behind the bottle

carbon footprint modeling

if we're going to fix anything, we've got to look at everything

One of the challenges of managing & improving the carbon footprint of a product is measuring it accurately in the first place. A second, even more difficult challenge, is scope. How far up the supply chain can you measure your impact? In today's complex global supply chains, even gaining access to the information needed to measure carbon becomes very difficult. This is often referred to as the "Scope III" emissions. It represents all those indirect emissions upstream in the supply chain of your product.

The tough reality is that for most products, 80-90% of the overall carbon footprint of a product occurs upstream in the supply chain. And almost no one measures them. When you see carbon footprint information, it's invariably only the direct emissions associated with production of the finished product, and therefore an incomplete picture of the real carbon footprint.

We use Rapid Carbon Modeling, a software tool developed by Planet Metrics, which uses lifecycle data overlaid with macro-economic data to fill in gaps and give an accurate picture of a product's total carbon footprint.

The important thing about this capability is what it allows us to do. By looking at "heatmaps" of our full supply chain impact, like the one here, we can see exactly where our impacts are and build our strategies around where we can make the biggest improvements.

The reason this is so important is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to carbon footprint reduction. As you can see from this example, the majority of the impact of method's Squeaky Green Laundry Detergent is in the detergent itself, while in our All Purpose wipes, it's in the packaging. Most companies simply focus on one attribute — packaging reduction, using more natural ingredients — and, as this example shows, a unilateral strategy means sometimes you're focused on the wrong things. This modeling capability allows method to focus on different activities with different products to achieve maximum benefit. It's like having X-ray vision into your supply chain.

In a recent example illustrated below, the modeling process revealed that our new super-concentrated method laundry detergent has a carbon footprint 35% lower than a typical 2x detergent. In another example, we switched the packaging of our multi-surface wipes from the traditional canister style that everyone uses to a lightweight flat pack. From modeling the carbon implications of that change, we know that we reduced the total carbon footprint of the product by 65%.

For more information on Planet Metrics, go to www.planetmetrics.com