Comparing the latest ISO specifications with Pro Carton’s carbon footprint

ISO/TS 14067 – “Carbon Footprint of Products: Requirements and Guidelines for Quantification and Communication”, was released in May. It was intended to be an ISO Standard but after years of discussion, it evolved into a Technical Specification and will be reviewed in around three years time. 

ISO/TS 14067:2013 specifies principles, requirements and guidelines for the quantification and communication of the carbon footprint of a product based on International Standards on life cycle assessment (ISO 14040 and ISO 14044) for quantification, and on environmental labels and declarations (ISO 14020, ISO 14024 and ISO 14025) for communication.

The aim of the recently released ISO/TS 14067 was to achieve more consistency in the quantification and communication of carbon footprints of products. It includes aspects such as land use change, soil carbon, carbon storage in products and other carbon related requirements which are not specified in the existing ISO standard 14044.

Most notably, the requirements for communication are going beyond existing standards. The Technical Specification includes reporting, performance tracking, carbon footprint declarations and labels. ISO/TS 14067 reinforces the importance of thinking about the intended communication during the goal and scope phase at the start of any carbon footprint or LCA project.

Pro Carton’s Carbon Footprint

It was clear from the ISO discussions that more data would be required when updating Pro Carton’s carbon footprint figure in future years.  It is not mandatory, but the new ISO/TS is expected to become the benchmark methodology.  So once the ISO/TS was finalised, an independent expert was asked to compare it to the methodology currently used by Pro Carton. The conclusion was that Pro Carton’s methodology closely follows the quantification part of the TS, but does not include certain considerations such as allocation for recycling and land use change etc.   Furthermore, as Pro Carton’s methodology predates the Technical Specification, it does not cover communication.  So it seems that Pro Carton’s methodology is still sound in that it follows closely the quantification aspects (minus some items) but that communication has yet to be addressed.

Related to the release of the ISO /TS, other standards have also been recently developed which apply carbon footprint methodology to specific industry areas.  An example close to the folding carton industry is ISO 16759:2013 which specifies the requirements for quantifying the carbon footprint of those processes, materials and technologies required to produce print media products.

Clearly, the whole are of footprinting is still developing.  For example, the European Commission is working with industry on a methodology for Product Environmental Footprinting. So taking all this into consideration, over the coming months, Pro Carton will be working with its sister paper packaging associations to align its footprinting methodology with the ISO/TS requirements and at the same time, closely follow developments in the European Commission’s Product Environment Footprint.

*For further information on Pro Carton’s Carbon Footprint calculations, please visit www.procarton.com Home Page and click on the “Cartons and Sustainability” button.