Sustainability Data Map: Framework for Data-Based Product Carbon Footprinting of Technical Products
摘要
Growing awareness and political regulations increase the pressure on companies to become more sustainable. Manufacturers of technical products in particular face the challenge of decarbonization, as machinery and plants, for instance, have an impact on the emissions of almost all industries. However, information on the Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) is often not transparent for manufacturing companies. Digitalization has proven to be a key enabler, as up to 90% of manufacturers’ emissions occur along the value chain, making it impossible to calculate the PCF without data. However, identifying the necessary data and the corresponding IT system is a major challenge, especially for technical products. The Sustainability Data Map supports the identification and structuring of relevant data and its sources for product carbon footprinting across all product lifecycle phases. In addition, the Sustainability Data Map serves as a workshop-based medium to communicate and integrate all relevant stakeholders in the value chain. It is based on an existing data map that has been extended to include the criteria required for PCF determination. As a result, the Sustainability Data Map enables manufacturing companies to create more transparency about the data needed to assess the PCF of technical products.