Carbon Calculator
Back to PCF home

Worked example

This is what your customer receives

A finished cradle-to-gate report for an example product, produced by the ISO 14067-aligned mode with plausible figures for a small manufacturer. Every line carries a named emission factor and its source, so a buyer or auditor can trace each number. Nothing here is stored — it is an illustration, not a real company's data.

Build this for my product

Product Carbon Footprint report

Insulated stainless steel bottle, 500 ml

Northwind Drinkware Ltd (example company) · SKU BTL-500-SS · Reference year 1969

Issued 2026-08-30 · Prepared with carboncalculator.tech

Carbon footprint of the declared unit

2.06kg COâ‚‚e

per 1 bottle (500 ml), packed and ready to ship · 5.52 kg CO₂e per kg of product

System boundary
Cradle-to-gate (partial CFP, ISO 14067 §6.3.2)
Manufactured in
United Kingdom
Unit mass
0.3720 kg

Results by life-cycle stage

Stagekg COâ‚‚eShare
Raw materials1.6580.5%
Inbound transport0.01270.6%
Production0.285213.9%
Packaging0.10315.0%
Total2.06100%

Methodology

Quantification follows ISO 14067:2018 (carbon footprint of products) and the GHG Protocol Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard. The declared boundary is cradle-to-gate: raw-material extraction, inbound transport of inputs, production energy and process water, and packaging of the finished product. Emissions are reported as COâ‚‚ equivalents using 100-year global warming potentials (IPCC AR5/AR6, as published in the underlying factor datasets). Yield losses are accounted for by scaling material inputs.

Data quality

Weighted data-quality rating: 1.88 (1 = measured primary data, 3 = database average) — Good — mix of primary and supplier data. Primary or supplier-specific data covers 99% of the reported footprint.

Exclusions

Use phase and end-of-life are outside the declared cradle-to-gate boundary. Capital goods, employee commuting and business travel are excluded per ISO 14067 §6.4.9 (not attributable to the declared unit).

Notes

Illustrative example built with plausible figures for a small drinkware manufacturer. Electricity and water are metered site totals for the reference year, allocated across 42,000 units of output. Material masses come from the product's bill of materials; the steel and aluminium tonnages were reconciled against supplier invoices.

Emission factor register (traceability)

Every line below states the exact dataset entry used, its value and its published source, so the calculation can be reproduced and audited.

Line itemStageActivity dataFactorSourcekg COâ‚‚e
Bottle body — stainless steel sheetRaw materials0.3024 kg (incl. 8% yield loss)5.34 kg CO₂e / kgIAEG PGS&CG v3.2 / row 405 / IAEG Calculation1.61
Bottle body — stainless steel sheet — inbound freightInbound transport0.000302 t × 420 km0.09314 kg CO₂e / tonne.kmDEFRA 2023 / Freight / ghg-2140 (all artics, average laden)0.0118
Lid and collar — recycled aluminiumRaw materials0.0364 kg (incl. 4% yield loss)0.562 kg CO₂e / kgIAEG PGS&CG v3.2 / row 12 / Base empreinte0.0205
Lid and collar — recycled aluminium — inbound freightInbound transport0.000036 t × 180 km0.09314 kg CO₂e / tonne.kmDEFRA 2023 / Freight / ghg-2140 (all artics, average laden)0.0006
Gasket and grip — moulded plasticRaw materials0.0127 kg (incl. 6% yield loss)1.489 kg CO₂e / kgIAEG PGS&CG v3.2 / row 336 / Base empreinte0.0189
Gasket and grip — moulded plastic — inbound freightInbound transport0.000013 t × 260 km0.09314 kg CO₂e / tonne.kmDEFRA 2023 / Freight / ghg-2140 (all artics, average laden)0.0003
Retail carton (paperboard)Packaging0.045 kg2.29 kg COâ‚‚e / kgIAEG PGS&CG v3.2 / row 458 / Base empreinte0.1031
Manufacturing electricityProduction1.37143 kWh per declared unit (after 40% contractual renewable supply, market-based)0.207 kg CO₂e / kWhDEFRA 2023 UK GHG conversion factors — UK electricity generated0.2839
Process water supplyProduction0.00738 m³ per declared unit0.17668 kg CO₂e / cubic metresDEFRA 2023 / Water supply / ghg-14700.0013

Completeness notes

  • Renewable electricity is applied on a market-based basis (GHG Protocol Scope 2 guidance). Contracts or certificates must be retained as evidence.

Responsibility statement. This report is a self-declared, unverified product carbon footprint produced by Northwind Drinkware Ltd (example company) using activity data it supplied. carboncalculator.tech provides the calculation method and the published emission factors; responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the activity data, and for any claim made on the basis of this report, rests with the reporting organisation. Third-party verification (e.g. ISO 14064-3) is required before making a verified or comparative public claim.

Email me this example + the supplier request template

We'll send this worked example as a link plus a ready-to-send supplier data-request template, so you can see the format before building your own.