4cost costing software for the calculation of the product carbon footprint

Companies in all sectors are faced with the challenge of making their environmental impact transparent and actively reducing it. In the industrial sector in particular, the carbon footprint of products is coming into focus: it measures how many greenhouse gas emissions are generated throughout the entire life cycle of a product – from the extraction of raw materials through production and use to disposal. This key figure is not only becoming increasingly important for the fulfilment of legal requirements and customer wishes, but is also a decisive competitive factor. A sound understanding of one’s own emissions is the basis for effective decarbonisation measures and long-term business success.

Determining the carbon footprint of industrial products over their entire life cycle presents companies with various challenges. Firstly, data collection is complex: information from various sources, such as raw materials, transport routes, energy consumption and production processes, must be collected in order to make a precise calculation. In many companies, however, this data is spread across different departments, available in different formats or only incompletely documented. This fragmentation makes it difficult to gain a consistent and comprehensible overview of all relevant emissions. The early idea, concept and development phases are particularly challenging, as data is generally not yet available.

Another obstacle is the methodological complexity. Calculating the product carbon footprint requires in-depth knowledge of the relevant norms and standards as well as all value-adding processes. Every industry and every product has its own specific characteristics that need to be factored into the calculation. In practice, there is often a lack of internal expertise to fulfil these requirements: Errors in system delimitation, in the selection of emission factors or in the categorisation of upstream and downstream processes can lead to inaccurate or barely comparable results.

Finally, the time and resources required should not be underestimated. Especially with complex product portfolios, manually recording and analysing all relevant parameters can tie up enormous amounts of personnel and time. Without supporting tools, it is almost impossible for many companies to calculate the product carbon footprint efficiently, regularly and at a high level of quality in order to communicate it transparently.

More and more companies are turning to specialised software solutions to effectively address the challenges of calculating the product carbon footprint. The costing software 4cost-aces/sustain is designed to record and link data from production, packaging, transport and disposal and convert it into valid results. The software automates many previously time-consuming work steps, reduces sources of error and ensures reliable recording of all emission sources along the entire product life cycle.

Especially in production, the heart of many industrial companies, the specialised costing software from 4cost offers great advantages. Energy consumption, material usage and process data can be easily recorded or calculated with AI support, simulated and analysed. This gives companies an exact picture of the emissions generated during the manufacture of their products. Different manufacturing sites, production processes or energy sources can be mapped in detail and analysed in a targeted manner in order to introduce specific improvement measures and make their contribution to decarbonisation measurable.

Packaging also plays a decisive role in the carbon footprint of a product. 4cost-aces/sustain makes it possible to precisely record materials, quantities and the respective life cycles of packaging. The effects of different packaging solutions – such as recycled content, material alternatives or reusable solutions – are made transparent. This allows companies to make informed decisions on how to reduce emissions through optimised packaging concepts and at the same time meet environmental requirements or customer wishes.

When transporting products, the 4cost costing software ensures seamless tracking of emissions along the supply chain. It includes all relevant means of transport, routes and intermediate storage and can even simulate various scenarios, such as switching to lower-emission transport options. This transparency not only helps companies to realistically map their carbon footprint, but also to implement targeted strategies for more sustainable logistics processes and visualise potential savings.

In addition, 4cost-aces/sustain enables all emissions at the end of a product’s life to be accurately taken into account – from disposal and recycling to possible recirculation in the production process. Companies can thus compare the climate impact of different disposal options and obtain valuable data to make the entire life cycle more sustainable. Thanks to its comprehensive data basis and ease of use, the software supports companies of all sizes in meeting the requirements of customers, legislators and their own sustainability strategy —and at a new level of quality that can hardly be achieved with conventional methods.