Location
Global
Project Practice Areas
Life Cycle Assessment – GHG
Type of Facility
Specialty Chemical Manufacturer
Project Specifics
This specialty chemicals manufacturer was receiving customer requests for product carbon footprints (PCFs) for their products. The company retained Geosyntec to perform a life cycle assessment (LCA) to estimate the PCF associated with select chemical products produced at multiple locations.
Geosyntec Scope of Services
Geosyntec performed an LCA using the company’s corporate scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emission data to estimate the cradle-to-gate life cycle carbon footprint for five individual products and one family of products produced at two of the company’s facilities. The LCA was performed following the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14040 and 14044 requirements and guidelines. The LCA was also aligned with the guidelines published by Together For Sustainability; The Product Carbon Footprint Guideline for the Chemical Industry: Specifications for product Carbon Footprint and Corporate Scope 3.1 Emission Accounting and Reporting.
Notable Accomplishments
Geosyntec conducted the LCA using a facility-level approach in which PCFs were calculated by allocating total scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions associated with a production facility to the individual products the facility manufactures. This approach was selected due to the large number of chemical products that the company manufactures and the complexity of interconnectedness within the manufacturing processes
The PCF results were benchmarked against comparable products from the chemical industry. Where benchmark values were unavailable for certain products, proxy products were identified for comparison.
