Digitalization and LCA: Driving transparency together
February 01, 2025
How digital tools increase accuracy and transparency in carbon-footprint calculations
1. What challenges do PCF calculations present, and how can automated tools solve these challenges?
Traditionally, most PCFs were calculated manually, using average or proxy databases rather than supplier-specific ones. This limited their accuracy, comparability, and data quality rating (DQR) and, in turn, their value.
PCFs also need to be updated regularly to be useful. But, since manual calculation is highly time-consuming, either the frequency of these updates or the number of PCFs that can be calculated were traditionally limited.
With growing legislative pressure to decrease emissions, it’s becoming even more important to identify the right levers for change. LCA tools like ours address this need by using automation and supplier-specific data. Automation allows for larger sets of data to be processed and analyzed more efficiently, and the use of primary data enables more accurate calculations.
2. What’s the link between digitalization, transparency, and sustainability?
Everything begins with digitalization! Digitalization enables us to gather and process larger data sets in an automated way. This increases efficiency and makes annual data updates easier. Only through digitalization can we access real data, at scale, efficiently enough.
Digitalization can also help with data sharing. For example, the data from our tool can be integrated into platforms like Catena-X or SiGreen to enable a harmonized data exchange with our partners along the value chain.
And it’s only by sharing this more accurate data that we can increase transparency. This is key to finding the most effective areas to reduce emissions – for us, for our partners further along the value chain, and all the way to end-consumers. Transparency also creates trust, so that we can not only create more sustainable products, but also increase their market uptake.
“No-one can do it alone. We rely on our suppliers to get more detailed data on the footprints of our raw materials. Our customers rely on us for the data that they feed into their own calculations. And we all need to partner with industry associations to ease comparison and exchange of sustainability data”
3. Why is partnership essential to boosting sustainability?
Players across the whole value chain depend on each other to improve their sustainability – especially when it comes to exchanging the data that helps us do this. It’s precisely because this is challenging that we must work together. Transparency also supports more effective partnership: with more detailed data, we’re better able to work together to reduce our carbon footprints.
No-one can do it alone. We rely on partnerships with our suppliers to get more detailed data on the footprints of our raw materials. Our customers rely on us for the data that they input into their own PCF calculations. And we all need to partner with industry associations to agree on standards to ease comparison of sustainability data. It’s great to see this harmonization and exchange of data already happening via platforms such as SiGreen or Catena X. Together, we can increase transparency and ultimately reduce our emissions through more sustainable products across the value chain.
