company’s impact yet traditional carbon footprinting tends to focus on site-based impacts.