The Carbon Catalogue, carbon footprints of 866 commercial products from 8 industry sectors and 5 continents

Abstract

Product carbon footprints (PCFs) are playing an increasing role in decisions around sustainability for companies and consumers. Using data reported to CDP, we have previously built a dataset of 866 PCFs, from 145 companies, 30 industry groups, and 28 countries, showing trends of how upstream and downstream emissions vary by industry and how life cycle assessment (LCA) appears to aid companies in achieving steeper carbon reductions through improvements throughout a product’s value chain. Here, we present the greenhouse gas emissions and respective meta data for every product in this dataset. The Carbon Catalogue provides each product with name and description, PCF (in kg CO2e) and the respective LCA protocol/standard, product weight, as well as the name, industry, and country of incorporation of its manufacturer. For a subset of 421 products, the Carbon Catalogue further includes the PCF’s reported breakdown into two to nine separate stages of the product’s life cycle. For another subset of 250 products, the Carbon Catalogue includes how the respective PCFs changed and why the changes occurred.