The first is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method (which is more accurate and specific); the second is calculated through the energy and fossil fuel emissions used (which is more general). Use your car's carbon footprint as an example: The first method estimates all carbon emissions, starting with the car manufacturing (including all metal, plastic, glass, and other materials), driving, and disposal vehicles. The second method only calculates the carbon emissions of fossil fuels used to manufacture, drive and dispose of vehicles.
Life Cycle Assessment is a way to evaluate the environmental impact of a product (or a service) system during the entire phase of the life cycle (from the extraction and processing of raw materials, to product production, packaging, marketing, use, reuse and product maintenance, up to recycling and final waste disposal).
Product carbon footprint evaluation standards are basically based on the life cycle evaluation (Life Cycle Assessment, LCA) as the methodology, evaluating the carbon footprint of the whole product life cycle, not only including a certain stage of the product, but also need to go back to the raw material mining, manufacturing, and the final waste treatment stage, all need to be included in the calculation scope of the carbon footprint. To achieve this goal, the LCA method should be applied to improve the credibility and convenience of carbon footprint calculation.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which is divided into two calculation boundaries, from “Cradle to Gate”, and from “Cradle to Grave”.
The " carbon footprint” is an important tool used to combat climate change. It allows individuals and organizations to assess their impact on the environment, and also helps them understand where they emit greenhouse gases. This is extremely important to reduce carbon emissions in the future. The carbon footprint also sets a baseline for assessing future emissions reductions and is an important tool for determining where to reduce emissions in the future.
It is time for companies to achieve their carbon dioxide emissions reduction targets to develop a standard way to measure and reduce emissions across the supply chain. For the need for information transparency, reliability and consistency, the control of the carbon footprint and carbon emissions of products or services is critical, while gaining credibility for businesses.