Product Carbon Footprinting and LCA Fundamentals Training
A one-day methodology programme for organisations being asked how much carbon is embodied in a specific product rather than how much their company emits in a year. The question comes from three directions at once: customers running their own Scope 3 programmes, export regimes that price embedded emissions, and procurement processes that now score suppliers on product-level data. All three want a number built to a recognised method.
The programme teaches the method rather than a software package. Participants work through the four phases of a life cycle assessment on a simplified product, make and defend the decisions that determine the answer, and see how the same product can honestly produce very different numbers depending on functional unit, boundary and allocation choices. That understanding is what lets a company read a competitor's footprint claim, or a consultant's report, with appropriate scepticism.
HRD Corp SBL-Khas Claimable
Programme Agenda
9:00 AM - 9:15 AM
Welcome and Programme Overview
Introduction to the session, objectives, and housekeeping.
9:15 AM - 10:15 AM
Why Product-Level Carbon Data Is Being Demanded
The three drivers: customer Scope 3 inventories that need supplier-specific factors, regulatory regimes that price embedded emissions at the border, and procurement scoring. How a product carbon footprint differs from a corporate inventory, and why one cannot be derived from the other by division. The standards landscape: ISO 14067, the GHG Protocol Product Standard, and the ISO 14040 and 14044 pair that sit underneath both.
10:15 AM - 10:30 AM
Break
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Phase One: Goal and Scope Definition
The decisions that shape everything downstream. Defining the functional unit and why it must be a unit of service rather than a unit of mass wherever the product does a job. Setting the system boundary: cradle-to-gate, cradle-to-grave, gate-to-gate, and the cut-off criteria. Deciding on data quality requirements and the intended audience, since a footprint for internal improvement and a footprint for a public claim are not built to the same standard.
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Phase Two: Life Cycle Inventory
Building the process map and collecting inputs and outputs for each unit process: raw materials, energy, water, transport, direct emissions and waste. Primary data from your own operations versus secondary data from databases such as ecoinvent, and the quality hierarchy between them. Handling upstream data you cannot get, and documenting what you assumed.
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Lunch
1:30 PM - 2:15 PM
The Allocation Problem
What happens when a process produces more than one product, or when recycled material enters or leaves the system. The ISO hierarchy: avoid allocation by subdivision or system expansion where possible, then allocate by physical relationship, then by economic value. Why allocation choice is the single largest lever on many footprints, and how to disclose the choice so the number stays credible.
2:15 PM - 3:15 PM
Phases Three and Four: Impact Assessment and Interpretation
Converting inventory flows to global warming potential using characterisation factors, and the choice of GWP time horizon and IPCC assessment report. Reading the result: contribution analysis to find the hotspots that matter, sensitivity analysis on the assumptions that could change the conclusion, and uncertainty. Turning interpretation into a decision about the product rather than a number for a report.
3:15 PM - 3:30 PM
Break
3:30 PM - 4:15 PM
Verification, EPDs and Making Claims
Critical review under ISO 14044 and when it is mandatory. Environmental Product Declarations, product category rules and what an EPD gives you commercially. Communicating a footprint without straying into a green claim you cannot substantiate, and the specific wording risks around carbon neutral and net zero product claims.
4:15 PM - 4:45 PM
Applied Exercise
Participants scope a footprint study for one of their own products: functional unit, boundary, data sources, likely hotspots and the allocation decisions they will face.
4:45 PM - 5:00 PM
Wrap-Up and Q&A
Key takeaways, next steps, and close.
Key Outcomes
- Explain how a product carbon footprint differs from a corporate GHG inventory and why one cannot be derived from the other
- Define a defensible functional unit and system boundary for a given product and purpose
- Build a life cycle inventory using a mix of primary and secondary data, and document data quality
- Apply the ISO allocation hierarchy and disclose the choice made
- Interpret a result through contribution and sensitivity analysis rather than reporting a single figure
- Judge when critical review or an EPD is needed, and make product claims that can be substantiated
Training Mode Physical / Online / Hybrid / e-learning
HRD Corp SBL-Khas Claimable
Level Intermediate, suitable for sustainability, product development, engineering, quality, production and procurement teams in manufacturing and export businesses
Duration 1 Day (8 Hours) | 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Venue In-house at the client's premises, or delivered via the client's preferred platform (Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or equivalent)
Assessment 10 to 15 question knowledge assessment covering all modules
Certificate Certificate of Completion issued to all participants upon full attendance