Product Carbon Footprint

How much greenhouse gas emissions are associated with a product along its life cycle? This question has become increasingly important over the past years and a Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) can help to find answers.

The PCF sums up the total greenhouse gas emissions generated by a product over the different stages of its life cycle. A cradle-to-gate (partial) PCF considers all the processes from extraction of resources through manufacturing of precursors and the final product itself up to the point where it leaves the company gate. A cradle-to-grave PCF covers the complete life cycle of the product, including the emissions from the use phase and end-of-life of the product.

To help meet our own net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050 and to support our customers in making environmentally conscious purchasing decisions, BASF has developed a digital application to calculate our cradle-to-gate PCFs. It enables BASF to provide PCFs for its global portfolio of 45,000 sales products. Thus customers will receive valuable information about the extent to which BASF materials contribute to the carbon footprint of their business activities and their own final products.

BASF's PCF calculation is based on GHG emissions from its own plants and high-quality average data for purchased raw materials and purchased energy. BASF will gradually replace average data with supplier specific data for purchased raw materials, as soon as they become available from our suppliers.

Find out more about PCF here.