Product Carbon Footprint is a great way for companies to show off their dedication to environmental performance beyond mere greenwashing mechanisms, with the added bonus of improving energy efficiency and cost reduction. The Product Carbon Footprint describes the sum of greenhouse gas emissions accumulated during the full life cycle of a product in a specified application. The product carbon footprint is therefore a measure of the absolute climate impact of a product and its use. Life cycle in this context denotes the temporal lifetime of a product and all value chain stages from production to disposal/recycling (from cradle to grave). Mapping activities and associated GHG emissions makes companies more aware of their environmental performance and the opportunities for improvement through the adoption of environmental management systems or more sustainable value chain models. Since 2012, the Italian Ministry of Environment and Health has been promoting an Environmental Program for Environmental Footprint Accounting with the goal of developing systems for calculating ghg inventory, carbon footprint, and water footprint. So far, more than 200 companies from different industry sectors (infrastructure, manufacturing, distribution, beverage and food industry), 6 Municipalities and 4 Italian Universities have been involved in the program.
