# Your buyer asked for a product carbon footprint. Here is what they want, and what to send back. Canonical: https://senseible.earth/product-carbon-footprint A product carbon footprint, or PCF, is the greenhouse gas emissions of one unit of what you supply, from raw material to your factory gate, in kg CO2e (every gas counted as its carbon dioxide equivalent). Most of the inputs sit in bills and invoices you already hold. ## What the request says - per declared unit: One figure for one unit: 1 kg, 1 piece or 1 metre. Two suppliers can only be compared on the same unit. Ask which unit they compare, then use it. - cradle-to-gate: Everything from raw material to your factory gate. How the product is used and thrown away stays out. Count what goes in and what happens inside your gate. - primary data share: How much of the figure comes from your own measured data, such as your bills and fuel use, and how much from database averages. Keep the bill or record behind every input. - the standard used: The method the figure was worked out by. Buyers name ISO 14067, the GHG Protocol Product Standard or PACT. Ask which one, and which version. - verification status: Whether someone other than you has checked the figure. A buyer may accept a figure you declare yourself. Ask before you pay for a verifier. ## Three names your buyer may use - PACT: PACT, hosted by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), gives one method for calculating a cradle-to-gate footprint and an open network for sending it from one company to another. The method is built on the GHG Protocol and ISO 14067. Version 3 came out on 30 April 2025 and Version 2 is withdrawn. A figure calculated under Version 2 stays valid for three years from the day it was calculated, unless production changed by more than 10% or the product is more than 5% biogenic carbon (carbon from wood, cotton or other living material). If your buyer names PACT, ask which version and in what format they want the figure. - ISO 14067: ISO 14067:2018 is titled Greenhouse gases, carbon footprint of products, requirements and guidelines for quantification. If your buyer names ISO 14067, ask for their template and send the unit, boundary, data and emission factors. - GHG Protocol Product Standard: Published in September 2011 as the Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard. It counts all the main greenhouse gases, not only CO2. It asks you to state the unit, the boundary, the time period, anything you left out and why, and the quality of your data. If your buyer names the GHG Protocol, send the unit, boundary, data and factors, and say you followed it. ## Where the number stops Raw material to your factory gate. Use and disposal are left out, and you say so next to the figure. Every stage, through use and disposal. The GHG Protocol asks for this for a finished product. A part or material can stop at the gate if you say so. If a buyer wants cradle-to-grave, ask what use they assume. If you leave something out, such as packaging, write it down with the reason. The GHG Protocol asks for that. ## Sort five inputs: primary or secondary data - Litres of diesel your boiler burned for this product, from your fuel bills: primary. Fuel used by a specific process in the product’s life cycle is the GHG Protocol’s own example of primary data. - Units on your electricity bill for the line that makes it, split between products: primary. It is measured activity from your own process. Say how you split the bill. - Your steel mill’s own footprint for the steel it sold you: primary. It comes from a specific process in your product’s life cycle, not from an average. - A published average footprint for steel in general: secondary. Secondary data is not from a specific process in your product’s life cycle. - The weight of the finished product, used as the amount for a process: secondary. The GHG Protocol says this is not primary data, even though you weighed it. ## What to send back - Product: Name and the buyer’s item or part number. From: Your order or the buyer’s request. - Per: kg CO2e per 1 kg, 1 piece or 1 metre. From: Units made in the same period, from production records. - Boundary: Cradle-to-gate, and what you left out and why. From: Your process list. - Period: The 12 months the data covers. From: Bills and invoices dated in that period. - Standard: ISO 14067, GHG Protocol or PACT, with the version. From: What your buyer named. - Primary data: The share of the figure that comes from your own records. From: Electricity bills, fuel bills, material invoices. - Factors: Each emission factor (kg CO2e per kWh, litre or kg) and its source. From: The calculator shows them. - Checked by: Self-declared, or verified by an independent verifier. From: You say which. ## How to get your number from records you already hold 1. Collect the period’s records. Electricity and fuel bills, invoices for what you bought, and how many units you made. 2. Split the plant’s energy between products. By machine hours or weight. Write down which, and why. 3. Run the calculator. You get kg CO2e per unit and which input drives it most. Senseible’s calculator gives a cradle-to-gate figure per unit and shows the source of every factor. Material factors are published averages, so your own bills carry the primary data. Upload the electricity and fuel bills behind your energy figure and they become records a buyer can trace. Senseible does not verify the figure and does not send it in the PACT exchange format. [Work out your product footprint with the calculator](https://senseible.earth/calculators/product-carbon-footprint) ## Declared by you, or verified by someone else - Declared by you. Who checks: Nobody outside your company. Buyer sees: The figure, the boundary, the data and the factors, marked as self-declared. Senseible: Builds the figure from your records and shows every factor. - Verified by a third party. Who checks: A party other than you, independent of how the figure was made and with no conflict of interest. Buyer sees: A statement of who checked it and at what level of assurance: limited (a lighter review) or reasonable (a fuller one). Senseible: Not a verifier. Senseible’s check is not accredited or certified. You need an independent verifier. ## Straight answers ### Is my company’s carbon footprint the same as a product carbon footprint? No. A product footprint is for one unit of one product, such as 1 kg or 1 piece. Your company’s total emissions divided by revenue does not answer a PCF request. ### Do I need a verified footprint? Only if your buyer asks. Ask whether a figure you declare yourself is enough before you pay. If they want it verified, it takes a verifier independent of whoever built the figure. ### Where do the calculator’s factors come from? Material factors are published industry averages. Under the result, See how lists the ones your figure used. The averages are secondary data. Your own energy bills are primary data. ### Can Senseible send my footprint in the PACT format? No. Senseible does not claim PACT conformance and has no PACT exchange connection. The calculator gives you the figure and its inputs to send in whatever form your buyer asks for. - [My EU buyer asked for a product carbon footprint. What exactly should I send?](https://senseible.earth/answers/buyer-asked-for-product-carbon-footprint-what-to-send) - [What is the PACT Pathfinder Framework, and does a small supplier need to follow it?](https://senseible.earth/answers/pact-pathfinder-framework-explained) - [Is ISO 14067 certification mandatory, and who can verify a product carbon footprint?](https://senseible.earth/answers/is-iso-14067-certification-mandatory) - [Why did my buyer reject my product carbon footprint, and how do I fix it?](https://senseible.earth/answers/why-buyer-rejected-product-carbon-footprint) - [Should my product carbon footprint include transport to the buyer?](https://senseible.earth/answers/pcf-include-transport-to-buyer) - [How long is a product carbon footprint valid before my buyer needs a new one?](https://senseible.earth/answers/pact-pcf-validity-three-years)