How much does what we buy really pollute? Not the company that produces it, not the plant from which it comes out and not even generically the sector to which it belongs. Precisely that product: the component mounted inside a car, the electronic device on the desk, a building material, a package, a t-shirt. The question, until a few years ago confined to sustainability departments and environmental analysis specialists, is progressively entering the relationships between companies, the requests of buyers and, more and more often, the rules that govern the European market.
The point is that knowing how much a company emits overall is no longer enough. Two products made in the same factory can have very different climate footprints because the raw materials used, the energy needed for processing, the suppliers, the distances travelled, the packaging, the shelf life or even what happens when they reach the end of their useful life change.
This is why it is gaining weight Product Carbon Footprintor CFP: a system that tries to transform the climate impact of an asset into measurable and comparable data.
It is no longer enough to know how much a company pollutes
For years, corporate sustainability has focused primarily on an organization’s overall emissions. A fundamental fact, but which only illustrates part of the problem. A manufacturing company can put dozens or hundreds of products on the market and behind each of them there can be a completely different production chain.
The Product Carbon Footprint therefore shifts the point of observation from the company to the individual good and measures the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the phases of its life cycle considered in the study.
One of the international references is the ISO 14067a standard dedicated precisely to the quantification of the carbon footprint of products and consistent with the principles of Life Cycle Assessment, the life cycle analysis.
Depending on the boundaries established by the analysis, the extraction and production of raw materials, industrial processing, transport, distribution, use and end of life can be considered. The result is not simply a new label to add to the package: it serves above all to understand where the climate impact is really concentrated.
And this is where the data begins to have an economic as well as environmental value.
Large companies ask their suppliers for numbers
In fact, one of the strongest pressures comes from supply chains. Large companies need to know more precisely what is happening along their value chain and this inevitably brings the request for information further and further upstream.
Therefore, for a manufacturer of components or materials to be able to answer the question “how many emissions does this product incorporate?” it can become a competitive element towards a customer.
The difference is substantial. Saying that a material is “more sustainable” means very little if it is not specified with respect to which alternative, taking into consideration which production phases and based on which methodology. Having structured data instead allows you to compare suppliers, materials, production technologies or design changes.
Sustainability thus begins to move from the territory of communication to that of measurement.
Europe prepares digital product identity card
The European Union is pushing in the same direction. The new framework ofEcodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) progressively aims to expand information on the sustainability and circularity of products placed on the European market, with requirements that will be defined for specific product categories.
One of the most important pieces is the Digital Product Passporta sort of digital passport intended to collect information associated with a product throughout its life cycle. Depending on the category and applicable legislation, the available data may include composition, durability, reparability, recyclability and also indicators relating to carbon footprint and environmental footprint.
It does not mean that from tomorrow every product sold in Europe will necessarily have the number of kilograms of CO₂ generated next to the price. The introduction of the different requirements will be progressive and will depend on the individual categories. But the trajectory is now clear: making environmental product data more accessible, verifiable and comparable.
The European Commission has already defined the priorities for the implementation of the Ecodesign regulation in the 2025-2030 work plan, while in 2026 the technical work necessary to build the Digital Product Passport infrastructure continued.
From September 27th the language of green will also change
Then there is another element destined to accelerate change: the European fight against greenwashing.
From the September 27, 2026 the provisions of the European directive on consumer responsibility for the green transition will become applicable, which also intervenes on the environmental declarations used to sell products. Member States had until 27 March 2026 to transpose it.
Among the practices involved are generic environmental claims. Expressions such as “green”, “eco-friendly” or “environmentally friendly” cannot be used freely without there being a recognized and relevant environmental performance to justify them. The legislation also intervenes on climate claims based simply on the compensation of emissions.
It is an important step because it changes the very logic of environmental communication: it is no longer enough to build a sustainable narrative around the product, we must be able to support it.
And precisely here the availability of data obtained with structured methodologies becomes particularly precious.
Carbon also enters international trade
In some sectors the transition from theory to practice has already occurred. From the January 1, 2026 the application of the has also entered the definitive phase Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanismthe European CBAM.
The mechanism currently covers certain imports in the sectors of cement, iron and steel, aluminium, fertilisers, electricity and hydrogen and ties importers’ obligations to emissions embodied in goods entering the European Union.
For the operators involved, therefore, knowing the emissions associated with production is no longer just a reputational tool: it enters directly into the management of trade.
It is probably one of the most obvious examples of how CO₂ is becoming a new economic information of the product, like many characteristics that companies are already used to managing.
Knowing where CO₂ originates also helps eliminate it
Measuring the climate footprint, however, would make little sense if the result remained confined to a report.
The most interesting part comes when the analysis allows you to identify the hotspoti.e. the steps responsible for the largest share of emissions. It can be a particularly carbon intensive raw material, a production process that consumes a lot of energy, an inefficient logistics chain or the use phase of the product.
At that point the data allows you to choose where to intervene. Changing material, redesigning a component, selecting a new supplier, reducing weight, modifying packaging, using different energy or rethinking logistics.
The carbon footprint therefore becomes not only a photograph of what has already happened, but a tool for planning what comes next.
«More and more companies are arriving at the Product Carbon Footprint not because they simply want to obtain new environmental data, but because that data is requested by a customer or is used to make a concrete decision on the product», he explains Saverio Lapini, co-founder of Olluman ESG consultancy company part of TÜV Austria.
«The important step is to use measurement not only to respond to the request, but to understand where emissions are concentrated and what levers can be activated to reduce them. In this way the carbon footprint becomes a tool for product management and development, as well as transparency towards the market.”
CO₂ can become a new competitiveness factor
This is perhaps the most significant change. For a long time, environmental data was considered something to add to the product after designing it: a certification, a report, a declaration to be used in communication.
Now the opposite risks happening. Climate impact can begin to enter among the variables with which the product is designed, purchased and selected.
For those working within complex industrial supply chains, knowing how much CO₂ is associated with a good could progressively become as normal as knowing its cost, weight, materials or performance.
And at that point the question “how much does what we buy really pollute?” it will no longer be just that of an environmentally conscious consumer. It could become one of the questions that decide who manages to sell a product, to which customer and on which market.
