PACT Methodology for Product Carbon Footprints

No, on the contrary. Our industry-agnostic approach makes PACT unique – we are seeking to bring together different sectors under one joint helm, to ensure collaboration and alignment in a space where everyone must work together to resolve the challenge successfully.

The PACT Methodology (previously known as the Pathfinder Framework) provides industry-agnostic methodological guidance for the calculation of product-level emissions data. It also defines which data elements are exchanged within value chains.

The Methodology leverages and builds on existing standards and guidelines, including the GHG Protocol Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard, the Scope 3 Standard or applicable ISO standards. The PACT Methodology provides specific calculation and allocation requirements to increase methodological consistency and hence comparability of data. PACT also encourages more detailed product or sectoral rules to be developed to address the needs of particular industries.

The Methodology is developed in a multi-stakeholder process, including WBCSD member organizations, industry initiatives, LCA experts, standard-setting and reporting bodies as well as governments and non-governmental organizations. PACT facilitates and leads this process.

The PACT Methodology's cradle-to-gate boundary covers product storage and distribution processes undertaken up until the PCF supplier’s gate.

We expect the Technical Specifications data attributes to provide sufficient transparency to data receivers to ensure they can get clarity on the PCFs being calculated consistently. Further down the line, third party verification of the PCF system or representative products will further enhance trust in the calculation consistency and comparability.

PACT provides an accounting methodology building on the GHG Protocol which focuses on product carbon footprints which can in turn be incorporated into corporate carbon footprints, which is what is then included in SBTi target submission forms. So in short, yes it is!

PACT will not be substituting CDP, it will enhance the usability and accuracy of the information shared via CDP by providing a consistent approach to calculate product carbon footprints. To reduce the burden on data providers, CDP’s PCF calculation tool became PACT conformant to ensure companies were able to directly upload their PCFs to the CDP platform.

While both are looking at GHG emissions, PCFs and Corporate Carbon Footprints differ primarily in the scope and categorization of GHGs.Corporate Carbon Footprints are structured into Scopes 1, 2, and 3 - with Scope 1 representing the direct emissions that a company owns or controls, Scope 2 the indirect emissions resulting from energy purchased by a company and Scope 3 the emissions from sources not owned or controlled by the company (upstream and downstream of their own operations). Product Carbon Footprints (PCF) are specific to the lifecycle of a product and therefore include the emissions associated to raw materials acquisition (including packaging), direct and indirect emissions from production, logistics, use and end-of-life of a given product (considering a cradle-to-grave boundary).Although PCFs and Corporate Carbon Footprints differ in the scope and categorization of GHGs, they are very much intertwined, as cradle-to-gate PCFs (i.e. excluding the use and end-of-life stages) from suppliers can be incorporated into the Scope 3 upstream categories of their customers, improving the granularity and accuracy of their Scope 3 data and enhancing their ability to track their performance against their decarbonization objectives.

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