On this page
- What a product carbon footprint is
- When a product carbon footprint is needed
- Functional unit and declared unit
- System boundary, cradle-to-gate or cradle-to-grave
- Product category rules
- Allocation in multi-product plants
- Primary data and data quality
- PCF study report, critical review and verification
- From PCF to EPD and CBAM
- How a product carbon footprint project runs
We carry out product carbon footprint assessments to ISO 14067:2018 for manufacturers in Turkey and for international companies buying from Turkish plants. Our ISO 14067 consultancy covers the declared or functional unit, system boundary, allocation, primary data collection on site, the PCF study report and preparation for critical review or verification. Results can be delivered in the format your customer asks for, including PACT-compatible data sets.
What a product carbon footprint is
A product carbon footprint (PCF) is the sum of greenhouse gas emissions and removals over the life cycle of a product, or over part of it, expressed in kg CO2 equivalent per functional or declared unit. ISO 14067 calls the full life cycle result a carbon footprint of a product (CFP) and a result for selected stages, such as cradle-to-gate, a partial CFP.
ISO 14067 applies the life cycle assessment rules of ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 to one impact category, climate change. It is the standard most verifiers use for product-level GHG statements, and the reference point for sector methods such as PACT. We set out where it departs from the other main method in ISO 14067 vs the GHG Protocol Product Standard.
When a product carbon footprint is needed
Most requests reach Turkish suppliers through their customers. A car parts maker, a chemicals group or a retailer needs supplier-specific PCFs to replace average values in its own Scope 3 inventory and to track its reduction targets. The request often names a method (ISO 14067, PACT v3 or a sector guideline) and a deadline.
Regulation is adding mandatory cases. Article 7 of the EU Battery Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 requires a carbon footprint declaration for electric vehicle batteries, rechargeable industrial batteries above 2 kWh and light means of transport batteries, phased in by category. For EV batteries the obligation starts 12 months after the Commission's calculation methodology delegated act enters into force, and that act had not been published in the Official Journal at the time of writing. The revised Construction Products Regulation (EU) 2024/3110 is phasing in declarations of global warming potential for construction products through delegated acts. In both cases, upstream suppliers will be asked for primary data.
Product claims are tighter too. From 27 September 2026, Directive (EU) 2024/825 bans claims in the EU that a product has a neutral, reduced or positive climate impact when they rest on offsetting. A PCF supports factual statements about a product's emissions, not "climate neutral" labels.
Functional unit and declared unit
The functional unit describes what the product does, for example one square metre of wall insulation with a thermal resistance of 2 m²K/W over 50 years. It is required when you assess the full life cycle and want results that relate to performance. For intermediate products whose final use is unknown, such as a kilogram of polymer granulate or a tonne of steel billet, ISO 14067 allows a declared unit instead.
Getting the unit right matters for comparability. A customer who compares your PCF per kilogram with a competitor's PCF per piece is not comparing like with like, so we state the unit, the reference flow and the product specification in every result we issue.
System boundary, cradle-to-gate or cradle-to-grave
The system boundary decides which life cycle stages are included. Most B2B requests ask for cradle-to-gate, because the supplier cannot know how the customer will use the product. Consumer goods and products with significant use-phase energy, such as appliances or vehicle parts that affect fuel use, often need cradle-to-grave.
| Stage | Typical contents | Cradle-to-gate | Cradle-to-grave |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raw material acquisition | Extraction and processing of materials, upstream energy, inbound transport | Included | Included |
| Production | Fuels, electricity, process emissions, packaging and waste at your plant | Included | Included |
| Distribution | Transport to customer, storage | Excluded | Included |
| Use | Energy and consumables during use | Excluded | Included |
| End of life | Collection, recycling, incineration, landfill | Excluded | Included |
ISO 14067 requires you to document, separately from the total, fossil emissions, biogenic emissions and removals, and emissions from direct land use change. We report these separately in the study report and in any data set we send to customers.
Product category rules
Product category rules (PCR) set common choices for a product group, such as the declared unit, boundary, allocation rules and data requirements. ISO 14067 expects you to use a relevant CFP-PCR where one exists, and ISO/TS 14027 describes how such rules are developed. In practice the PCRs of EPD programme operators, the EN 15804+A2 core rules for construction products and sector guidelines such as the Together for Sustainability PCF Guideline for chemicals and the Catena-X rulebook for automotive parts are the most common references.
If no PCR applies, we write a short methodology note that fixes these choices before calculation, and share it with your customer when they need to accept the method.
Allocation in multi-product plants
Most Turkish plants make more than one product on shared lines, with one gas meter and one electricity connection. Allocation splits those shared emissions between products. ISO 14067 follows the ISO 14044 hierarchy. First avoid allocation by sub-dividing the process, for example with sub-meters on specific lines. If that is not possible, allocate on a physical relationship such as mass, machine hours or energy content. Use economic value only when physical relationships do not reflect the cause of emissions.
Co-products and recycled content need explicit rules. We document the allocation basis for each shared input, test how sensitive the result is to the choice, and follow the PCR or customer guideline where it sets the rule.
Primary data and data quality
Customers increasingly ask how much of a PCF is based on primary data, meaning measured data from your own plant and your direct suppliers. PACT v3 asks companies to report a primary data share alongside data quality indicators. A PCF built mainly from database averages tells your customer little about your actual performance.
At your plant we collect fuel and electricity use per line or per product, material inputs by mass, yields and scrap rates, packaging and outbound transport. For purchased materials we ask your largest suppliers for their own PCFs and fall back on licensed databases such as ecoinvent only where supplier data is not available. Electricity is modelled with the Turkish grid factor, or with supplier-specific data where YEK-G or I-REC certificates meet the applicable quality criteria.
PCF study report, critical review and verification
The main deliverable is a CFP study report to ISO 14067. It records the goal and scope, unit, boundary, data sources, allocation, assumptions, results by stage and gas type, and the uncertainty and sensitivity analyses. We also provide the model, the data collection files and a summary data set in the customer's format.
Independent assurance can take two forms. A critical review to ISO/TS 14071 checks that the study meets ISO 14067 and is usually expected when results are disclosed publicly. Verification to ISO 14064-3 by an accredited body produces a verification statement on the PCF. Ekol Çevre does neither. We prepare the study so a reviewer or verifier can work through it efficiently, and we answer their findings.
From PCF to EPD and CBAM
An Environmental Product Declaration covers more impact categories than climate change and must follow a programme operator's PCR and be independently verified. If an EPD is the likely next step, we build the PCF model so it can be extended to the full set of EN 15804+A2 indicators. See our EPD consultancy and the comparison in LCA vs EPD vs product carbon footprint.
CBAM embedded emissions are not a PCF. They cover direct and indirect emissions of the production process plus relevant precursors, under rules set by the EU CBAM Regulation and its implementing acts, and exclude most upstream materials and transport. The plant data overlaps, so we keep one data set and calculate both results from it. Our CBAM embedded emissions calculation service covers the CBAM side.
How a product carbon footprint project runs
- Goal and scope (1 week). Products, unit, boundary, PCR or customer guideline, and intended use of results.
- Data collection (2 to 4 weeks). Site visit, line-level energy and material data, supplier data requests.
- Modelling and allocation (2 to 3 weeks). Life cycle model, allocation, emission factors and background data.
- Interpretation (1 week). Hotspots, sensitivity checks, uncertainty and data quality review.
- Report and data sets (1 to 2 weeks). CFP study report, customer templates or PACT-compatible data.
- Critical review or verification support (3 to 8 weeks). Depends on the reviewer or verifier.
A first cradle-to-gate PCF for one product family typically takes 6 to 10 weeks before review. Additional products made on the same lines can usually be added for much less effort. The wider context, including corporate inventories, is on our carbon footprint consulting page.