ISO 14067: Carbon Footprint of Products

Overview

ISO 14067 (formally ISO 14067:2018) is the leading international standard for quantifying and reporting the Carbon Footprint of a Product (CFP). It builds upon the principles of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) found in ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, but focuses exclusively on one impact category: Climate Change.

ISO 14067 provides organizations with a standardized, transparent, and credible way to calculate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with a product throughout its entire life cycle — from raw material extraction to final disposal ("cradle-to-grave"). In an era of increasing "greenwashing" concerns, this standard serves as a benchmark for companies to substantiate their environmental claims and identify high-emission "hotspots" in their supply chain.

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Purpose of the Standard

The primary goal of ISO 14067 is to:

• Establish Consistency: Ensure that carbon footprints are calculated using a uniform methodology across different industries and countries.
• Promote Transparency: Provide clear guidelines on how to report and document emissions so that stakeholders (consumers, investors, and regulators) can trust the data.
• Drive Decarbonization: Help organizations understand where their emissions come from, enabling targeted reduction strategies.
• Enable Comparability: Facilitate the comparison of carbon footprints between similar products, provided they share the same Product Category Rules (PCR).

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Applicability

ISO 14067 is globally applicable to any organization, regardless of size or sector, that produces goods or services. It can be used for:

• Full CFP: Assessing the entire lifecycle (Cradle-to-Grave).
• Partial CFP: Assessing specific stages, such as raw materials to the factory gate (Cradle-to-Gate).
• Specific Sectors: Heavily utilized in manufacturing, construction, food and beverage, and consumer goods.

Note: ISO 14067 does not cover carbon offsetting, social impacts, or other environmental categories like water scarcity or toxicity.

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Key Criteria Audited

When an organization undergoes an audit for ISO 14067 compliance, auditors focus on several critical pillars:

• System Boundaries: Have you correctly defined what is included (e.g., transport, packaging, end-of-life)?
• Functional Unit: Is the unit of analysis (e.g., "1 kg of plastic" or "1 pair of shoes") clearly defined and measurable?
• Data Quality: Is the data representative in terms of temporal, geographical, and technological coverage? Auditors look for a mix of high-quality primary data (from your own operations) and reliable secondary data (from databases).
• Allocation Procedures: If a factory produces two different products, how are the shared emissions (like electricity) split between them?
• Methodological Rigor: Are the Global Warming Potential (GWP) factors used based on the latest IPCC reports?

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How to Achieve Compliance

To achieve compliance and eventual certification, an organization typically follows these steps:

1. Preparation & Training: Understand the standard’s requirements and train the internal team.
2. LCA Study: Conduct a Life Cycle Assessment following the four phases: Goal/Scope, Inventory (LCI), Impact Assessment (LCIA), and Interpretation.
3. Drafting the CFP Report: Create a detailed report documenting the methodology, data sources, and results.
4. Internal Audit: Perform a self-assessment or internal review to find and fix data gaps.
5. Third-Party Verification: Hire an accredited certification body (e.g., SGS, DNV, TÜV) to audit the study.
6. Certification / Statement of Conformity: Upon successful audit, the organization receives a verification statement.

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Relationship to Other Standards

ISO 14067 is fully consistent with ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 and should always be applied together with them. It narrows the scope of a full LCA to a single impact category — climate change — making it particularly suitable for product-level carbon labelling and supply chain decarbonization programs.