How Climatiq Automates Product Carbon Footprint Calculations

Most companies can measure the carbon emissions from their own operations, whether it’s the electricity they use in their offices or the fuel that’s used in their vehicles.

However, they often struggle to track the emissions that are created during the production of each individual product they make or sell.

The majority of a product's carbon footprint often comes from its supply chain, rather than the final assembly stage, which makes this kind of measurement very important to companies in pursuit of sustainability.

A product carbon footprint (PCF) breaks down these emissions across a product's entire lifecycle, from raw material extraction through manufacturing, transport, use and disposal.

“Calculating reliable PCFs has traditionally been slow and difficult,” says Diana Kriuchkova, Director of Product Management at Climatiq.

“The process requires granular data that often doesn’t exist. Plus, the nature of complex, multi-country supply chains means a single product might touch 15 different energy grids and manufacturing processes,” she adds.

“To do this for just one product takes a long time, and becomes completely impossible for manufacturers to scale.”

This kind of attention to detail is more important than ever, with regulations like the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) now requiring large companies to report these supply chain emissions along with their own direct emissions.

What’s more, Digital Product Passport rules will soon be enforced, mandating detailed environmental data for all kinds of products sold in Europe. 

Climatiq’s new API offering hopes to give companies a simple solution to this complicated problem.

Why calculating emissions is so complicated

The challenge lies in the complexity of modern manufacturing. Take a smartphone as an example: its components might be made in a dozen different countries, each using different energy sources and manufacturing processes.

The metals in the circuit board could come from mines in South America, the screen from a factory in Asia powered by coal, and the plastic casing from a plant in Europe using natural gas.

Calculating the total emissions means tracking every step, which traditionally required months of manual data collection for a single product.

For companies with thousands of products, this approach simply doesn't work.

How Climatiq automates environmental data collection

Climatiq's API acts as a calculation engine that software platforms can plug into their existing systems.

It uses artificial intelligence to read information from bills of materials, which are essentially ingredient lists for manufactured products.

The system then matches each component to the appropriate emissions data from a database of more than 330,000 emission factors.

These factors represent the carbon footprint of different materials, manufacturing processes and energy sources worldwide.

The API also automates the tricky parts of the calculation that usually require expert judgement.

For instance, it estimates transport routes between suppliers and calculates end-of-life emissions based on whether a material typically gets recycled, incinerated or sent to landfill.

Diana points out that the system can produce "cradle-to-grave footprints, including end-of-life calculations", which helps keep a handle on emissions the whole way through.

All calculations follow GHG Protocol and ISO 14067 standards, the established frameworks for carbon accounting.

Crucially, the system shows its working, allowing users to see and adjust the assumptions it has made.

“This cuts PCF work from months to minutes, using automated calculations and high-quality emissions data, while maintaining reliability and auditability,” says Sally Scott, Account Executive at Climatiq.

“It is a real game-changer for ESG and carbon accounting platforms.

“Instead of building a new solution from scratch, teams can now integrate a ready-to-use PCF capability straight into their workflow, accelerating product-level emissions reporting.”

Has Climatiq’s tech been road tested?

German software company Celonis has already integrated Climatiq’s API into its supply chain management platform.

This allows manufacturers using Celonis to generate carbon footprints for their products without building their own calculation systems.

The integration means companies can analyse emissions across their entire product range to identify which materials or suppliers contribute most to their carbon footprint.

Each calculation includes an audit trail showing the data sources and methodology used, which auditors and regulators can verify.

What can tools like Climatiq’s do for global sustainability?

The API model represents a different approach to carbon footprint calculation.

Rather than hiring consultants to analyse products one by one, companies can now automate the process through software.

This shift from manual to automated calculation could make it feasible for manufacturers to track emissions for entire product catalogues rather than just a handful of key items.

Climatiq targets software platforms rather than selling directly to manufacturers, positioning itself as the calculation infrastructure that other companies build upon.

The approach particularly suits industries with complex supply chains and large product ranges, such as electronics, automotive and fashion.

As transparency requirements spread beyond Europe, demand for these tools seems likely to grow.

However, the technology's ability to maintain accuracy whilst operating at speed and scale will determine whether it can meet the demands of regulatory compliance.