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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carbon footprint | 3/5 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_footprint | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T07:17:29.854297+00:00 | kb-cron |
== Underlying concepts for calculations == The calculation of the carbon footprint of a product, service or sector requires expert knowledge and careful examination of what is to be included. Carbon footprints can be calculated at different scales. They can apply to whole countries, cities, neighborhoods and also sectors, companies and products. Several free online carbon footprint calculators exist to calculate personal carbon footprints. Software such as the "Scope 3 Evaluator" can help companies report emissions throughout their value chain. The software tools can help consultants and researchers to model global sustainability footprints. In each situation there are a number of questions that need to be answered. These include which activities are linked to which emissions, and which proportion should be attributed to which company. Software is essential for company management. But there is a need for new ways of enterprise resource planning to improve corporate sustainability performance. To achieve 95% carbon footprint coverage, it would be necessary to assess 12 million individual supply-chain contributions. This is based on analyzing 12 sectoral case studies. The Scope 3 calculations can be made easier using input-output analysis. This is a technique originally developed by Nobel Prize-winning economist Wassily Leontief.
=== Consumption-based emission accounting based on input-output analysis ===
Consumption-based emission accounting traces the impacts of demand for goods and services along the global supply chain to the end-consumer. It is also called consumption-based carbon accounting. In contrast, a production-based approach to calculating GHG emissions is not a carbon footprint analysis. This approach is also called a territorial-based approach. The production-based approach includes only impacts physically produced in the country in question. Consumption-based accounting redistributes the emissions from production-based accounting. It considers that emissions in another country are necessary for the home country's consumption bundle. Consumer-based accounting is based on input-output analysis. It is used at the highest levels for any economic research question related to environmental or social impacts. Analysis of global supply chains is possible using consumption-based accounting with input-output analysis assisted by super-computing capacity. Leontief created Input-output analysis (IO) to demonstrate the relationship between consumption and production in an economy. It incorporates the entire supply chain. It uses input-output tables from countries' national accounts. It also uses international data such as UN Comtrade and Eurostat. Input-output analysis has been extended globally to multi-regional input-output analysis (MRIO). Innovations and technology enabling the analysis of billions of supply chains made this possible. Standards set by the United Nations underpin this analysis. The analysis enables a Structural Path Analysis. This scans and ranks the top supply chain nodes and paths. It conveniently lists hotspots for urgent action. Input-output analysis has increased in popularity because of its ability to examine global value chains.
=== Combination with life cycle analysis (LCA) ===
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a methodology for assessing all environmental impacts associated with the life cycle of a commercial product, process, or service. It is not limited to the greenhouse gas emissions. It is also called life cycle analysis. It includes water pollution, air pollution, ecotoxicity and similar types of pollution. Some widely recognized procedures for LCA are included in the ISO 14000 series of environmental management standards. A standard called ISO 14040:2006 provides the framework for conducting an LCA study. ISO 14060 family of standards provides further sophisticated tools. Also the latest standard, ISO 14064:2018 has the right set of tools that will help reduce Carbon Emissions in Corporations. These are used to quantify, monitor, report and validate or verify GHG emissions and removals. Greenhouse gas product life cycle assessments can also comply with specifications such as Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 2050 and the GHG Protocol Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard. An advantage of LCA is the high level of detail that can be obtained on-site or by liaising with suppliers. However, LCA has been hampered by the artificial construction of a boundary after which no further impacts of upstream suppliers are considered. This can introduce significant truncation errors. LCA has been combined with input-output analysis. This enables on-site detailed knowledge to be incorporated. IO connects to global economic databases to incorporate the entire supply chain.
== Problems ==
=== Shifting responsibility from corporations to individuals === Critics argue that the original aim of promoting the personal carbon footprint concept was to shift responsibility away from corporations and institutions and on to personal lifestyle choices. The fossil fuel company BP ran a large advertising campaign for the personal carbon footprint in 2004 which helped popularize this concept. This strategy, employed by many major fossil fuel companies, has been criticized for trying to shift the blame for negative consequences of those industries on to individual choices. Geoffrey Supran and Naomi Oreskes of Harvard University argue that concepts such as carbon footprints "hamstring us, and they put blinders on us, to the systemic nature of the climate crisis and the importance of taking collective action to address the problem". While the focus on individual behaviour has shaped public discourse, scientific assessments emphasize that this approach alone is insufficient. The IPCC notes that individual behavioural changes alone are insufficient to achieve deep emission reductions. In its Sixth Assessment Report (2023), the IPCC stated that "Demand-side measures and new ways of end-use service provision can reduce global GHG emissions in end-use sectors by 40–70% by 2050 compared to baseline scenarios" This highlights the need to combine lifestyle changes with systemic transitions—such as clean energy systems, electrification of transport and heating, and collective infrastructure solutions—to effectively address climate change. Reducing emissions through behaviour is important, but eliminating combustion altogether through systemic change is critical to long-term climate goals.