Rising greenhouse gas emissions have resulted in climate chaos and consequent food and water supply disruption. A new internationally-agreed ISO standard for quantifying the carbon footprint of products aims to help reverse the damage by reducing the carbon footprint of products.
ISO 14067:2018, Greenhouse gases – Carbon footprint of products – Requirements and guidelines for quantification provides globally-agreed principles, requirements and guidelines to quantify and report the carbon footprint of a product. The standard gives organizations a means to calculate the carbon footprint of their products and provide a better understanding of ways in which they can reduce it.
ISO 14067:2018 replaces technical specification ISO/TS 14067:2013, which was upgraded to International Standard status after the market required a need a more in-depth document.
Key changes in ISO 14067:2018 include a greater focus on quantification, moving other topics such as communication to standards in the ISO 14000 environmental management family, improved clarity on a range of aspects such as calculating the use of electricity, and the introduction of specific guidance for agricultural and forestry products.
Daniele Pernigotti, Convenor of the working group that developed the standard, said the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change consideres measuring the carbon footprint as a key way of contributing to the achievement of international climate action goals.
“[Measuring carbon footprint] allows organizations to more accurately see where the main impacts on their carbon footprint are generated related to the production of their products, and thus take appropriate actions to reduce it,” Pernigotti said.
“For example, if it is related to raw materials, they can investigate using others, or if it is related to transport, they can look at improvements to their logistics model or investigate suppliers or distributors closer to home.”
ISO 14067 is part of the ISO 14060 family of standards for quantifying, monitoring, reporting, and validating greenhouse gas emissions to support a low-carbon economy.